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In the novel North of Happy written by Adi Alsaid, Carlos leaves his hometown in Mexico to go to his brothers favorite restaurant in America. Carlos travels all the way to this restaurant in America and is greeted by a hostess named Emma. He has one flirty conversation with her and now can’t stop thinking about her. So Carlos gets a job at the restaurant to try and stay around Emma. Soon enough they see each other all the time and do romantic things together. Later in life as this relationship goes on I feel Emma and Carlos might go through similar couple problems like Kyle and Isabell. Later in the novel after Emma and Carlos started to make a deeper connection and see eachother on a regular basis their boss (Emmas mother) decides she doesn’t like Carlos having a relationship with her daughter. “If you want to stay at this restaurant and work your way up, you stop seeing her.” (Alsaid 154). Even though their boss didn’t have good reasoning. “I want Chef to explain further, want her to provide some sort of logic that will make this easier to understand.” (Alsaid 154). Carlos said he understand Chef because he was so pressured by her. Carlos was put in a tough situation simply because the Chef did not like them being together. This connects to Kyle Quinn’s TedTalk What marrying an immigrant taught me about cultural bias when he says, “That we need to acknowledge our bias and that we act against it, and that we treat and value you for who you are, and not where you are from.” (Quinn). Not only is the Chef ignoring his own cultural bias, but Carlos is also ignoring it by not fighting for what he wants and just doing whatever the Chef tells him to do. Just like Kyle who cares so much for Isabelle, but still didn’t defend her while being discriminated. What kinds of cultural biases are you seeing in your book? Why do the characters not acknowledge them? Why do others who notice them not say anything? Is anything being done in your book to step up and stop discrimination? |
In American Born Chinese, which takes place at times in a school there are overly done stereotypes of the Chinese characters to demonstrate what many of the Americans perceive Chinese people to be like. These stereotypes seem to make some of the characters uncomfortable, but it is difficult to know at times if it is the situation or the stereotype itself.
Clearly in one passage though is a child saying when the new student is introduced "My Momma says Chinese people eat dogs" (Yang 31). The text also introduces a rumor about an arranged marriage that the new student is supposed to have with the only other Asian student in class. I think we're supposed to see from this that first stereotypes start at home, but then once it is clear that it is okay to create such rumors and negativity that kids will create their own.
In American Born Chinese, which is a graphic novel, characters morph into one another and there is a superhero. It creates a bit of an unusual narrative. There definitely is a desire to stop the stereotypes, but it is largely shown through a wish for violence, that doesn't actually occur. It is too bad something more doesn't occur, but I do think it is effective in showing how destructive to the interior of people stereotypes can be.
In out of nowhere, Marie Padian you see many different characters that are imported from Somalia into a high school in Maine. There is a club that introduces people and tries to help the new people get introduced into the school and help with discrimination by having people learn. Well this becomes counterproductive when the "popular" girls come in and make fun of the things they like to eat because they think it's gross. But some characters stand up for them because they have became friends and brought them in to be friends. People will commonly not say anything because they don't want to lose that popularity in school, if you go against the crowd people will stop being your friend which is why so many bystanders are introduced.
I agree with you when you said, "If you go against the crowd people will stop being your friend." Many people sit out and watch discrimination happen because they don't want to be in the same shoes as these immigrants. They are scared to help them achieve success because they are selfish and don't want to risk losing their success or popularity by helping others.
One of the cultural biases I caught onto in this book is the predominantly white school that tommy is in, they ignore it because thats the lifestyle they were raised in and arent used to the diversit. One point in the book where someone steps up to discrimination was a moment where conservative uncle paul says "People who were born and raised in this town are on waiting lists for housing, while these folks show up by the busloads.", and liberal aunt maddie snaps back at paul by saying "These people have fled war zones, Paul. Where is your compassion?".
When discussing your book, you said that Tommys school is mostly a white school. You also said that adults living in the town also believed that most of the community is white. So can different types of cultural biases come from certain loctations? Also in Uncle Pauls quote its says, "these folks show up by the busloads," what folks are showing up, where are they coming from, and why are they coming in busloads.
I believe Cultural Biases can come from different locations, and I say this because If you look at certain locations, such as New Mexico. You would see many diverse people thriving in a community. And then you could look at a location like Maine and see the complete opposite. Most of that is rooted from Locations being closer to different countries. The folks that are showing up according to Uncle Paul are Somalians. I assume they're coming in busloads since they are refugees from war occuring in the middle east, and got offered refuge in Maine.
You also can see more cultural biases from Tom's girlfriend. She makes fun of their culture and religion a lot. For example when she made fun of them for eating goat and not eating what traditional Americans eat. This appears a lot through the book and creates some of the biggest struggles for the immigrants.
The Tyrants daughter published February 11, 2014. about a family dealing with the fact that the father of the family was not a king to his people but a tyrant to them instead ruling over his people with fear until the uprising to end his rule and take back their lives that they deserve and at least his kids do not know that he was a tyrant on his people and thought he was a king to them instead “He was not like that 24” she later finds out about how media has portrayed him and she gets even more enraged because her mother has been used to the to being rich she spends money on needless things when they really do not need them or when Laila the main character or her brother like something she just gets them and only those things making get sick of that thing for a long time and at her mother for lying to her and her brother for what their father was
This connects to Sahaj Kour Kohil about guilt because even though her father was a terrible person she still loves him and because of that she feels guilty and confused and while she is angry at her mother Laila still wants to make her and Lila’s little brother happy more the brother tho because she is not angry at him because he has done nothing be a little kid .
I understand how Laila is in a tricky situation where she loves her father but hates what he does. However, what if Laila stopped her father to protect her people instead of just watching? Even though she loves him this would not only be better for all people but also for the king himself.
