Notes Of A Native Speaker Summary

Are members of a minority group obligated to assimilate into the dominant culture of their society? Asian Americans and Latinos do feel an obligation to assimilate themselves into the American culture but they are not obligated to give up their entire culture which includes their language, their pride, and the people that they surrounds themselves with. There was a time when assimilation did quite strictly mean whitening in America but times had changed. In the essay written and tiled Eric Liu’s “Notes of a Native Speaker” states, “You "made it" in society not only by putting on airs of anglitude, but also by assiduously bleaching out the marks of a darker, dirtier past.” which conveys the path to succeed or measure up in a dominant

Both Eric Liu and Richard Rodriguez both felt that they were betraying their culture while they were being more accepting to white or outside American society. Richard Rodriguez felt this feeling when he was learning and using the public language which in his case did not come without a cost. There was a certain sense of betrayal he felt and that was intimated by relatives that he had somehow committed a sin by learning and eventually only speaking this so called "public language". He was given the nickname “pocho” which is someone who is becoming an American and forgets about his native society. Eric Liu was also given a nickname by his own people terms a “banana” which is on the outside of a banana it is “yellow” but if you look in the inside it is “white” which in his state he has assimilated into white American society. Stereotypes that he took in consideration also created a path for him to follow that leads up in a long range of regrets. He states, “As I had done in high school, I combated the stereotypes in part by trying to disprove them. If Asians were reputed to be math and science geeks, I would be a student of history and politics. If Asians were supposed to be feeble subalterns, I'd lift weights and go to Marine officer candidate school. If Asians were alien, I'd be ardently patriotic. If Asians were shy and retiring, I'd try to be exuberant and jocular. If they were narrow-minded specialists, I'd be a well-rounded generalist. If they were perpetual outsiders, I'd join every establishment outfit I could and show that I, too, could run with the swift.” which is probably a path that he wouldn’t have fallowed if he accepted his own culture. He also continues to ramble on about his three adjoining arenas which are his looks, his loves, and his