New People Theme Of Identity

The ‘mestiza,’ being of ‘mixed race’ feels like an outcast in society, torn between two or more cultural worlds in which she can never fully be accepted. She searches for her self-identity by attempting to forge an association, but many times the racial and cultural barriers create tension, putting her in the middle to be neglected, devalued, or abused. Identifying with race, socioeconomic class, or gender, are all challenging based on not having a complete makeup that equates the majority. A white female can associate with other white females, and so can Mexicans Latinas, but the mestiza can only associate as a female (in most cases) without a sense of having a ‘thoroughbred’ national identity (Mexican or Anglo). It’s a kind of ‘social purgatory,’ that cancels out both sides, not being able to completely claim ownership of either culture or in some cases gender.

Our personal identities represent the culmination of our past, the influence of the present that we live in, and what we will be in the future. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, in the short story Double Identity, describes the evolution of her gender and racial identity in her youth and later life. She struggles to balance her female identity within Japanese and American societies, initially within her high school and college years and later during her marriage. Through her experience in school, she seeks harmony between her two identities by conforming to the cultural standards required by the situation at hand. As time passes, she decides that acting according to whichever racial identity she feels suits

Although society advocates believing in a ‘sameness’ between people who are black or white, individuals are still organized by race, class, gender and sexuality into social hierarchies. These hierarchies essentially formulate stigmas that suppress certain races and discriminate against them. Caucasia written by Danzy Senna is focused around a young mixed girl, Birdie, who encounters obstacles in her life that help her form her own perceptions about issues regarding class, race, and sexuality. These obstacles fundamentally shape her to have a unique outlook on society where she begins to question white privilege and also sympathize towards the mistreatment of black individuals. Senna explores the fundamental problems that are associated

Characters, in Heidi Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, force the protagonist, Rachel, to choose between her white and black side. They only acknowledge her black side while only celebrating her white qualities. Consequently, Rachel feels the obligation to accept the roles that have been thrust upon her and ignores part of her race because of the commentary from her family and peers. Rachel adapting to the portrayal of her racial identity to appeal to the normalized opinions of her appearance, demonstrates her tendency to comply with the categorization people of color face throughout society. Ultimately, leading Rachel to pick and choose the parts of her racial identity that most please the people she is with.

You can see how Maria’s El Salvador is empty of people, full only of romantic ideas. Jose Luis’s image of El Salvador, in contrast, totally invokes manufactured weapons; violence. Maria’s “self-projection elides Jose Luis’s difference” and illustrates “how easy it is for the North American characters, including the big-hearted María, to consume a sensationalized, romanticized, or demonized version of the Salvadoran or Chicana in their midst” (Lomas 2006, 361). Marta Caminero-Santangelo writes: “The main thrust of the narrative of Mother Tongue ... continually ... destabilize[s] the grounds for ... a fantasy of connectedness by emphasizing the ways in which [Maria’s] experience as a Mexican American and José Luis’s experiences as a Salvadoran have created fundamentally different subjects” (Caminero-Santangelo 2001, 198). Similarly, Dalia Kandiyoti points out how Maria’s interactions with José Luis present her false assumptions concerning the supposed “seamlessness of the Latino-Latin American connection” (Kandiyoti 2004, 422). So the continual misinterpretations of José Luis and who he really is and has been through on Maria’s part really show how very far away her experiences as a middle-class, U.S.-born Chicana are from those of her Salvadoran lover. This tension and resistance continues throughout their relationship.

In the boiling pot of America most people have been asked “what are you?” when referring to one’s race or nationality. In the short story “Borders” by Thomas King he explores one of the many difficulties of living in a world that was stripped from his race. In a country that is as diverse as North America, culture and self-identity are hard to maintain. King’s short story “Borders” deals with a conflict that I have come to know well of. The mother in “Borders” is just in preserving her race and the background of her people. The mother manages to maintain her identity that many people lose from environmental pressure.

Cristina Henriquez’, The Book of Unknown Americans, folows the story of a family of immigants adjusting to their new life in the United States of America. The Rivera family finds themselves living within a comunity of other immigrants from all over South America also hoping to find a better life in a new country. This book explores the hardships and injustices each character faces while in their home country as well as withina foreign one, the United States. Themes of community, identity, globalization, and migration are prevalent throughout the book, but one that stood out most was belonging. In each chacters viewpoint, Henriquez explores their feelings of the yearning they have to belong in a community so different than the one that they are used to.

