Intolerance Restoration Intolerance vs. Prodigal Similarities Differences

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.

Intolerance

Jeremiah Torres and Carlos were two good friends with their friendship extending over 17 years. They were of Filipino American origin and happily went through elementary, middle and high school together in Palo Alto, located 35 miles south of San Francisco.

It was carols' seventeenth birthday, on October 23, 1988, and the two friends, along with 3 others, had planned a night out. Carlos and Jeremiah were just coming off the Safeway driveway in their car, when a speeding car almost jolted them with a loud honk. Overcome with anger and frustration, they caught up with the car, when the white young passenger rolled down his windows and irritatingly shouted, "He wasn't honking at you, you stupid fuck!" He followed up with expletives like, "Punk, lowlife, chink, and gangster" (Jeremiah, 1). They exchanged expletives when the white man sprayed Jeremiah's face with a spray of mace, and hit Carlos with the bottle, and sped away, leaving both of them with burning pain and anger. A kind woman helped them with water, and called the police, who, instead of helping them, looked at them suspiciously like gang members.

Unable to brook the indignity of the four labels, "Punk, lowlife, chink, and gangster" (Jeremiah, 1), now attributed to them, they reacted by voicing their anger with an anonymous article in the school newspaper, highlighting the rampant presence of racism in their midst, much to the consternation of their school staff.

While Jeremiah pursued his studies, Carlos was caught in the web of simmering anger, and segregated himself from the whites. Then one day, he was badly provoked by a white father who called him a 'punk'. Carlos chased the car and shattered his rear glass with a quarter. Carlos was identified as the perpetrator, was suspended from school, had to attend court, and was sentenced, as a felon, to a night in the juvenile detention and 200 hours of community work (Jeremiah). Wither justice?

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.