One of the purposes of this blog is to see how immigrant cultures blend with the American culture. It’s not often that I get to see how two different immigrant cultures blend, in addition to the assimilation to American norms.  

Stephen Talty is an author who recently wrote about his reaction to his two year-old noticing race for the first time. His perspective is interesting because he is a second generation Irish immigrant who is married to a first generation Haitian immigrant. Here’s an excerpt from his article:

I want Asher to care about his family’s story. How my father had to leave high school in Ireland, before he graduated, to go to work for his family. How, though he was as smart as any of his kids, he came to America and put in 30 years as a construction worker (which is not a job you want to have in the wintertime in Buffalo) because that’s what men without high school degrees did. How Marie’s father, a civil engineer in Haiti, had to drive a taxi in New York City because his credentials weren’t accepted here. How my mother worked as a nurse’s aide, and 400 miles away, Asher’s Haitian grandmother spent her days as a nurse. How they all saved money to send every one of their kids to college, but how my parents couldn’t justify spending money on themselves.

What I find intriguing is that the experiences of the two different cultures are so alike. So, while on the surface the two cultures are worlds apart (Mr. Talty talks more about those challenges in the article), I think there are many more similarities that promote shared values.

Do you agree?

 
Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Balanced Melting Pot by Email

Although I am known to point out the many differences between immigrants of African descent and African-Americans, I know that there are also many similarities that link the two groups; most good and some not so good.

One of which is the prejudice between light and darker blacks that has created distorted image perceptions and class divisions among black people around the world. Recently, I was reading about Chris Rock’s new documentary Good Hair that premiered at the Sundance Festival this month. The title alone made me cringe. I immediately thought of using that phrase as a child, both in English and Haitian Creole, to describe hair on a black person that more closely resembled that of a Caucasian.

Somehow, somewhere along the way (I say that facetiously), we adopted that notion that anything resembling Caucasians was good and passed on this incorrect notion from generation to generation. I wrote a paper about this in college and was actually surprised to learn that it wasn’t restricted to black cultures; Asians and Latin Americans share this distortion of self-image, as well.

In any case, it is very difficult in this society to teach minority children about positive self-image, but I think it’s crucial in order to change what I think is culturally destructive. I had to consciously work to change my knee-jerk reactions to seeing people like Alek Wek or Susan Taylor and start seeing beauty differently.

What are your thoughts about this issue? How would you start changing the perception of beauty for the younger generations? 

Subscribe in a reader

Subscribe to Balanced Melting Pot by Email