Personal Statement When I was younger, my Asian background did not really stand out to me. I really did not care about being an Indian because I wanted to be American. I was a young girl who was unable to see her own culture as being worthy to be a part of. As I continued to grow, my family continued to try to make me more involved in my religion. My parents would not let me cut my hair and be like the other American girls. At the time, I thought my parents just wanted to control my life. Now, I realize that they were just trying to protect an important part of our religion. I never proudly stated I am Indian till an African American girl started called me “black” in the fourth grade. No matter what I said, she did not believe me. That …show more content…
I trusted her a lot, but she moved away without informing me. The only person I trusted my cultural issues left, without even saying goodbye. I was really able to connect with my Indian culture by actually visiting India in the sixth grade. There I was able to experience true Indian life and how it greatly varies from the American lifestyle. I even stopped eating beef after finding out how important cows are in India. When I returned to America, I had a different view on my Asian background. I started to get more involved at the Lodi Sikh Temple. I started to visit the temple almost every Sunday. I felt more connected to my Indian heritage than ever before. As I started to better myself at school and home, more jobs and responsibilities were passed on me. I was beginning my high school career when I started to participate in more cultural events. I gave my school the idea of having a cultural appreciation day. The vice-principal thought it was a great idea. The cultural day was arranged to be held in the spring of the next school year. During that day, my siblings came to my school in order to do an Indian dance with me. This was the first time I had actually performed in front of my fellow classmates. Afterwards, I was really surprised to find many of my classmates impressed with my cultural dance. This was the first time I was really proud of my
‘The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority’ by Ronald Takaki and ‘Growing up Asian in America’ by Kesaya E. Noda are both essays that depict the state of Asian immigrants in America. The authors are both Asian Americans themselves and their words bear fruit from a lifetime of personal experiences of being a viewed upon as an alien in their own land.
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
Later that year, I was accepted into Spanish Honors Society, a volunteer based program to help out the Spanish communities near my school along with volunteering to help raise money for organizations that help less developed countries. One particular project that I helped raise money for through Spanish Honors Society, was Project Running Waters. The money raised for this event was donated to help people living in Guatemala receive fresh water through pipe systems that would be built. We raised over one thousand dollars to donate to this cause. Knowing that I can positively impact individuals in my community and in other countries makes me feel like I have grown maturely and am able to understand what needs to be done to make a difference to
and in front of the whole school during spirit week and international week, without a bit of apprehension. Gaining this confidence was and is the key to victories in dance competitions. Confidence and my familiarity with a variety of dance forms such as hip-hop, jazz, and several Indian classical dances can be credited to my winning first place in a memorable competition, where, for the first time, my two friends and I choreographed the dance piece that we performed. This experience also helped as the same friends and I had 2 weeks to choreograph, perfect, and perform alongside a famous Indian singer as he sang live. These values specifically pushed me advance further into the art form, and were also extremely useful outside of the dance
We cannot deny the fact that, as Americans, racial realism has always affected us and our way of thinking. In my personal experience, being an Asian, I have had
Establishing an identity has been called one of the most important milestones of adolescent development (Ruffin, 2009). Additionally, a central part of identity development includes ethnic identity (ACT for Youth, 2002). While some teens search for cultural identity within a smaller community, others are trying to find their place in the majority culture. (Bucher and Hinton, 2010)The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian chronicles Junior’s journey to discovery of self. As with many developing teens, he finds himself spanning multiple identities and trying to figure out where he belongs. “Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other” (p.118). On the reservation, he was shunned for leaving to go to a white school. At Reardon, the only other Indian was the school mascot, leaving Junior to question his decision to attend school he felt he didn’t deserve. Teens grappling with bicultural identities can relate to Junior’s questions of belonging. Not only is Junior dealing with the struggle between white vs. Indian identities, but with smaller peer group identities as well. In Wellpinit, Junior is th...
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 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.
