I Love Yous Are For White People Analysis

828 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Role of family during adolescents

Every child is born with the instinct to seek acceptance and find a source of comfort and love. For the first chapters of their lives, a caring parent has all that they seek. In the book I Love Yous Are For White People, written by Lac Su, we get the chance to walk through the experiences of the author himself as he struggles to find acceptance at home as well as the new society he’s thrown into as a result of the family’s sudden immigration to the U.S. Subsequently, what seemed to be the journey a better place leaves young Lac quiet confused as he starts to discover the challenges this country forces upon his family leading to a home focused mainly on survival and competition rather than a bonding of love.
Lac’s father was abusive physically and mentally, Lac would get beating up, one example would be whenever Lac does his home work and answers it wrong, his father would get anything to beat him up with , Lac stated “When I get one wrong, he picks the shoot up and whips me on the forearm or across the shoulder.”(p62) Lac was beating often; his home environment did not include any love in the same way he would get physical assaulted and loss of self respect. Lac needed to feel care, love and attention from his dad, even if it was …show more content…

Even though they intimidate Lac; however their ambitions of Lac makes him feel accepted, “Despite my insecurity, nothing bad ever happens to me when I’m around them, except for the occasional racist jokes aimed in my direction. But the teasing makes me feel accepted.” (p85) By not being there for him Lac family made him feel isolated. Lac insecurity came from not being able to adapt to the American norm, and his family did not help him to adapt. Lac’s father did not validate him which caused him deal with his insecurity on his own. Lac knew that the Kingsley Street Gang were intimidating for many

Show More
Related

  • Wanting Mor, Rukhsana Khan

    927 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...imism of attending school. This depicts how if she was angry, she would be blinded of the aftermath of being pessimistic such as, not seeing the advantages of pursuing education for the first time, nonetheless, she will only keep recounting the same question of why did her father abandoned her, and will eventually harm someone, as in the case with Arwa, a child in the orphanage. Jameela finally channelled her anger into violence with Arwa, as in pushing her to the ground because she was a tad bit clingy; she wanted to know the outcome of Jameela’s surgery of her cleft lip. The result of committing this is that Jameela experienced remorse and depression. A theme portrayed in the novel, Wanting Mor, is making strong bonds, as in peace with one another, not hatred and anger.

    Read More

  • Summary Of White Like Me By Tim Wise

    1272 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tim Wise’s book White Like Me provides a picture of what it is like to be white in America. A main topic covered in White Like Me is white privilege. On pages 24 and 25 Wise illustrates what white privilege is and shares his opinion regarding how to address white privilege in society today. Wise’s plan for addressing white privilege is one not of guilt, but of responsibility, a difference Wise highlights. The concept of feeling guilty for white privilege lacks reason because white privilege is something built up through generations and its existence is not of any one person’s fault. Guilt would just be detrimental to the possibility of making progress in this field. Responsibility, on the other hand, is a perfectly logical action to take when

    Read More

  • A Disorganized Family In Gary Soto's Looking For Work

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel “The Color of Family Ties”, by Naomi Gerstel and Natalia Sarkisian, through their research they found out that the ratio of disorganized family for Black and Latino/a families are higher than White families. That white families are more nuclear, which means a couple with their dependent children. In contrast, Black and Latino/a families has a high ratio that they often live with their extended families (Naomi and Sarkisian 47). This novel ties in to the “Looking for Work” novel because Gerstel and Sarkisian shows a research regarding how Latino families are disorganized, and the way how Mexican families lives are just like Gary’s family, the extended family. We know that Gary’s family are disorganized, but nevertheless, Gary has extended families members who he lives together with. Gary’s family showed solidarity love by just help each other out and spending time together. “We ran home for my bike and when my sister found out that we were going swimming, she started to cry because she didn’t have fifteen cents but only an empty Coke bottle”(24 Soto). This is Gary’s cousin Debra who needs fifteen cents to go to the swimming pool, of course Gary and his friend helped Debra out. Other time that showed Gary’s family love is that Gary’s mother always let Gary’s play with his friends outside, not because she does not love Gary is because

    Read More

  • Behavior in the Home in Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families by Annette Lareau

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lareau’s main argument in the text is that when children grow up in certain environments, parents are more likely to use specific methods of child rearing that may be different from other families in different social classes. In the text, Lareau describes how she went into the home of the McAllisters and the Williams, two black families leading completely different lives. Ms. McAllister lives in a low income apartment complex where she takes care of her two children as well as other nieces and nephews. Ms. McAllister never married the father of her two children and she relies on public assistance for income. She considers herself to be a woman highly capable of caring for all the children yet she still struggles to deal with the stress of everyday financial issues. The Williams on the other hand live in a wealthier neighborhood and only have one child. Mr. W...

