Race, Ethnicity, Class, Gender Reading

Race, Ethnicity, Class, Gender

Reading response

"How long have you been in the United States?" Ronald T. Takaki, a native-born American citizen, was recently asked this question by a taxi driver, despite the fact that he is a long-time resident of the United States. This highlights the fact that despite its self-image as a melting pot, the way that a 'real' American looks is still quite rigid in the minds of many people. In his essay "A distant mirror" Takaki examines how Asian-ness is seen as a deviance from the norm of the 'typical American.' This is despite the fact that America is increasingly becoming a non-white nation, demographically speaking. The actual, physical characteristics of Americans have still not fully penetrated the cultural consciousness. America has a short memory, however -- not so long ago, Irish, Italian, and other European immigrants were not considered 'white' because of their ethnic characteristics, even though they were gradually subsumed into the American cultural firmament and deemed worth of status as 'white.'

Takaki suggests that despite the fact that formerly oppressed groups were sometimes divided by their levels of acceptance by hegemonic American society, there is also considerable evidence that unity has and can exist between different racial and ethnic groups, such as Mexican and Japanese farm workers who went on strike, side by side, in protest of unfair conditions. Similarly, "Label Us Angry," by Jeremiah Torres examines the notion the construction of Asians a model minority lacking in the righteous fury that is often used to characterize black and Latino anger: individuals deemed 'other' or non-white often have more in common than they have been lead to believe, even members of so-called model minorities.

For Takaki, learning about one's roots, and unpacking the seamless lie that American history is simply based on a polarization of us vs. them, or 'real' Americans vs. minorities, is the key to creating a new and more vibrant form of American character, based upon a true mosaic of identities. The necessity of seeing 'the real people' behind cultural myths is also expressed in the essay "Katrina, Black Women, and the deadly discourse on black poverty in America" by Barbara Ransby, which examines the disproportionate effects upon blacks of Hurricane Katrina. The predominating media sentiment according to Ransby was that of 'blaming the victim,' or blaming the impoverished residents for being insufficiently prepared for the disaster. Ransby suggests that the fortitude shown by residents, even in the absence of aid, was often considerable, considering their meager resources. Residents were blamed for their poverty, rather than sympathized with.

Ransby's essay made me think critically about the coverage of the event I witnessed: while it was true that many people were praised for going to the afflicted area and helping the victims, I remember far fewer stories praising the resilience of residents. While the 'blame the victim' mentality may have been less in evidence in the coverage I saw than that which was cited by Ransby, I do think that there was a kind of objectification of the victims as a general, faceless representation of extreme poverty that many Americans denied existed within the U.S.