Comparing and viewing different cultures is like looking at a white egg and a brown egg. The outside may be different, but on the inside, everyone is the same. Culture is highly effective in the way people view others, and the world. This is because of all the stereotypes that are connected to different cultures. A few examples of this are in the articles HAPA, An Indian Father’s Plea, and Legal Alien. These articles share the perspectives of 3 individuals who face cultural stereotyping. It is never fun being treated differently for your culture, and even if some stereotypes are funny and easy to make fun of, they need to end now. The first article that exemplifies how culture almost always impacts the way people view each other is HAPA. This …show more content…
This essay is written in the form of a letter from a father’s perspective to a teacher questioning why his son was labeled as a “slow learner”. Throughout the letter, Lake mentions the many fine qualities and talents that his son Wind Wolf has. He also tells of how kids at school are bullying his son, and at the age of 5, has already been encountered by racist children and adults. On paragraph 15 of this essay, Lake shares with the teacher the cruelty of some parents towards Wind Wolf. One parent stated “You are indians and we are white and I don’t want my kids growing up with your kinds of people.” The lady did not even give Wind Wolf the chance to prove himself as a good friend to this mother. She instead decided to immediately push him away. This shows that culture affects the way people view others and the world because before that mother even got to meet Wind Wolf, she wanted nothing to do with him. She thought that just because of his indian heritage, Wind Wolf should not be associated with her, and her …show more content…
This poem is about a girl who has two completely different cultures which are American, and Mexican. The author mentions different struggles that she had to go through being a bicultural person. In lines 14 and 15 of this poem, the author writes “An American to Mexicans a Mexican to Americans”. This is showing that because of her different cultures, no one really accepts her. To the Americans she is not American enough, but to the Mexicans she’s not Mexican enough. In this poem, the author creates this idea of not having a sense of belonging. This could be different if people could just overlook one’s culture, and accept people based on their hearts, not their
The Essay, I have chosen to read from is ReReading America was An Indian Story by Roger Jack. The topic of this narrative explores the life of an Indian boy who grows up away from his father in the Pacific Northwest. Roger Jack describes the growing up of a young Indian boy to a man, who lives away from his father. Roger demonstrates values of the Indian culture and their morals through exploration of family ties and change in these specific ties. He also demonstrates that growing up away from one’s father doesn’t mean one can’t be successful in life, it only takes a proper role model, such as the author provides for the young boy.
Throughout history, there have been various perspectives of multicultural differences. According to Meriam Webster (n.d.), culture is “the beliefs, customs, arts, institutions, and the thoughts or products of a particular society or group.” Unfortunately, African Americans, Native Americans, Italians, Irish, Jews as well as various other cultural groups have been profoundly discriminated against and negatively stereotyped (Good Therapy org.). With the frequent mingling of cultures in educational settings, the workplace, and in the social arena, we are bound to encounter cultural differences.
We should accept everyone no matter the race, religion, culture or anything down to how they dress. Since we do, though, I want to give a few examples on how that is the case in the word more than how it is not. For example, the “The lonely death of Chanie Wenjack” story is about a boy who ran away from school but didn't make it home and died alone. Within that text, one part of a paragraph stated, “Even before Charlie ran away he was already running hard just to keep pace with the bewildering white world he had suddenly been thrust into.” This shows that culture has a huge impact on how people judge each other because for the boy to run away from school and have it at the time be a very racial environment was hard for him. People still judge now, but nothing where kids run away because of enforcement into a school like that. Another example would be, “And perhaps because they are Indians, no one seems to care very much. So this, then, is the story of how a little boy met a terrible and lonely death, of the handful of people who became involved, and of a town that hardly noticed.” This shows that culture has a huge impact on how people judge each other because white people disliked the Natives just because of their traditions and what they do. They wanted all activities to be American and American only. Even now do people not like something because of it being
The rhetor for this text is Luther Standing Bear. He was born in 1868 on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He was raised as a Native American until the age on eleven when he was taken to Carlisle Indian Industrial School: an Indian boarding school. After graduating from the boarding school, he returned to his reservation and now realized the terrible conditions under which they were living. Standing Bear was then elected as chief of his tribe and it became his responsibility to induce change (Luther Standing Bear). The boarding schools, like the one he went to, were not a fair place to be. The Native American children were forced to go there and they were not taught how to live as a European American; they were taught low level jobs like how to mop and take out trash. Also, these school were very brutal with punishment and how the kids were treated. In the passage he states, “More than one tragedy has resulted when a young boy or girl has returned home again almost an utter stranger. I have seen these happenings with my own eyes and I know they can cause naught but suffering.” (Standing Bear 276). Standing Bear is fighting for the Indians to be taught by Indians. He does not want their young to lose the culture taught to them from the elders. Standing Bear also states, “The old people do not speak English and never will be English-speaking.” (Standing Bear 276). He is reinforcing the point that he believes that they
