Cultural identity and racism in Filipino American experiences

Intolerance

Restoration

Intolerance vs. Prodigal

Similarities

Differences

Cultural Identities - Skillfully Blending the Ethnic Background with the American Dream

The distinctiveness of a group, culture or an individual is referred to as Cultural identity. In spite of inherent differences, there is plenty of overlap between identity politics and cultural identity. The new method tries to understand the identity of an individual with an anthology of identities based on gender, history, nationality, sex, religion, aesthetics and place. In a secular democracy like America, with diverse ethnic presence, the next generation in any major ethnic mix should be watched closely to understand the extent of their contribution towards the future policies of the country.

Restoration

Seven-year-old Wendy, born in Santa Barbara, California, daughter of Taiwanese mandarin immigrant parents, declared that, inspired as she was with her new idol Ru-Ru, who spoke fluent English, she would sever all relationships with the Chinese mandarin language that she spoke quite fluently, to concentrate on speaking only in English, in her quest to blend with the modern American young people, at the cost of her original Chinese ethnicity. How was she to know then, what destiny held in store for her? At this moment, Chinese held no allure for her.

At Kellogg Elementary school in Santa Barbara, Wendy was riled to no extent that she was almost trapped in a kind of cultural loneliness with her only Chinese friend Xiao-Shen. They were always at the butt end of embarrassing comments from the other Ethnic American kids. By the time the family shifted to San Jose, Wendy was proficient in English and had American girls for friends, but sadly, she did not realize how fast she was moving away from her family, religion, ethnicity and language.

Entering college at Berkeley, she tried to steer clear of Chinese groups and chose to follow Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. When she understood why God created the races, she now started regretting her calculated rift with her parents and her ethnicity and joined a special class held by the University for re-sharpening the basic knowledge of mandarin, for those who might have abandoned or forgotten it due to other constraints.

The winter of her sophomore year took her to a conference at Illinois, on the bond between religions. On the second night, when the violinist rendered a song in mandarin, with the 19,000 strong crowed singing with him, Wendy was shaken into the reality of her ethnicity, and sang fervently with tears streaming down her face. This was the beginning of Wendy's journey back into the fold of her God, religion, parents, origin and language (Hu).

Intolerance vs. Prodigal

Similarities in the foregoing two cases are as under:

1) Both were of Asian-American cause; Jeremiah was Filipino; Wendy was of Taiwanese in origin.

2) Both were from relatively impoverished ethnic families unable to afford luxuries.

3) The mother played a dominant part in both the stories.

4) Both children were affected by the overtones of racism.

Differences

1) Jeremiah never cursed his ethnic background, but Wendy abhorred her origin.

2) The Jeremiah's and Carlos' story smacked of violence and hatred, but Wendy's story is not violent.

3) Fate was cruel to Carlos' but here God reminded Wendy the importance of her ethnicity.

Conclusion

The publishing of Justin Fong's "The Invasian" in the Harvard Crimson (Arar, 1), created shock waves in the matter of ethnicity, and each person's individual path to assimilate, accept and project it, working towards a concerted effort to carve for himself his own niche for an authentic life. Though, "the Invasian" was merciless in projecting the Asian-American student community at Harvard as a stereotypic and indecisive lot, crowded with self-lacking males, (Arar) raised the issue with the "Crimson" on the central question of definite individual and collective identity of the ethnic class of Asian-Americans. Questions rose as to why sacrifice of religion, gender, race and class are necessary in the search for one's personal identity, when trying to live up to the upper-middle-class American style of living. The schools presented sufficient opportunities and choices, and to say that one was under pressure to select his/her own path would be ridiculous.

Further, the Asian-American X provided a sequence of essays generated by the affiliates of the ethnic group, encouraging discussions on how the present generation of Asian-Americans should comprehend their own origins within the context of the American dream, by skillfully embracing both options relatively. The data so provided would go a long way in determining the negotiations, and shaping your future path, reinforced with mutual regard and respect for each other.

Reference

Arar, Han and John, Hsu. Asian-American X: an intersection of twenty-first-century Asian, Edited, University of Michigan Press, pgs. 1-8.

Fong, Justin. "The Invasian," Harvard Crimson, March 15, 2001, available at .

Hu, Wendy "Shen ai shi ren" Asian-American X, Edited by Arar Han, John Hsu and Ann Arbor; University of Michigan Press, 2007, pgs. 160-166.

Jeremiah, Torres. "Label Us Angry" Asian-American X, Edited by Arar Han, John Hsu and Ann Arbor; University of Michigan Press, 2007, pgs. 15-18.