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I always found it hard to say what my ethnicity and culture was. If anyone takes a look at me, they would say I’m Indian. Then I tell them I am on my mother’s side, but on my dad’s side, I’m actually from Pakistan. They only get more confused when I tell them my dad only lived there for 10 years and lived in Sweden for most of his adolescent life. That only tells people what my heritage was, but that’s where I begin to get befuddled. Even though my parents are from there, I was born and raised in the United States. I always had a difficult time defining myself culturally because I had deep desi roots, but I was also a ‘normal’ American. Just like most American teenagers, I go shopping at the mall, hang out with friends, go to the movies, and …show more content…
There was one African American kid, a handful of Asians, and maybe ten South Asians. Because I went to such an undiverse school, I found myself begin to become more American and westernized. Before I started school I would always have tradition desi lunches and mainly talk in my mother tongue, Urdu, at home. When I entered the public school system I found myself asking for hotdogs for dinner and starting to shift to mainly speaking English. One thing that had remained unchanged was my family’s traditional values. Everyone has heard the stereotype of Asians being extremely studious and hardworking, but they always forget that there is a reason behind that stereotype. My parents were always tell my siblings and I stories about how fortunate our lives were here compared to how they had it at their homelands. My parents had been privileged but it wasn’t as much as they had been in the US. We were told of distant cousins who lived in villages and how my mom’s family was the first to get a tv in their town. Those hardworking and studious values stuck with me through all of elementary. Even though I only learned division and simple vocabulary, I still studied long and hard to get As on those easy
In this article, Eric Liu presents his life as a native immigrant to an Asian American individual. He shares his experience through his reflection of ideas and emotions. Along with his story, it relates to the ideas of people’s journey from adolescence to adulthood. Eric’s inspirational experience is directed towards minority groups who try to adapt to the American culture and lifestyle. His parents emigrated from China to America, before he was born which he later became exposed to the freedom and diverse society. This results in beneficial effects for his individuality, career opportunities, and lifestyle. Although his parents have lived in a different culture than him, his life in America has made him assimilated into the American society
I was late for school, and my father had to walk me in to class so that my teacher would know the reason for my tardiness. My dad opened the door to my classroom, and there was a hush of silence. Everyone's eyes were fixed on my father and me. He told the teacher why I was late, gave me a kiss goodbye and left for work. As I sat down at my seat, all of my so-called friends called me names and teased me. The students teased me not because I was late, but because my father was black. They were too young to understand. All of this time, they thought that I was white, because I had fare skin like them, therefore I had to be white. Growing up having a white mother and a black father was tough. To some people, being black and white is a contradiction in itself. People thought that I had to be one or the other, but not both. I thought that I was fine the way I was. But like myself, Shelby Steele was stuck in between two opposite forces of his double bind. He was black and middle class, both having significant roles in his life. "Race, he insisted, blurred class distinctions among blacks. If you were black, you were just black and that was that" (Steele 211).
In conclusion growing up with an ethnic background was pretty hard; I did not get ridiculed for looking different or doing things differently. There was when I had to assimilate to be accepted in a new town because I did not want to be known as a nerd if I played with the Asian kids instead when I was at school I adapted and changed my beliefs and played with the White kids to feel accepted. But, the hardest part was not in the social atmosphere it comes when it came to my parents. My parents put up these social barriers to not allow me to expand out of my own race. Growing up I broke out of their chain and started to explore different friends and started to date people of other races.
In this paper I will be sharing information I had gathered involving two students that were interviewed regarding education and their racial status of being an Asian-American. I will examine these subjects’ experiences as an Asian-American through the education they had experienced throughout their entire lives. I will also be relating and analyzing their experiences through the various concepts we had learned and discussed in class so far. Both of these individuals have experiences regarding their education that have similarities and differences.
Writing a self-reflective tirade is perhaps one of the most difficult tasks to perform. I have found myself pondering this topic for an unusually long time; no one has ever asked me to write about my culture-- the one thing about myself which I understand the least. This question which is so easy for others to answer often leads me into a series of convoluted explanations, "I was born in the U.S., but lived in Pakistan since I was six. My brothers moved to the US when I was thirteen" I am now nearly twenty, which means I have spent half my life being Pakistani, the other half trying to be American, or is the other way around?
