The United States has faced several extreme battles, however, the largest battle has always been racism. It has continually affected the U.S. ever since the beginning of time and, unfortunately, will never go away. In the first article, ““FOBs” vs. “Twinkies”: The New Discrimination Is Interracial” author, Grace Hsiang, an Asian American, expresses that ethnic groups aren 't just racist against each other, but they are racist and discriminate within their own ethnic groups. In the second article, “The “F Word”, author, Firoozeh Dumas, an Iranian American, tells us about the challenges she and her family faced while settling into the United States. Firoozeh prepares herself to face extreme challenges, however, she is surprised by what seems …show more content…
The articles share similarities in labeling, assimilation, and racism. However, there are several differences in the articles as well including, interracial racism, culture, and perspective. Although the articles are two completely different stories, they are still based on the exact same concept, which is racism. When comparing both of the articles, it is self-evident that racism has a huge impact on both the authors lives, which leads them to want to be accepted by society. While reading the essay, “FOBs vs. Twinkies”, Hsiang states, “Many of us very much want to belong to our parents’ community, but we cannot completely embody one culture when we are living in another.” This quote directly applies to both articles because it relates to them trying to assimilate into normal American culture, while still wanting to embrace their own heritage. Another great example would be from the article “The “F word””. Dumas states, “When I announced to my family that I wanted to add an American name, they reacted with their unusual laughter. Never one to let mockery or good judgement stand in my way, i proceeded to ask for …show more content…
In this essay, the type of racism is completely different. Some would say it is the more “normal” type of racism. This type of racism is discrimination between opposite ethnic groups. In this essay, an Iranian family is settling in to the United States and is expecting many immense challenges, however, to their surprise, their hardest challenge is their names. According to American kids, their names are too difficult to spell. For example, “Her brother Arash (“Giver”) initially couldn 't understand why every time he 'd say his name, people would laugh and ask him if it itched.” (Dumas, 351). This example shows that instead of American kids attempting to learn Arash’s name, they automatically make fun of it. The next difference would be perspective. In “FOBs vs. Twinkies”, Hsiang shows perspective as whole Asian group/community, whereas in “The “F Word””, Dumas shows perspective only from herself and sometimes her family. In Dumas’ article, she focuses on her real life struggles as one. For example she states, “As I waited patiently, the receptionist called out, “Fritzy, Fritzy!” Everyone looked around, but no one stood up… I did not, however, respond to “Fritzy” because there is, as far as I know, no t in my name.” (Dumas, 354). This example is straight from Dumas’ perspective. She is in a doctor 's office waiting for a receptionist to call her back. This is her final breaking point when the
“Nigger: it is arguably the most consequential social insult in American History, though, at the same time, a word that reminds us of ‘the ironies and dilemmas, tragedies and glories of the American experience’” (Kennedy 1).
Both authors have some of the same experience when it comes to racism and they don`t understand. Staples says “I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear. At dark. Shadowy intersections. “I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk of the driver— black, white, male, or female — hammering down the door locks.” Laymon has a similar experience when “we got close to Shonda`s Saturn and one of the men says. “Kiese write about this!” Then another voice calls me a “Nigger” and Shonda a “nigger bitch” I think and feel a lot but mostly I feel that I can’t do anything to make the boys feel like they`ve made us feel like right there.” After reading these experiences both authors have a sense of fear from the side effects of racisms.
Words are commonly used to separate people by the color of their skin, but they can also be used to bring people together, no matter what their skin color was. Using words improperly was a common problem in America when our parents were our age, and even way long before that. People have written countless stories about racism, it’s affect of the world, or it’s effect on the person themselves. One of the more well known poems about racism is “‘Race’ Politics”, by Luis J. Rodriguez. The story the poem is based off of took place sometime in the mid 1960’s, so this gives us an insight of what the world was like back then.
From beginning to end the reader is bombarded with all kinds of racism and discrimination described in horrific detail by the author. His move from Virginia to Indiana opened a door to endless threats of violence and ridicule directed towards him because of his racial background. For example, Williams encountered a form of racism known as modern racism as a student at Garfield Elementary School. He was up to win an academic achievement prize, yet had no way of actually winning the award because ?The prize did not go to Negroes. Just like in Louisville, there were things and places for whites only? (Williams, 126). This form of prejudice is known as modern racism because the prejudice surfaces in a subtle, safe and socially acceptable way that is easy to rationalize.
In "The Meaning of a Word" and "Being a Chink", Gloria Naylor and Christine Leong examine words of hatred that are meant to scorn, hurt and disgrace people. But these same words could also be used without harmful intentions and in a fashion of endearment amongst the people those words were created for. They each had a different word to discriminate their different culture and ethnicity. These writers discuss the words "nigger" and "chink", which are words in our language mostly ignorant people use. Naylor and Leong are also both minorities who were raised in America. They talk about how discrimination and hatred towards minorities is almost always inevitable in America, which is mostly populated by Caucasians. Naylor and Leong observe how these racial acts of discrimination can unify a group of people even closer together. Naylor didn't know the true meaning of the hate word nigger until it was used against her in a degrading manner. On the other hand Leong already knew what chink meant but wasn't traumatized until she found out her father discovered it.