Confusingly, I looked at her I responded that I was, she then explained that the Hispanic community of the parish was starting folklore dance group to dance during the holidays. Excitement rushed throughout my body when my mom agreed to let me take part of the group, she *explained that she didn't it was fair for me that my brother was participating on a baseball team while I've been wanting to dance for years. In order to perform, I of course needed to go to the practices. Practicing three times a week for three hours was rough for that first few weeks considering I was a beginner, but I didn't let that intimidate me and so I continued. Making new friends, learning more about my Mexican culture, and boosting my confidence, all of this in my eyes were areas that I had some sort of struggled with but dance little by little, helped me accomplish such positive effects in the three. With all the dedication I had since elementary school I learned all the routines for our performance that would be occurring on the 12th of
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.
Some people struggle with understanding who they are every day. They constantly look for ways to fit in. Curiosity can make him or her search for their place in society. In the narrative “You don’t look Indian” by Greg Sarris, we follow him in his journey to finding out his true identity.
...nd then found myself to be distinctively not like the reaction I found myself / the way I found myself reacting to certain situations) and pretend they wouldn't have an issue with this or that but when faced with a reality of embracing the scenario it can be a very different story. And that's through no fault of their own. I included will believe and think I am capable or ready for something I've never experienced before and when I am confronted with the reality I have been very surprised by my own reactions. Reactions that I was not prepared for and however much I may have disliked what I was seeing about my personality through the reaction I couldn't deny that it wasn't happening. My parents could have said they had no problem with other ethnic children but when confronted with the reality they may have learnt that in fact they were not prepared for the situation.
Even though my Catholic upbringing played a huge role in shaping my identity, it was not my only identity. As Hall states, “We all have multiple identities” (Hall, 107). I am a daughter, sister, niece, cousin, wife, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, student etc. those are my multiple identities. My Indian heritage also has played an important role in defining the person I am today. The values and beliefs I learned from my parents were taught to them by their parents and passed down from generations and is deeply rooted in my Indian culture. The Indian culture is called a “Collectivist culture” (Josselyn, Mod. 1) where you are taught to place the needs of others before your own. It teaches you values such as to be generous, helpful, dependable, and attentive to the needs of others (Josselyn, Mod 1). Although this culture has its pro’s it also has its con’s. For example, Indian wives are expected to place the needs of their husband and family first, which meant no sharing of household responsibility between the husband and wife, which may have been practical in the older days when women were full time house wives, but in today’s day and age with workingwomen this can quickly result in a burnout and cause detrimental health effects. So despite the good values I learned from my Indian culture and carry with me today and one day pass it on to my children, I do not agree with all the Indian
Sikhism suits the needs of modern life since it is open to everyone who is willing to embrace its practices and doctrines. Sikhism, one of the most scientific and modern religions in the world, is the fifth largest religion. One distinctive characteristic of the Sikh religious practice in comparison to other faiths is the vibrant Sikh identity, which is culturally, spiritually, and visually, able to be noticeable within the crowd. Sikhism has become principally and identifiably a way of appearance, which is the decisive threshold between being a “Sikh” or not, between being someone and being anyone. A Sikh’s identity is known as the “Khalsa”, which means the “community of the pure” (Takhar, 2005). The Khalsa is an example of a transnational religious community, which its sole purpose was to institute a military charge of “saint soldiers.” The Khalsa refers to the baptized Sikhs, who have taken “amrit paul” (Nesbitt, 2002). The Khalsa was responsible for both protection and administration of the community. According to Sikhism, a Sikh should be a scholar, saint, and soldier for God, who must live by an example as the Guru Granth Sahib outlines. Sikhs have their own real identity, which is vividly growing substantially since it possesses its separate religion, institutions, martial traditions, history, and territory. The Khalsa Sikhs could be recognized by the given five articles of Sikhism, the Five Ks (McLeod, 2008). However, how is it possible that a turbaned and bearded portrait of a Sikh comes to embody a religion whose antipathy to the worship of a sacred idol image is the character of its difference from Hinduism? This research paper, argues that the theoretical accounts of the role of the outer appearance relative to the rel...
Preparing for the final evening was as much fun as the event itself. We were a group of eighteen girls. Some, like I, had some background in Kathak while others were dancing in this style for the first time. The teachers worked hard with us over a period of twenty days. They encouraged the team and were patient with us as we fumbled with the steps. It was hard work as the steps of the dance were changed few times till we got the steps all the eighteen girls were comfortable with. We did not grudge the effort and looked forward to performing before the parents.