In Pat Mora’s “Legal Alien” and Toi Derricotte’s “Black Boys Play the Classics,” there’s a clear display of the interactions between race and social status that displays the significance of the experiences and ambitions of non-white individuals who must deal with the prejudices and misconceptions deeply-rooted in our society. Minorities, specifically in the U.S., often face marginalization and find themselves within the fringes of society—facing systemic barriers and intolerance that limit their opportunities & resources for participation in more social, political, occupational, and economic domains. Through lucid descriptions and moving narratives, these poems illuminate the complicated consequences of societal perceptions and prejudices on …show more content…
Together, these pieces offer interesting perspectives to examine the complexities of identity, acceptance, and resistance within a dominant, conformist culture. Often, non-white and particularly bicultural people tend to be perceived as other or different. This is especially true because of our predominantly hierarchical, white American society that alienates these minority groups. We often see this in the workplace, in schools, and various everyday social settings, with biases in hiring and promotional aspects, microaggressions, and overt discrimination. In Pat Mora’s “Legal Alien”, the author presents her experiences of struggling to navigate between two cultures: “...viewed by Mexicans as aliens, their eyes say, “You may speak Spanish but you’re not like me”). Despite Mora being fluent in both English and Spanish, she’s viewed as an outcast by both Mexicans—and likely other Spanish-speaking groups—and Americans (who speak English) because she is bicultural and bilingual. She does not “fit” in either category, meanwhile in reality she should feel a sense of belonging in each
Gloria Anzaldua, wrote the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” communicating and describing her adolescence in a society brimming with sexism, cultural imperialism, racism, low self-esteem, and identity formation. The reason one comes to America is to finer themselves academically, and intellectually. One must learn to speak English to live among the American’s, because that is the language they speak. Though, no one has the right to deprive you of your familiar tongue. At a young age, Anzaldua was scolded, even mistreated for speaking her native “Chicano” tongue. Anzaldúa described this ignorance, cruelty, and discrimination when she states: “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess – that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.” She overcomes this hostility throughout her life.
In “Queens, 1963”, the speaker narrates to her audience her observations that she has collected from living in her neighborhood located in Queens, New York in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The narrator is a thirteen-year-old female immigrant who moved from the Dominican Republic to America with her family. As she reflects on her past year of living in America, she reveals a superb understanding of the reasons why the people in her neighborhood act the way they do towards other neighbors. In “Queens, 1963” by Julia Alvarez, the poet utilizes diction, figurative language, and irony to effectively display to the readers that segregation is a strong part of the American melting pot.
This book was published in 1981 with an immense elaboration of media hype. This is a story of a young Mexican American who felt disgusted of being pointed out as a minority and was unhappy with affirmative action programs although he had gained advantages from them. He acknowledged the gap that was created between him and his parents as the penalty immigrants ought to pay to develop and grow into American culture. And he confessed that he got bewildered to see other Hispanic teachers and students determined to preserve their ethnicity and traditions by asking for such issues to be dealt with as departments of Chicano studies and minority literature classes. A lot of critics criticized him as a defector of his heritage, but there are a few who believed him to be a sober vote in opposition to the political intemperance of the 1960s and 1970s.
Islas, Arturo. From Migrant Souls. American Mosaic: Multicultural Readings in Context. Eds. Gabriele Rico, Barbara Roche and Sandra Mano. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1995. 483-491.
Immigrants have helped shape American identity by the languages they speak from their home country. Richard Rodriguez essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reveals Rodriguez’s attitudes towards race and ethnicity as they relate to making people know what culture really identifies a person rather than their race. For example, in the essay, it states that Richard Rodriguez “ is Chinese, and this is because he lives in a Chinese City and because he wants to be Chinese. But I have lived in a Chinese City for so long that my eye has taken on the palette, has come to prefer lime greens and rose reds and all the inventions of this Chinese Mediterranean. lines 163-171”.