    Read More

  • Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club

    1798 Words  | 4 Pages

    America was not everything the mothers had expected for their daughters.  The mothers always wanted to give their daughters the feather to tell of their hardships, but they never could.  They wanted to wait until the day that they could speak perfect American English.  However, they never learned to speak their language, which prevented them from communicating with their daughters.  All the mothers in The Joy Luck Club had so much hope for their daughters in America, but instead their lives ended up mirroring their mother’s life in China.  All the relationships had many hardships because of miscommunication from their different cultures.  As they grew older the children realized that their ...

    Read More

  • Race and Ethnicity in the United States Still Matters

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    Race and ethnicity is a main factor in the way we identify others and ourselves. The real question here is does race/ethnicity still matter in the U.S.? For some groups race is not a factor that affects them greatly and for others it is a constant occurrence in their mind. But how do people of mix race reacts to this concept, do they feel greatly affected by their race? This is the question we will answer throughout the paper. I will first examine the battle of interracial relationship throughout history and explain how the history greatly explains the importance of being multiracial today. This includes the backlash and cruelty towards interracial couple and their multiracial children. Being part of a multiracial group still contains its impact in today’s society; therefore race still remaining to matter to this group in the U.S. People who place themselves in this category are constantly conflicted with more than one cultural backgrounds and often have difficulty to be accepted.

    Read More

  • Prejudices In Black Men And Public Spaces By Brent Staples

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    Without details, the words on a page would just simply be words, instead of gateways to a different time or place. Details help promote these obstacles, but the use of tone helps pull in personal feelings to the text, further helping develop the point of view. Point of view is developed through the story through descriptive details and tone, giving the reader insight to the lives of each author and personal experiences they work through and overcome. Issa Rae’s “The Struggle” fully emplefies the theme of misplaced expectations placed on African Americans, but includes a far more contemporary analysis than Staples. Rae grapples as a young African-American woman that also struggles to prove her “blackness” and herself to society’s standards, “I feel obligated to write about race...I slip in and out of my black consciousness...sometimes I’m so deep in my anger….I can’t see anything outside of my lens of race” (Rae, 174). The delicate balance between conformity and non-conformity in society is a battle fought daily, yet Rae maintains an upbeat, empowering solution, to find the strength to accept yourself before looking for society’s approval and to be happy in your own skin. With a conversational, authoritative, humorous, confident and self-deprecating tone, Rae explains “For the majority of my life, I cared too much about my blackness was perceived, but now?... I couldn’t care less. Call it maturation or denial or self-hatred- I give no f%^&s.” (Rae 176), and taking the point of view that you need to stand up to racism, and be who you want to be not who others want you to be by accepting yourself for who you are. Rae discusses strength and empowerment in her point of view so the tone is centered around that. Her details all contribute to the perspectives as well as describing specific examples of racism she has encountered and how she has learned from those

    Read More

  • Between The World And Me Summary

    559 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book Between the World and Me written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Coates composes his book as a letter form to his fifteen year old son distilling the notion of what is is like to live in contemporary America as a black person. Ta-Nehisi Coates is unravelling his argument by incorporating personal experiences before and during fatherhood, also including his son’s experiences and young men such as Michael Brown whose death has brought awareness of the dangers of living in America as a black person. Coates is desperate to raise his son in a different manner than most black parents have been doing for the past years. He is not going to give his son false hope.

