“Girl in translation” by Jean Kwok is about a girl named Kimberly, who moved to the US from Hong Kong. where she has to balance life between school, and working at a sweatshop. But soon after they found themselves with a minute level of comfort. Despite the remarks she gets made about her. The shop owner Al informed them that the block was going to be demolished and they should find somewhere else to go. But then, when she is applying for colleges. She gets a full scholarship which is a huge thing for Kimberly and her mother.
Kyle Quinn, a natural born citizen. Was a student in Brazil where he met his wife; isabelle. After they’d graduated they moved to the u.s together. And began to see the discrimination that foreigners face daily. And he was & is really upset about it, however he noticed his wife was used to it and even said “welcome to my world.
Kimberly while in school is being bullied, by this kid Luke, calling her “chinese girl” (Kwok 93) he placed his hand on kimberly’s shoulder. and she moves so his hand falls off and his friend says “wow, that’s kung fu” (kwok 94) and because of this, he asks her to fight her. Albeit, I believe his interest in the fight was morbid curiosity, but it stemmed from a place of judgement and racism (the assumption since she’s chinese that what she did is kung fu) she ended up winning this fight, only due to him not fighting very well, she landed a few good hits, and then he pushed her away, then that was the end of it.
This ties back to the ted talk because it shows the assumptions and bias that the people have towards foreigners. In Isabell’s case, it was that she almost was automatically declined the drivers License. And for Kimberly it is the name calling, and assumptions of her.
In your book, How often do they struggle with these types of Judgement? And has anyone else around them noticed it?
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