This model examines the relationship between the dominant culture and one with minority status, such as Latinos. Attitudes towards self, same minority group, different minority groups, and the dominant group are examined through five stages within the model. These include conformity, dissonance, resistance and immersion, introspection, and integrative awareness. The stage most pertinent to Antonio at this time is the Dissonance stage. During this stage, one starts to acknowledge the existence of racism, that he cannot escape his own heritage, and experiences conflict between shame and pride felt for his culture. This same shame versus pride conflict is also extended to members of his own minority group. Held stereotypes about other minority groups are now questioned as well. One in the Dissonance stage is also starting to realize that not all beliefs held by the dominant group are valuable or even accurate (Sue & Sue, 2003). Because of the two incidents Antonio endured during his freshman year and their emotional impact on him, he is becoming aware that even though he has “assimilated,” others of the majority group will still identify him as different. Antonio is also experiencing conflict between what members of the minority group (his parents) and the majority group feel are important; his parents believe he
Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced because of her cultural background. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. By forcing them to speak English and attempting to get rid of their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that arises from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States,
In the essay "It’s Hard Enough Being Me," Anna Lisa Raya relates her experiences as a multicultural American at Columbia University in New York and the confusion she felt about her identity. She grew up in L.A. and mostly identified with her Mexican background, but occasionally with her Puerto Rican background as well. Upon arriving to New York however, she discovered that to everyone else, she was considered "Latina." She points out that a typical "Latina" must salsa dance, know Mexican history, and most importantly, speak Spanish. Raya argues that she doesn’t know any of these things, so how could this label apply to her? She’s caught between being a "sell-out" to her heritage, and at the same time a "spic" to Americans. She adds that trying to cope with college life and the confusion of searching for an identity is a burden. Anna Raya closes her essay by presenting a piece of advice she was given on how to deal with her identity. She was told that she should try to satisfy herself and not worry about other people’s opinions. Anna Lisa Raya’s essay is an informative account of life for a multicultural American as well as an important insight into how people of multicultural backgrounds handle the labels that are placed upon them, and the confusion it leads to in the attempt to find an identity. Searching for an identity in a society that seeks to place a label on each individual is a difficult task, especially for people of multicultural ancestry.
Internalized racism has hit the individual level where half of all Hispanics consider themselves as white. One Mexican American asserted that he felt “shame and sexual inferiority…because of my dark complexion.” He also described himself with “disgust” loathing his appearance when he sees himself in the mirror. Stereotypes play a huge role in the Latino culture in the U.S where often the usual stereotype is that Latinos are job-stealers, uneducated, poor and illegal. “Envidia” or jealousy sabotages the Latino community because Latinos begin to question the qualifications of other successful Latinos. No one has the positive thought that Latinos can achieve and triumph in any field; they just can’t believe that. Latinos just stamp other Latinos with those stereotypes Americans say. Because of internalized racism, Latinos and Hispanics distance themselves from the Spanish language to support the English only movement. They are embarrassed of their inherited language and rather choose English to complete assimilation. “Almost 40% of Latino/a respondents prefer English as their dominant language…” (Padilla 20). Where I currently live, I always see on the day to day basis Hispanics and Latinos that immigrated to the United States from other countries sounding “white.” I speak to Hispanics; even Latinos in Spanish and they respond
...ites a short 33-line poem that simply shows the barriers between races in the time period when racism was still openly practiced through segregation and discrimination. The poem captures the African American tenant’s frustrations towards the landlord as well as the racism shown by the landlord. The poem is a great illustration of the time period, and it shows how relevant discrimination was in everyday life in the nineteen-forties. It is important for the author to use the selected literary devices to help better illustrate his point. Each literary device in the poem helps exemplify the author’s intent: to increase awareness of the racism in the society in the time period.
This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality, only to find out that at this time equality for blacks does not exist. It is written for fellow black men, in an effort to make them understand that the American dream is not something to abandon hope in, but something to fight for. The struggle of putting up with the racist mistreatment is evident even in the first four lines:
Montoya, Margret E. "Masks and Identify," and "Masks and Resistance," in The Latino/a Condition: A Critical Reader New York: New York University Press, 1998.
Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.” Anzaldua also recounts how she was often ridiculed by her own people for not speaking proper Spanish, “Even our own people, other Spanish speaker nos quieren poner candados en la boca. They would hold us back with their bag of reglas academia…..Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos a deficient, a mutilation of Spanish.” The author claims that instances such as these have left her people, Chicanos, with an identity crisis, even a feeling of nothingness “ Chicanos and other people of color suffer….This voluntary (yet forced) alienation makes for psychological conflict, a kind of dual identity- we don’t identify with the Anglo-American cultural values and we
In Hughes characteristically “multiracial perspective” The poem delves into the concept of intersectionality, revealing how race, ethnicity and economic status blend together to mold the fabric of personal identities and life experiences. It sheds light on how these interconnected structures of advantage and disadvantage influence the economic challenges encountered by groups. The poem vividly captures the exploitation of laborers, who toil under the weight of oppressive conditions for meager wages, their plight a somber reflection on the harsh realities of a system that profits from their relentless exertion yet undervalues their humanity.individuals whose sweat saturates the very soil they work upon, their dreams deferred by a relentless grind that seldom yields more than survival. Louis states, “‘Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed.’
In 2014 when addressing immigration, former president Barack Obama said, “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.” This powerful statement has a unique approach on what it is to be American- accepting our different cultural identities. However, for many minorities including myself, it is difficult to embrace the roots of our culture because of the fear of oppression. Through the pieces of literature we read in class, my understanding of American identity broadened because it showed how embracing your culture is powerful in taking a stand against societal injustices.