    Read More

  • Freedom And Its Perils In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    A functional family relies on every member contributing to the well being of the whole. That is not to say that members of a functional family lack freedom, it's just that they live within the necessary bounds of freedom. If one member of the family fails to live within those bounds, the unit of the family is undermined. While the Breedloves struggle to hold themselves together, Cholly repeatedly rips them apart. He destroys his bond with his wife Polly through drunken fits of rage. “His soul seemed to slip down into his guts and fly into her, and the gigantic thrust he made into her then provoked the only sound she made—a hollow suck of air in the back of her throat. Like the rapid loss of air from a circus balloon.” (Morrison 47). Polly survived this abuse physically, but just like a dead, deflated balloon, Polly collapsed emotionally, never to be inflated or filled with life again. The saddest part about this abuse was that the children witnessed it, and what they saw scarred them forever. “Maybe that was love. Choking sounds and silence.” (Morrison 42). Innocent Pecola yearned for this horrific love, believing that it was the only affection she would be capable of experiencing. Unfortunately Pecola did receive this type of love from her father, but through rape. Cholly, “...mistook violence for passion, indolence for leisure, and thought recklessness was freedom.” (Morrison 177). Cholly honestly believed that this “passion” was the rawest form of love he could give to Pecola, compensating for the deficiency he received as a child when he lived like a free

    Read More

  • East Of Eden Character Analysis

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, Cal faced with the struggle of good versus evil. This struggle is partly caused by his traumatic child experiences from constant isolation and depression. He struggles with the question of is his evil is derived from his mother's wickedness. After hearing a synopsis of heinous rumors of his mother, he relates all his “evil” actions from his past ancestry. The evil embedded in his own blood from his wicked mother. In one of his lowest peaks throughout the novel he converses with his girlfriend about his mother. “Abra, my mother was a whore. I know. You told me. My father is a thief. I’ve got her blood, Abra. Don’t you understand?” (Steinbeck 598). The melancholic Cal is deeply perplexed about his situation. He wants to believe that he is pure and good, but yet believes that his bloodline causes him to do cynical tasks. Not because he wants to, but because it’s hereditary and he’s just is a victim of his ancestry’s past. This is a strong influence to Cal as he is uncertain of what side he belongs to. Ultimately, Cal is left broken and shattered from h...

    Read More

  • The Relationship Between Mae Mobley And Aibileen

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1962 racism was a big issue and African-Americans were treated tremendously and dehumanized. Mae Mobley’s innocence of a child helped her to look beyond the atrocious actions of her culture and create a special bond with her caregiver, Aibileen. The relationship between Mae Mobley and Aibileen was strong in the sense that Mae Mobley saw past the depths of Aibileen’s skin colour and saw Aibileen as she saw herself. Living in what seemed like two different worlds their love for each other was truly powerful and unbreakable. Aibileen cared for Mae Mobley as if she was her own child, giving her advice and making sure Mae Mobley knew she loved her. She was also concerned about her throughout the day and gave her the attention her mother did not. In result of little neglect from Mae Mobley’s mother Mae acts out

    Read More

  • TV Show: Picket Fences

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wise, T. (2011). White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. (2nd ed.). Berkley, CA: Soft Skull Press.

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination in The Help by Kathryn Stockett

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Today, blacks are respected very differently in society than they used to be. In “The Help”, we see a shift in focus between what life is like now for the average African American compared to what it was like for them to live in the 1960’s.“The Help” teaches readers the importance of understanding and learning from our history. The novel is a snapshot of the cultural, racial and economic distinctions between blacks and whites in a particularly tumultuous time in American history. “The Help” encourages readers to examine personal prejudices and to strive to foster global equality.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Paper Menagerie

    1363 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Paper Menagerie,” by Ken Liu, is an emotional story of a selfish son and his interactions with his out-of-place mother, who had immigrated from Asia to be his father’s wife. Jack is a half-Chinese, half-American boy who lives in Connecticut. In the beginning of the story, he is very attached to his mother, but certain incidents with other kids make him want to be as distant as possible from his Chinese mom. He demands that his mom converts to being a “normal” white American mom and that he and his family should give up all Asian customs. This beautiful story shows that selfishly basing your actions on the need to fit in can harm yourself and others.

    Read More

  • Notes Of A Native Son And 'My Father's Suitcase'

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ones early year life experiences play a significant role as to how relationships are formed among children and their parents. In the case of J. Baldwin's “Notes of a Native Son” and O. Pamuc's “My Father's suitcase” stories, the focus is based on a father and son relationship. Moreover, it is the development of such relationships that has an enormous influence on how a child is raised and the way they see the world that they live in. In both stories the authors reflect upon experiences they had after their fathers’ death. Even though, there are both differences and similarities in these stories, it is obvious to discover differences in a father and son relationship. However, it is interesting to find that similarities exist among these stories.

    Read More

More about I Love Yous Are For White People Analysis

Open Document