Blog Post 1: Assimilation

Posted on August 13, 2018 by by | 1 Comment
  1. In Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s writing, she argues the true definition of assimilation and what it does to people of minority. In America, minority groups are forced to integrate themselves into white culture in order to succeed socially and economically. Park refers to different authors such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Robert E. Park, Richard Alba, and Victor Nee to epitomize how “assimilation” entails racial inferiority. Using this definition of “assimilation”, Park relates Asian Americans to a model minority that thrives by being foreign and succeeding when fully assimilated into white culture.
  2. For Asian Americans to assimilate to white culture, they must feel “compelled to adapt their history to fit into an Orientalist drama that requires they play the outsiders repeatedly” almost like an act to entertain the majority (p.17). Park also uses Priscilla Chan as a concrete example of someone that has assimilated into white culture after she married Mark Zuckerberg. Chan lives a respectable and wealthy life now, joining “the 37% of all recent Asian-American brides who wed a non-Asian groom” (p.16).
  3. A key term Park uses in different ways is the word “assimilation”. By W.E.B. Du Bois’ definition of the word, “assimilation” refers to acts done to “center whiteness as the national identity” and “marginalizes African Americans” (p.14). Robert E. Park uses the word as a way to describe how “two different social groups follow a cycle of progressive stages of interaction” which leads into social assimilation (p.14). Richard Alba and Victor Nee use the word as a tool to “‘understand and describe the integration into the mainstream experienced across generations by many individuals and ethnic groups'” (p.15).
  4.  Historically, the Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco, California went through this cycle of assimilation. One reason the nightclub did not survive past the 1950s was because the people originally foreign to oriental cultures and ideas became familiar with the practices. Nightly, the nightclub would host traditional Chinese performances with exotic Chinese dancers. The nightclub did not add new performances or modify existing ones to spice up their shows and as a result, the customers were bored of what they had to offer and did not come back. The only thing that kept the establishment going for so long were the dancers and their “exoticness” until people eventually got tired of that as well.

 

This entry was posted in Week 2 readings. Bookmark the permalink.

One response to “Blog Post 1: Assimilation”

Leave a Reply