Education: Kepping Close to Home

Assimilation is achieving wealth or economic status, allowing African Americans to immerse in American culture. Some examples of assimilation include having professional success, being in an affluent family, and living in a wealthy neighborhood. The problem is the majority of African Americans struggle overcoming numerous hurdles involving money, class, etc. African Americans need to deny their heritage to fully assimilate because it consumes time and energy to economically and socially progress.

Through the personal stories of his hair, love life, and behavior, Liu is able to show the effects of his assimilation. The second section deals with Liu’s struggles to conform to white stereotypes as an Asian American. With his personal anecdotes, he establishes himself as a more credible source to speak on the subject of assimilation. The second section uses narration to provide evidence about Liu’s definition of assimilation.

Hooks expresses when growing up she consider her family as poor because of how large her family was and how they had enough money to make ends meet. Although, her family was among the working class, when she went off to college she began to she herself as poor. Hooks states that she had scholarships and loans to attend Stanford University, but her parents were concerned with how she was going to pay for getting there, the things she needed for classes, and for emergencies. She says she spent her breaks, when she couldn’t go home, with the black women who cleaned the dormitories. Hooks states that they were more likely to understand where she was coming form than other individual who attend Stanford. She claims they supported and affirmed her efforts to be educated.

As a result, she lacked confidence in her education. She stated, “My early education did not partake of the abundant opportunities which the present day affords and which even our common schools now afford. I was never sent to any school; I was always sick.” Even though she did not attend a formal school it did not put her out of reach of a proper education (Peterson, 9).

For the first time in her life, Zora Neale Hurston found a sense of accomplishment. Not only did she get her high school diploma, but she also went to college. During a time of racial oppression and Americans returning from World War I she managed to maintain various jobs to pay for her education. Morgan Academy was just the beginning of her extensive education. Howard University and Barnard College are where she obtained her degrees.

Racism had tainted her life from the very beginning. During her childhood she attended a one-room school for blacks only. She was only allowed to attend school for a short time due to the ailing health of

Zitkala-Sa’s autobiography informs her readers of the damaging and traumatizing effects of assimilation by utilizing her life experiences as a narrative, demonstrating how living under an oppressive and dominant culture was an internal struggle between society's expectations and her own cultural identity. Sa’s experience is especially unique considering her mixed heritage as well.

By adopting the colonizers values and denying himself, the colonized will lose himself completely. In order to assimilate, he will tune out the frequency of the heart; denying his identity, his language, his culture, and his way of life. The colonized will need to “[hide] his past, his traditions and in fact all his origins” (122) in attempt to become an equal. Embracing these qualities and going as far as altering appearance will become internalized and leave the colonized separate from his body and alienated from himself. He will go against all that feeds his soul and will become completely torn, leading him to become eventually crippled. Memmi argues that assimilation will not work for the colonized because “he [will] never [cease] to be one of them at heart” (123). He does not believe that liberation can come from self-denial. Hypothetically, even if assimilation was in the best interest of the colonized, they would soon after “[meet] with the rejection of

Segmented assimilation combines multiple elements and because of this is able to provide a different perspective. Zhou discusses how this theory recognized the fusion of immigrants in America but acknowledges that the complete assimilation of becoming American is not always beneficial (999). Giving the diverseness of America to retain what culture and values one was raised on can benefit the migrant in various ways. Especially giving the many cultural organizations established to assist immigrants. I enjoyed the article and agreed with a majority of it. Zhou understands the benefits and consequences of maintaining and losing any cultural values you migrated with. Her perspective on Gordon’s theories were clarifying in some sense. However, I believe the assimilation process for second generation is a difficult thing to narrow down. Zhou’s theory that where an immigrant is placed in system describes success and assimilation. This perspective is new and frighteningly eye opening. Where you are “placed’ in system would have dramatic effects on one’s assimilation and ability to

Implementation of this process will gradually integrate the minority into the system, causing all groups to be culturally similar with their differences no longer a basis for prejudice from the dominant group. (Dubois, Miley 172)

It is expected that ultimately there will be a loss of ethnic distinctiveness for immigrants in the U.S., meaning the lack of attachment to the country of origin. (Golash-Boza, 2006) It is argued that all ethnic distinctiveness will no longer exist by the seventh or eighth generations. Before exploring the influence of foreign born vs. U.S. born parents on their children’s cultural assimilation; the different theories of assimilation will be explored. The idea of Assimilation came about in the early 20th century. (Golash-Boza, 2006) Assimilation is surrounded by two theories, the first that all immigrants will assimilate sooner or later and that the generational status of the individual is one of the main factors in determining the

This quote is about assimilation in residential schools which is one of the topics of this essay. The documentary We Were Children by Timothy Wolochaiuk, is about residential schools and two residential school survivors named Glen and Lyna. The following essay will discuss what the Indian act, residential schools, the long term lasting effects of the Residential schools

Fredrickson means that assimilationism tries to force one culture into accepting the “superiority, purity, and unchanging character of the dominant culture.” He gives an example of the “Native American cultural genocide” in regards to assimilationism. I agree, Assimilationism can force a culture to throw away part of its identity, values, and traditions.

In James Cameron’s critically acclaimed Avatar, there are many issues/disputes that are represented, but there is only one that especially stands out; cultural assimilation. Cameron’s purpose for this is to better represent and portray the possibility of assimilation to today’s modern audience. He adopts a visually stimulating tone to better impact and leave his viewers with a lasting impression of his portrayal, that will better convey the feelings of transgression in the supremacist audience he is trying to reach. This is known by the type of subject he is tackling and by showing a similar situation, unrelated to the ‘textbook cover’ of Native assimilation, but leaves the same impact.

Dinaw Mengestu, Richard Rodriguez and Manuel Munoz are three authors that have been through and gone through a lot of pain to finaly get accepted in their societies. They are all either immigrants or children of immigrants that had trouble fitting in America’s society at the time. They struggled with language and their identities, beucase they were not original from the states and it was difficult for others to accept them for who they are. They all treated their problems differently an some tried to forget their old identeties and live as regulalr Americans others accepted themselves for being who they are, but they all found a way to deal with their issues.