Asian American Struggle

In the book, “Asian American: Chinese and Japanese in the United States Since 1850” by Roger Daniels, he writes about the Asian American immigrating to the United States. Daniels writes on the Japanese Americans mainly focused in chapter five, six, and seven. Chapter five largely base on how the adaption of the Issei and Nisei in the United States. Chapter six in regards to the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Chapter seven the continuation of the post war life of the Japanese Americans after World War II.

Dreams. We all have dreams and aspirations in this world. Some dream of living a luxurious lifestyle. Others may dream of mastering a difficult skill. While others, such as Helen Zia, dream of equality for people of different races, minorities, and genders.

Assimilation is usually meant to indicate what happens to immigrants in a new land. However, “rejection, loneliness, discrimination—these were the byproducts of living in the United States” (Ghymn 37). In Marilyn Chin’s essay on assimilation “How I Got That Name,” the speaker acquaints the readers how she got the American name “Marilyn.” The tension between the two cultures is evident, for the speaker is treated as “Model Minority.” Her race and ethnicity define her; in fact, the stereotypes inscribed with her race restricted and cage her significance in the society.

This paragraph from Kesaya Noda’s autobiographical essay “Growing Up Asian in America” represents the conflict that the author feels between her Japanese ethnicity, and her American nationality. The tension she describes in the opening pages of her essay is between what she looks like and is judged to be (a Japanese woman who faces racial stereotypes) versus what she feels like and understands (life as a United States citizen). This passage signals her connection to Japan; and highlights her American upbringing. At this point in the essay, Noda is unable to envision her identity as unified and she describes her identity as split by race.

These binds make it seem as every Asian has the american dream. All Asians live in a picket fence world of perfectness. This is not the case in all instances. Some Asians are struggling to make end meet and are swallowed up and left behind because of this stereotype. In particular, lets look at a woman named Pranee Wilcox ,who worked as accountant back home in Thailand.

Is there a “model minority”? Takaki ’s essay “The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority” . In this essay Takaki writes against the claim that has been made that Asian Americans are viewed as being the “model minority”.

Historically, groups of people whose “label” is comprised of conjunctive ethnicities experience a difficult time finding their true identity, but identity is found when unidentifiable individuals find a common goal. In the course of the last two weeks, we explored a concept called “Pan-Ethnicity” which deals with the unification of multiple ethnicities. It’s concept and practice is displayed by Yen Le Espiritu’s “Coming Together: The Asian American Movement”, and in chapter eight and nine of Diane C. Fujino’s book, “Samurai Among Panthers” respectively. In Espiritu’s text, a pan-ethnic organization or more specifically, a pan-Asian organization did two things for the Asian American movement.

Tan noted that in general, Asian Americans perform better on math and science achievement exams than on English ones. The low representation could be the result of Asian American students who use broken or limited English being steered away from writing into math and science. Similarly, in “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María”, stereotypes and popular portrayals of Latina women as domestics or waitresses have partially led to the denial of opportunities for upward mobility among Latinas in the professions. Whether misrepresentations are brought on by the analysis of someone’s appearance or their linguistic abilities, those stereotypes and misjudgments can hinder the potential for growth and success of an individual within their

Racial inequality in education is predominant in black students and is perpetuated further by educators. A theory that explains this could be the “hidden curriculum” theory which conditions students to believe that their cultural backgrounds must be silenced to resemble the model white student. Studies show that training educators in cultural sensitivity and establishing trust between students and teachers allows students from varying cultural backgrounds to improve in classroom settings. RACE INEQUALITY IN U.S. EDUCATION Considered the “melting pot” of the world due to its high diversity, the United States has been renowned for the varying cultures and races populating the country.

In the Story “Growing Up Asian in America” by Kesaya E. Noda, she discuss many of her life events that helped her become who she is today. Noda throughout the story struggles to find her true identity. She struggles to take her three identities, Japanese, Japanese-American, and Japanese-American- woman and make them all turn into one. A great example of Noda’s struggle to find out her identity in the Japanese culture would be, “My race is a line that stretches across the ocean and time to link me to the shrine where my grandmother was raised” (lines 44-45). This means that no matter where in the world she goes she will always be connected her family.

If the success of Asians is “America’s greatest success story,”

As the world becomes more and more interconnected through globalization, it becomes less and less viable to avoid contact with the “other” peoples of the world – namely the rich cultures of Asia that have flown well under the radar of Western minds for the last two millennia. I think that the Asian American Studies course provides one with tools for learning to respect the pluralism of cultures in our world, and to appreciate the benefit of cross-cultural study upon one’s own understanding of the world. The course was an eye opener for me as it presents counter arguments to what I accepted as a fact. It also provided understanding to the roots of Asian history in the U.S and possible historical reasons for causes of racial discrimination. By

Because the benefits that are supposed to belong to Asian Americans have been taken away. For example, in order to pursue diversity and remain equality, almost all colleges in America set up a certain percentage of admissions based on races. According to “The Opportunity Cost of Admission Preferences at Elite Universities” by sociologist Thomas J. Espenshade, Asian Americans need to earn, on average, 140 points more than white students and 450 points more than black students to receive the equal consideration by colleges. What is more, if race is no longer a key factor in college admission, Asian Americans will have a greater opportunity to be admitted in the elite

The story picked is What Means Switch written by Gish Jen. It revolves around the life of Mona Chang, an 8th grade American-born Chinese girl in New York during the 1960s. She meets Sherman Matsumoto, a new Japanese student who becomes her boyfriend. She battles Japanese, traditional and modern Chinese influences, in a western environment. The concepts derived from this short story are as follows.

Second, the form they express their emotions and how they communicate with each other change based on their culture. The way they address the counterpart is different. While Asians are more formal using family names or titles when they talk to the other part, Americans are more informal since the use first names looking to be more friendly (Ready and Tesseman, 2009). Another difference is the form they develop the negotiations changes. For example, Asians are not that not linear, that means they may combine the negotiation with type of events, while Americans are linear, they want to focus on one aspect ate the time, so they do not have events (Ready and Tessema, 2009).