Alexie shows a strong difference between the treatment of Indian people versus the treatment of white people, and of Indian behavior in the non-Indian world versus in their own. A white kid reading classic English literature at the age of five was undeniably a "prodigy," whereas a change in skin tone would instead make that same kid an "oddity." Non-white excellence was taught to be viewed as volatile, as something incorrect. The use of this juxtaposition exemplifies and reveals the bias and racism faced by Alexie and Indian people everywhere by creating a stark and cruel contrast between perceptions of race. Indian kids were expected to stick to the background and only speak when spoken to. Those with some of the brightest, most curious minds answered in a single word at school but multiple paragraphs behind the comfort of closed doors, trained to save their energy and ideas for the privacy of home. The feistiest of the lot saw their sparks dulled when faced with a white adversary and those with the greatest potential were told that they had none. Their potential was confined to that six letter word, "Indian." This word had somehow become synonymous with failure, something which they had been taught was the only form of achievement they could ever reach. Acceptable and pitiable rejection from the
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
In a time of virulent debate in the United States over Mexican immigration, the poem, “Mexican is Not a Noun” speaks volumes. Regrettably, many individuals have a distorted view of Mexican people and tend to marginalize them by categorizing them as “illegals” and “aliens” simply because of how they look or the sound of their name (Villegas-Gold and Yoo, 2014). Therefore, Alarcon is very emphatic in his writing about what the word “Mexican” means. Alarcon emphasizes what “Mexican” means by using carefully chosen words, line breaks and stanzas. For example, in the first three stanzas of the poem, Alarcon is trying to emphasize that the word “Mexican” is more than just a title or a description of a race of people. Rather, “Mexican” is being discriminated
...community, equal rights and the right to follow your roots) with the central focus of the poem. As Susan Bassnett states in her essay Bilingual Poetry: A Chicano Phenomenon , there is a “Latin American tradition of the poet who occupies a prominent place in the struggle for freedom and national unity”, and as Cervantes and Gonzales demonstrated, the poet’s role in Latin America has not been diminished.
It is not uncommon for people of one culture to misunderstand people of another. Patricia Riley’s “Adventures of an Indian Princess” introduces this concept and its underlying causes. As she illustrates a day in the life of Arletta, a twelve year old adopted Cherokee Indian, Riley reveals the misinformed and disinterested nature of the Rapier family. These individuals accept the stereotypical portrayal of Indians in America and do not wish to delve deeper into Indian culture, to much of Arletta’s chagrin. “Adventures of an Indian Princess” conveys the message that although one may not be properly taught about another culture, typecasting in place of attempting to understand is not an acceptable alternative.
The narrator also discusses about a girl about the same age as her would have never been the “right kind of American.” Minorities such as the African Americans, Dominican Americans and any other ethnicity that came to America were looked right under the microscope. This perplexed me I do not understand why they are treated unfairly by the “True Americans.” There is no such thing as True Americans and that this poem definitely targeted it's audience through racial discrimination rather than cultural changes within a neighborhood in Queens, NY. Another Poet had a much refined and unique style of another part of New York City, he is one of my favorite poets Langston Hughes.
This made her unsure of how the move to California was going to go. I never once thought about where this poem focused, but it made sense because Mexico is directly under California, which is where most of the Latinos come from. So while I was thinking that this poem was about racism, it was actually about politics. She continued on to explain that in Los Angeles all yard work is done by Latinos and the people of the city want the Latinos there, but then again don’t, and this is where the poem was being political. In the first four lines of “Bilingual Instructions” it says, “Californians say No to bilingual instruction in schools; Californians say No to bilingual instructions on ballots…” Mullen made it clear that the people of California want the Latinos there so they can eat their food and have their lawn mowed, but don’t want their children going to the schools. I found this poem to be very inspiring because it is completely true. This happens all over the United States, not just in
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
Cultural diversity is in our workplace and schools; we may encounter stereotypes while communicating with others, even though we have different opinions toward other cultural values and beliefs. We can learn from another “culture”, but we have to respect their differences. I think in today society, people are stereotyped others based on their race and social class because we automatically judge another person without knowing them and assume they are a certain way. Everyone is different we identify ourselves with our own social beliefs, religious beliefs and racial traits and should not be judged because we are all different
People need to create a balance of stories and tell them from many different perspectives so that a more accurate picture can be shown of what is actually happening in today's society. In Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the main character Junior is automatically judged as soon as he gets into school his first day at Reardan, the closest school off the rez. This teenage character is made fun of because of his skin color, background, abilities and culture. Arnold Spirit Junior has to overcome challenges with people assuming things about him because he is an Indian from the Spokane Reservation.
It is inappropriate to have prejudice and stereotype towards other cultures. We should tolerate the differences in cultures and try to understand them more through various methods like researching on the Internet and have a chat with them directly. We should be intercultural competence during the conversation to prevent bad feelings of both of us. We should not have rude behaviours and show hatred towards other’s cultures. We should respect others; respect other cultures in order to have a better and harmonious society.