In the early years of my life, adapting to the foreign customs of America was my top priority. Although born in America, I constantly moved back and forth from Korea to the US, experiencing nerve-racking, yet thrilling emotions caused by the unfamiliarity of new traditions. Along with these strange traditions, came struggles with accepting my ethnicity. Because of the obvious physical differences due to my race, the first question asked by the students in elementary school was, “Are you from China?” These inquiries were constantly asked by several of American students until middle school which transformed to “You must be good at math” referencing the stereotypical intellect that Asian are perceived to have. Through continuous insult on my Asian heritage, I began to believe and later hate the person I was due to criticism made by teenagers which I started to see true despite all the lies that was actively told. This racial discrimination was a reoccurring pattern that
In the short story, "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, a Chinese mother and daughter are at odds with each other. The mother pushes her daughter to become a prodigy, while the daughter (like most children with immigrant parents) seeks to find herself in a world that demands her Americanization. This is the theme of the story, conflicting values. In a society that values individuality, the daughter sought to be an individual, while her mother demanded she do what was suggested. This is a conflict within itself. The daughter must deal with an internal and external conflict. Internally, she struggles to find herself. Externally, she struggles with the burden of failing to meet her mother’s expectations. Being a first-generation Asian American, I have faced the same issues that the daughter has been through in the story.
My father, like many Asian immigrants, left India to pursue his educational goals in America in order to provide a better life for his family. He arrived in the U.S. with fourteen dollars in his coat pocket, a suitcase in his hands, and a will to succeed. For my father, in a place like America where opportunities were plentiful and where hard work actually paid off there was no excuse not to succeed. The practical translation of this belief meant that if his children worked hard in school there was nothing they too could not achieve. As such, in my father's household, not doing well in school was not an option.
Growing up people would ask me where I was from, I would answer Queens. There was never a doubt in my mind that this is where I am from since this is where I was born. People would often tell me that I’m not from Queens since my parents are immigrants. I’ve always felt that I’ve had to fight to say where I’m from. These constant battles came from family members, friends, and strangers. It always had questioning my language and personal identity. My family members would say I’m Mexican but I don’t share the culture, language, nor experiences. Strangers from America would say I couldn’t be American since my parents are from another country but I do share the culture, language, and experiences. The craziest part is that my parents did everything they could so there children could
My cultural identity consists of being a 22-year-old white female who identifies as White, heterosexual, Christian-Lutheran, able-bodied and a member of the lower-middle class. Through these identities, there are certain roles that I distinguish with like being a student, daughter, sister, and friend. Socioeconomic
Having a strong foundation is something that has been passed down from our ancestors post slavery, which was used to help my family form their ethnic identity as African Americans. Ethnicity refers to a social group’s distinct sense of belongingness as a result of common culture and descent (Organista, Marin, & Chun, 2010). This influenced my family to raise me with awareness of family structure, old fashion southern culture, and valuable beliefs that molded me into the woman that I am today. Along with my family’s ethnic identity, I also have my own self -identity, which is my identity as a mother and a student. However, my family’s ethnic identity along with my own self-identity was not always seen as socially excepted or
I have never really sat down and thought about my cultural identity, at least until I started this class. I never thought about how my identity was different than that of other members in my community. I also never put much mind to the communication challenges that I could face when speaking with members of my community. To be totally honest, there is more cultural differences that I have faced and actually paid attention to, and now I seem to understand the importance of how one culture differs from another.
This helped shape my mind to be more flexible and able to see the view point of others without my own bias. It also helped diversify my identity and helped me sympathize with others outside of my culture. High school was especially rough for me because my parents had completely different expectations. My mother wanted me take hard classes and get straight A’s, like a typical Asian student, while my
Wait. Be still. Don't go over the line. Don't let go. Wait for it. "BANG!" My reactions were precise as I sprung out of the blocks. The sun was beating down on my back as my feet clawed at the blistering, red turf. With every step I took, my toes sunk into the squishy, foul smelling surface, as my lungs grasped for air. Everything felt the way it should as I plunged toward my destination. I clutched the baton in my sweaty palms, promising myself not to let go. My long legs moved me as fast as I could go as I hugged the corner of the line like a little girl hugging her favorite teddy bear. The steps were just like I had practiced. As I came closer to my final steps, my stomach started twisting and my heart beat began to rise. The different colors of arrows started to pass under my feet, and I knew it was time.
I cannot exactly remember when I started feeling different from my peers because I was never bothered by the idea of being multiethnic, until the moment I could not categorize my background into a box for a school form. My parents always made my brother and I feel proud about our multiethnic and cultural heritage. I was never ashamed of my background but at times I felt too diverse due to the fact that my dad’s ethnic background is Indian and my mom’s ethnic background is Chinese and Portuguese, though they are both from Guyana. There were moments I was uncomfortable with myself because I felt I did not look a certain way or that my cultural and religious practices might be considered unusual to the American norm. These experiences made me weary on the way I