Although I can’t specifically relate to Gloria Anzaldúa’s struggle between her languages in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” I can relate to her “kind of dual identity” in which she identifies with neither Anglo-American cultural values nor Mexican cultural values (1566). Being half white, half Chinese, I struggle identifying as either identity, especially because my mom (who is Chinese) never learned Cantonese and largely became Americanized in her childhood. It’s an uncomfortable position to be in when racial and ethnic identity are so significant in America and when I must interact with the world as part of both the majority and the marginalized. Considering my own struggle and the conflict Anzaldúa describes, it became clearer to me the way race relations in American not only marginalize people of color but train our consciousnesses to damage ourselves. Before I turn back to Anzaldúa, a novel I’ve recently read, William Godwin’s Caleb Williams has also been on my mind, particularly in Godwin’s portrayal of how police surveillance transforms us into agents of our own oppression. Although Caleb is a white man, he also experiences a split consciousness as his values and characteristics are whittled away by the paranoia of constant surveillance.

In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” the main argument made is that Hispanic women often struggle being identified. Judith goes on talking about her experiences with men and how they identify her as “Maria” because of her Hispanic heritage. They also identified her as a person she really wasn’t because if the way she dressed up. She talks about her Puerto Rican culture and how her mother made her dress and act like a woman at a young age. Later on in the reading passage she says a story about a job interview in high school and how they had to dress up. For her, dressing up was different from the other girls because of her heritage. The day of the interview they were identified as negative models and the whole day they were steered at. They also called her a “Hot Tamale” which is a stereotype for Hispanic women and a couple of other stereotypes were said to her. One of her most memorable incident was when she was at an event in a boat in Miami and a women called her over because she thought she was waitress. Those rough times didn’t stop Judith from wanting what she wanted to do which was to fit in the American culture. She accomplished to get an education and to set the reality of who Latina women are despite the stereotypes and myths.

The book takes focus on 8 main characters with different identities. Each of them has their own uniqueness and personalities that make them special. The uniqueness has a major plague on how they are viewed under the scopes of other people’s eyes and judgements. This book helps me realize that there are always people out there who are not supportive and are out there trying to bring us down. Society has a very negative view of people who are different, but those who are different and stand out from others are not only going to be successful, but are able to persevere through the worst of the bullying, teasing, and bashing and hurtful comments.

Loraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in The Sun” and Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s “The Cuban Swimmer” both capture the authors’ past experiences of oppression, and convey their struggles with identity. Both authors are from minority cultures, and both describe the same harsh pressures from the dominant culture. Both author’s share situations of being outcasts, coming from different racial backgrounds and trying to triumph over these obstacles.

The statement “racial identity and sexual orientation entrap and define us” is limiting in that it ‘pidgeon holes’ a great variety of ‘types’ into simplified categories. This essay will explore ‘racial identity’ and sexual orientation’ and exemplify meaning through the use of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Christos Tsiolkas’ Loaded. Although they hail from different times and cultures, the characters Marlow and Ari display similarities in behaviours in as such they put themselves in perilous situations and surround themselves with untrustworthy ‘associates’.

The race that a person is born into itself entails a variety of social pressures and preconceptions; this is common knowledge. Discomfort with one’s own race (as well as the particular forces which mold a personality centered around that fixed fixation), however, opens us to a different variety of pressures, which include both those felt by reluctant oppressors and those who can pass as outside of their category by birth. Lillian Smith discusses the perspective of the former category in Killers of the Dream, a contemplation on race relations in the South from the perspective of a white woman, both oppressor and oppressed, while Anatole Broyard’s memoir Kafka Was the

Relationships span the spectrum, from the mumbled “hey” tossed over the shoulder to a colleague to the intimate “oh, how are you?” pressed into the palm of a lover or loved one. Many factors complicate them, but assumptions about race and racism can pull a relationship up or drag it down. Such is the case in Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie: Ifemelu, the protagonist, realizes that race tangles relationships until it is impossible to tell the beginning of the string from the end. While race, in the context of fleeting relationships, causes different people to be treated differently, it can also deepen lasting relationships and create cherished bonds between the two parties involved.

The course of American Studies has taught me see how drastically people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds experiences life in America.  In the many novels, videos, stories, poems, and other written words that we have read, made me better understand the struggles and adversity people of other race and nation of origin have trying to fit in a new society. Across these texts, I realized they have all tied together to continuously fight for acceptance be placed in a new community with people of different race and color. In many years past, segregation and discrimination have been an issue for many races. How Does It Feel to be a Problem? (Moustafa Bayoumi), The Refugees (Viet Thanh Nguyen), The Namesake (by Jhumpa Lahiri), Kindred (by Octavia Butler), Nobody (by Marc Lamont Hill), and the 2014 Coca Cola Super Bowl commercial, “It’s Beautiful”, are all novels and visuals based on the fight for acceptance on new societies. This has been very problematic especially to the black and Muslim community. The listed readings have exemplified this problem in their own way, mostly focused on the society.