Reader Response 2

I don't have a particular favorite this week. I thought that the Walden excerpt was pretty cool, after dissecting his  ramblings. However, I really disliked Civil Disobedience, because I couldn't understand it at all. All the articles were really interesting too, and offered lots of insight into what being an American means to them. I liked How it Feels to be Colored Me because Zora reminded me of my friend, especially with the quote "Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me." Zora has a distinctive voice that kind of reminds me of Daisy from The Great Gatsby.  The only exception would be the article by Baldwin, because I couldn't really understand him well either. I liked On being a Mexican American for its crossroads metaphor... (Some of the others were long, like the MLK letter--the reason why I didn't take notes on all of the articles.)

On to the actual post: I am responding to American Dreamer by Bharati Mukherjee. She makes very contemporary points about immigrants vs. Americans, and strips these problems down to ugly truths that everyone denies and which no one wants to here. Most importantly, I find myself relating to her a lot.

Honestly, I can rant about many points she brings up in her article. It's always been "white people" vs. me. (In Japan it wasn't a problem--there were Indians and Caucasians and they were not discriminated against. Tells you a lot about the US, doesn't it?) After all these years of being looked down, you end up finding so much disgust and anger at the pit of your stomach. Why can't you just accept me for who I am? I carry my cultural baggage, yes, but in terms of human beings with feelings and basic rights, we are all the same.

In my family, it's always been "us" against "them", like Mukherjee says. My parents tell me specifically to spread my horizons and make friends with white kids. Also, when they get billings asking for payments they don't need to pay, they blame it on the white people. "What racism!" they mutter. "Just trying to bully you." There are other instances in the car, where you can encounter limitless amounts of jerks driving flashy cars.  Whenever they get beeped or shot a dirty look at for "driving too slow", they say, "Bet you those guys are white people." They later add, "Or black!" These remarks may seem unreasonable, and it makes my parents look like they are the ones being racist, but even though I don't like to admit it, I think in many cases, it is a concept of "us" vs. "them". The Americans pit you against them, and we pit the Americans against us.

Also, one day on the way home from school, an African American man with graying hair, frazzled clothes and beard was riding a dirty bike on Madison, by Racine. There are interesting shops there, and turning my head away from the windows showed me that the man was riding up to me and I was in his way. So I quickly swerved to the right, and as he rode towards my direction he yelled, "Get out of my ----ing way, you ----ing -----." I tried not to take this guy seriously, but I was seriously insulted. What did I ever do to him?

And as for the Americans wanting to bar immigration, I think it is very hypocritical and stupid. American has always been and still is Ellis Island to immigrants. You come to America for a better future, and that is what the US has been advertising for a long time. We are proud nowadays to say we go to diverse schools and whatnot. Plus, Americans were once immigrants too. Except no one wants to acknowledge the fact that we pushed the Native Americans out of their land and no matter how many scholarships you give to outstanding students of Native American descent, it doesn't erase anything. Besides, it's not everyone else's fault that Mexicans keep migrating into the US illegally. Furthermore, it is no one's fault that apparently immigrants are stealing American jobs. Maybe it's because you lack skill.

I promised myself I wouldn't rant. Here I am now, having ranted. I am disappointed in myself, but I couldn't help it. Life is a jerk. Overall, Mukherjee's article says that even though there is a supposed "melting pot" and "mosaic" in America and Canada, there are still divisions among the cultures, with Caucasians in the center on a podium surrounded by bulletproof glass. Even though we are here in America for a better future, there is a divide of "us" vs. "them". It shouldn't exist, and by rejecting her Asian-American hyphenation, Mukherjee says that is it her demand for equal deliverance of the promises of the American dream and its Constitution. Afterall, we are all here for the same reasons.