Racial Differences Essay

Some similar anecdotes that I can contribute to “The Chinese in All of Us” are similar experiences that I went through and having friends and acquaintance going through the same process of becoming the melting pot of

The schools I went to before third grade had a strong Asian population. Asians were the majority; there were rarely any non-Asians in those schools. During that time, I was allowed to stay innocent and uncaring of what others thought of me. It was a pity those golden days couldn’t last longer. The school I transferred to for the remainder of my elementary education had an extremely low Asian rate. In fact, you could have listed all the Asians in the school with only one hand. With little to none Eastern Asians, my parents pushed me to work harder. Unbeknownst to them, they were trying to mold me into the stereotypical smart Asian. The changes were subtle at first since they

As someone of Asian race, but adopted into a white suburban family, it has always been hard to reconcile the two. Growing up I never saw myself different than my primarily white classmates. Only when kids, mostly strangers, would sometimes pull their eyelids back or spoke pseudo-Chinese in an attempt to imitate Asian culture in middle school did I realize that I was different on the outside did I begin to understand that the

Many new arrivals still struggle to survive and often Chinese Americans still encounter suspicion and hostility. Chinese Americans have achieved great success and now, like so many others, they are stitching together a new American identity. As Michelle Ling, a young Chinese American, tells Bill Moyers in Program 3, “I get to compose my life one piece at a time, however I feel like it. Not to say that it’s not difficult and that there isn’t challenge all the time, but more than material wealth, you get to choose what you are, who you are.” (www.pbs.org)

Not only now, but throughout the history of the United States, one of the biggest issues that our country has faced is the issue of Racial inequality and racial tensions primarily between African Americans and Caucasians. Most recently these issues have had impacts on everybody, and some may even argue have caused a bit of a social divide in America. This divide was manifested very clearly in the 2016 presidential election and since, society has created these ideas and perceptions that we have seen many references to the Ku Klux Klan, and even Nazi Germany. These ideas that have been expressed are all very common themes that the world has seen specifically when racial tensions are present. 50 years ago, the Civil Rights Movement was very much alive through parts of the deep south. The advances that the Civil Rights Movement brought about were indeed incredible however in modern society a new group has taken over where the civil rights movement left off. If these issues were indeed resolved in the 1950s and 1970s there would be no need for groups such as Black Lives Matter. Racism and social injustices is one of the biggest issues today that affect politics as well as our perception of history.

My name is Kade Rose and I am a student at Oakwood University. I am writing this because I believe the attitude expressed by white Americans towards the Chinese was racist and xenophobic, but I feel like this section of history is too frequently glossed over.

Issue Presented: How can the societal issues of racial disparity be addressed on the state and local levels?

While the ACA has been successful in reducing the rate of uninsured, it has failed in a number of other areas. Data organized by age reveals significant problems when it comes to groups who are uninsured, we can see a stark contrast between age groups. Among the 15.7% of Americans that are uninsured, approximately 55.2% of those are comprised of Americans aged 19 to 34 years of age. This is relatively unsurprising as young people have always been less likely to purchase health insurance as the result of what many have described as some sort of invincibility complex. The data on uninsured Americans becomes truly interesting when analyzing the data as it relates to race and ethnicity. Whites compromise 64.3%

Dating abuse and domestic violence are becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s society. Ten million people per year report to being abused by their partner (CDC, 2010). Due to the majority of the victims being women, however, the media often overlooks men as victims of domestic abuse. According to The National Domestic Hotline, almost 30% of men in the U.S. have experienced some form of domestic violence. Previous research has attempted to examine the different types of abuse as well as the factors that lead less men to report these incidents (James, 2003; Douglas & Hines 2011).

Often times, many people feel pressured to change certain personality traits in order to conform to someone else’s standards. This typically happens because no one wants to be known as the weird person in the crowd. In the novel American Born Chinese, written by Gene Luen Yang, there are many prevalent examples on wanting to “fit in.” In the beginning of the novel it is made clear to the audience that Jin Wang, also known as Jin, is ashamed to be Asian.

Although Jin Wang tried to disguise his Chinese identity to become a “normal” American teenager, the author pressurizes Jin to embrace his racial identity because it is inevitable to extirpate it. The author

In her essay, Lee talked about the stereotypes that Chinese students faced and she herself thought that they were “…geeks who followed the stereotype that most Westerners have of Chinese kids: exceptionally bright in math and sciences, greasy hair and thick glasses, and of course, always spoke with that strange Chinese accent” (Lee 49). Her essay informs the audience about how she shielded away from the Chinese culture and embraced the Western culture, which gave her the reputation of “being “white-washed” and a “banana” – yellow on the outside but all white on the inside” (Lee 49). Although things did not turn out the way Lee wanted, she “would like to be able to go back and reclaim what used to be mine – my culture” (Lee 51). Lee would like to go back to the past and change how she was back then and embrace her culture more.

I stand between two worlds: the American and the Chinese culture, one which I was born into, the other I was raised into. The two doctrines drag at me constantly with a noose around my neck constantly warning me of accepting the other doctrine. Throughout my life, my family functioned on a basic norm: to not trust others and to value only the worth of my family, yet within the American institution, I learned to function upon the doctrines of cooperation and individualism. My life was thus a constant balance and strife as my parents saw in me undesirable traits that would, in the Chinese culture, rendered me empty-minded, without a thought of my own, or blatantly, an easily deceived idiot. Through the lens of my family, I viewed the world through

One experience so far in China that left a strong impression on my mind was a visit to the Shaanxi museum of history. Our tour guide was a locally educated young woman in her twenties. As she took us through the different periods of Chinese history, at every exhibit showing some sort of tool or mechanistic contraption she would turn and say “as you can see, the Chinese people are very smart!” She also recounted a story in which she was very offended that an American made a comment that Chinese people are short, to which she replied “yes, we are, but we have five thousand years of history and culture!” Both the richness and vastness of Chinese history was a huge source of pride for her, as her slightly illogical response to the American’s comment shows. In retrospect, her age denotes that she grew up on the government’s campaign in the 1990s to educated students about China’s greatness, to foster pride.

Don’t get me wrong, I was aware that I was Asian. I had a different culture at home from my friends. They didn’t eat rice nearly as often as I did. They didn’t see chopsticks as just another utensil for the table, but as an exotic tool. They didn’t speak Chinese at home. But race was never something that mattered in elementary school. People weren 't black, white, yellow. They were classmates, friends. That is, until Peter arrived. It was third grade when I began to see through the tinted lens of skin color. As I was the only other Asian boy in the grade, my teachers told me to become friends with the new Chinese kid, to help him. It’s funny, now some would classify that as a microaggression: let the Chinese kid play with another Asian kid. Why can’t the new kid just make his own friends? Regardless, I would spend part recess and after school with Peter, the new kid that was “weird” and had no friends.