Rolling the R's by R. Zamora Linmark

The United States is infamously branded as the “Great Melting Pot.” In R. Zamora Linmark’s Rolling the R’s, the reader recognizes that this legendary melting pot can also be a system that continually ensures some races and cultures remain inferior. Through a series of vignettes written with Pidgin English, the reader follows a group of Filipino-American fifth graders from Kalihi, Hawaii as they struggle with personal and sexual identities while they come of age. The characters in this novel are

R. Zamora Linmarks Rolling the R’s is representative of the dangers associated with prejudices and racism within small communities. Experienced by Filipino children in their small Hawaiian neighborhood, Linmark argues that these prejudices not only negatively affect the individual, but the community as a whole, as demonstrated through interactions between the children and their teachers. Linmark uses two separate individuals as examples to drive home his point. The first individual, Ms. Takara