Blog Post 1

Posted on August 13, 2018 by by | 5 Comments
  1. In Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s article “Assimilation” she talks about the controversy about the word assimilation. She addresses the multiple connotations and denotations of the contentious word assimilation by different scholars. She focuses on the effect of the word assimilations specifically in the United States. Park deduces that assimilation is neither easy nor simple to talk about because it has originated a long time ago and has embedded itself in the American culture that a minority group should conform to the western ideals of the US.
  2. The official definition of assimilation in the Oxford Dictionary is to, “‘take in (information, ideas, or culture) and understand fully ‘” and to “‘absorb and integrate'”(pg 14, paragraph 1). This basically means that for someone to be considered assimilated in a culture one needs to fully understand it and use it in their everyday life like it was their own culture. Du Bois argues against this and defends that people from different racial backgrounds can thrive together, therefore, assimilation is not needed. He sums it at ” racism is the problem or racial inferiority” instead of racial difference(pg 14, paragraph 2). Park mentions that the model minority myth is assimilation exemplified (pg 1, paragraph 1).
  3. The author introduces the term model minority myth. Park claims that the model minority myth, which categorizes all Asian Americans as the “model” for other minorities. According to this infamous myth, Asian Americans are hard-working, obedient, and intelligent that’s why they were able to surpass poverty and become successful in the United States without needing a lot of government aid. This myth is still wildly believed in the United States which is detrimental because it disregards all the Asians that don’t fit this mold that the government curated and society popularized.  This disregards the people who live in poverty and constant racial slurs.
  4. The book “I Love Yous are for White People” by Lac Su which was about the life of a young Vietnamese refugee and growing up in America. In his memoir he retells theh struggle growing up as an Asian in the US becuse he didn’t know where to fit in. The culture was completely different from how it was in his homeland. He constantly compared himself to how his classmates and friends were treated and viewed by society as well as their own families. Contrary to the popular myth that ALL Asians are smart and rich Lac Su grew up in the impoverished streets of West Hollywood.
This entry was posted in Week 2 readings. Bookmark the permalink.

5 responses to “Blog Post 1”

Leave a Reply