One topic that was compared between the two novels was racism. The definition of racism is the belief that all member of each race possess characteristics
Both films use the “alien invaders” myth to examine how American society responds to unfamiliar threats. The films contain the same basic plot components—aliens visit Earth, people react in some way, conflict arises from interaction, etc.—as well as the same conventions. As one analyst wrote, generic conventions in science-fiction have no intrinsic meaning and are “fluid and plastic” (Gehring 229). Their...
The African Americans fought hard to make themselves equal to the whites, some of the leaders for this were Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X who spoke on behave of their people to try and fight through racism so that it can end. Unlike the African Americans, the Jewish people listened to the Germans, they followed all of their rules to stay alive because they were in a more life threatening situation; neither races deserved the treatment that they received. The racial differences, mistreatment of humans, and injustices between these two stories are similar but different, both authors tried their best to explain as much as they could on what they were personally experiencing or even telling a story on someone else’s experience, but no matter what in the end we are all equal
For instance, relating to the employment, there were two obvious hierarchical differences between the black and the white, and women and men. According to Kimberle (2015), in the late 1970, the employment opportunities for black people and women were still in the straitened circumstance, furthermore, even if there were chances for them, “... the black job were men’s job, and the women’s job were only for whites.” (Kimberle Cranshaw 2015). In other words, there was no opportunity for the black women. In this case, the unjust discriminatory treatment for black women simply resulted from their intersected identities as a “black” and “woman” both were marginalized in the society. In regard to this, however, the important point is that people did not analyze the cause of this situation through considering it from the both racial and sexual sides simultaneously. People ignored the experience of the others, and categorized the black women based on their sex as a “woman”. In other words, people, especially who were in the privileged position, just neglected the subtle “differences” of others, and they stretched the rules to their own advantages. Relating to these “differences”, Audre Lorde (1984: 115) explains that “ But we have no patterns for relating across our human differences as equals. As a result, those differences have been misnamed and misused in the
Racism (n): the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other race (Wordnet search, 1), a controversial topic in today’s society, a subject that many people try to sweep under the rug, but yet a detrimental problem that has been present in America since the colonial era. Will this dilemma come to a halt? Can all Americans see each other as equals despite their skin color and nationality; and what role has it played in past generations versus today’s generations and how will it affect our future? Has this on going way of thinking gotten better or worse? These are questions raised when many think about the subject; especially members of American ethnic groups and backgrounds, because most have dealt with racial discrimination in their life time.
In conclusion, racism is a big issue in the United States affecting not just only foreigners but also citizens. Leslie Marmon Silko as a mixed-ancestry-person has had to face discrimination and racism in the United States. The author feels very proud of her family because racism did not grow up in her hometown along with her. Moreover, she shows her sympathy to undocumented immigrants by pointing out the cruelty that Border Patrol offices do not just to them but also to citizens. Also, her tone is very disappointing and angry because of what is going right now with the United States and the Border Patrol making racism stronger and stronger overtime making some rights, such as freedom start to vanish all because of the same issue, which is racism.
Both works of literature go into depth on appearance, and how your cultural background does not determine what kind of person you are. This can be displayed in "Mericans," when Michelle is assumed to be a Mexican girl who only spoke Spanish and followed all Mexican traditions until she proved them wrong. This can be displayed in Okita's poem when Denise assumed that Okita was the enemy because of her Japanese heritage. A difference between the stories in that one is free verse poetry, and one is a short story. The common theme in both is that appearance does not determine what kind of person you
As a whole, racism is largely focused on individual people and very specific acts of oppression against very specific groups of people. But how do you define race? Omi and Winant (1994) argue that race and racism definitions as a whole are limited because they “neglect the institutional and ideological nature of race in America” (p. 10). Race relations are so ingrained in American culture that a 'true' definition of race has never been properly established. The narrow focus on individuals fails to note the impact racism has on society as a whole, especially in politics (Omi and Winant, p. 15). The authors also quote Glazer and Moynihan (1963) stating that ethnic groups are not solely bound by skin color or even by place of origin, but more commonly by “ties of interest” (Omi and Winant p. 18). By defining race and ethnicity by biological means, the fact that these ethnic and racia...
America has been thought of as a place represented by fairness, mixed culture, power and the dream of having a better life for everyone, whether a person is white, black, brown, and yellow. However, the truth is that racial groups have been segregated by the white-centric media or government of the American society, and that has widened the psychological and geographical distances between the two groups, Asian and black, and has encouraged ignorance and hatred. On the other hand, there are many conflicts between Asian and Black, due to their different cultures, experiences, and educational backgrounds. From the book Native Speaker, we can see how these different cultures, powers and identities deepen Asian-black mistrust, misunderstanding and ignorance, and sometimes these irreconcilable conflicts develop into hate-crimes.
In “Black Men in Public Spaces” the author talks about multiply situation where he was treated different for being an African American. Staples said,” I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent near North side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash” (161.) Then there is “Right Place, Wrong Face, which is focused on and African American man that is wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. White said, “I was searched, stripped of my backpack, put on my knees, handcuffed, and told to be quieted when I tried to ask questions” (229.) The two articles have many similarities. Both articles have two educated African America men who get treated different because of their race. Staples and White both have situations where they are being stereotyped by society because there black