Multiculturalism Out of Class Essay #3
Amy La Jeunesse
Professor Lewis
English 1B
June 19, 2008
California is a breeding ground for multiculturalism. From Mexicans running across the southern border, to the big blue ocean where Asian and Pacific Islanders enter aboard boats, to the skies above where Eastern Europeans and Indians touch down on the plane’s runway: they all hold the same idea of the “California Dream”. This diversity of culture has led to a reflective array of self and society in the form poems, essays, novels, and films. By analyzing three expressive pieces: “Crash”, a film, by Paul Haggis, Bordertown, a play, by Culture Clash, and American Son, a novel, by Brian Roley Ascalon, we will see that California was truly founded by multiculturalism. Part of multiculturalism is the process in which different cultures learn to live together through racism, their similarities that are not defined by a border and, the loss of self and culture.
Paul Haggis produced a powerful piece that touched on the highly sensitive topic of racism and discrimination. He was not afraid to go beyond the common racist statements like “Asians can not drive”, and developed an extreme view in a twisted web of different cultures entangled together. Crash showed a circle of discrimination where everyone is ethnocentric to each other. The movie showed that discrimination can be subtle and also extreme. It is culturally taboo to admit that one is racist but Haggis was able show how we all discriminate.
This movie showed that America, the most culturally diverse society in the world, still has racism obstacles to overcome. Every culture thinks that they are the best and that their ways are the right way. The whole world is racist to each other. The director created this idea beautifully by showing a cascade of events that shows a cycle of discrimination from not just one culture but many.
The first event is a white couple walking down the street and then getting hijacked by two African American boys, the white woman is scared because the hijackers pointed a gun in her face thus destroying her level of comfort. This is seen when Saundra Bullock's character states" I just had a gun pointed at my head and I am scared.... I want the locks changed...I should not feel bad because I had a feeling and I did not say anything and 30 seconds later I had a gun pointed in my face". Here she is describing how she felt a bit of racism but dismissed it and letter became a victim of a crime.
With our core beliefs of ethnocentric we all claim not to be racist because it is such a harsh word. The KKK and white supremacists made the concept of racism a negative and hateful trait. Yet, as seen in the movie all cultures and all people tend to have a bit of ethnocentric attitudes. The white woman’s attitude became negative and racist because of the experience that she had of being hijacked at gun point. Her fear is real and her discrimination is understandable from her experience. She latter sees a loving and warm side from her maid when she assisted her during her accidental fall down the stairs. She had an immediate fear which elevated her racism and later she returned to neutral when she had a act of kindness returned to her.
The second event is when she did not want the Mexican locksmith to fix her locks because he has gang signs tattooed onto his skin. She assumed that he will take her house key, copy it and sell it to other gang bangers who will then break into her home and rob her. This same Mexican man goes home and is shown as a good father and husband who have worked hard to move his family out of the ghetto to a safe neighborhood.
Later that night he is called out to a Persians store where the door lock had been tampered with. He tells the store owner that he needs a new door not lock. The Persian man thinks that the Mexican is cheating him and accuses him of a scam. He refuses to pay the lock smith and he leaves in anger. The next morning the store owner arrives to see that his store has been broken into and vandalized. He immediately accuses the Mexican locksmith and shows discrimination using it to fuel his frustration and anger. The store owner’s wife also showed racism when she was cleaning spray painted that the perpetrator had wrote "rag head" on their wall. The mother said "they think that we are Arabic, not Persian". She implies that the bad guy does not know about their culture and certainly is not culturally acceptant.
In this movie the whites were against the Mexicans and Blacks, the Blacks against the Asians, the Asians against the Persians, the Persians against the Mexican….the cycle of the racist circle continued. Even the blacks were discriminating against other blacks as they called each other “not black enough” or “too preppy and lost their black roots”. Crash showed a multicultural society struggling to survive with every culture racist against each other.
As Crash showed different cultures attacking each other the same discrimination is seen in Bordertown, a play, by Culture Clash. The authors used the primary and secondary inspection to show a very great mirror image of two very different sides of a similar issue of crossing the border. In the play we see two very different perspectives one from the U.S and the other from Mexico. It showed that these people are more similar then they know, it takes more then just a line in the sand called a ‘border” to change people.
The first act of the play opens with the writers in the desert being detained by the U.S. Border patrol. The agent turns out to not be an agent but an vigilantly. The militia man felt the immigration issue has gotten out of hand so he was going to take it into his own hands and stop the problem. He brags that he has captured thirty-eight “mojados” this month alone.
The second act of the same story they write about being in the desert detained by the Mexican border patrol stopping. The irony is that both the U.S. and Mexican agent had a similar interest of enjoying live plays and both had asked for tickets to the play.
A deep and very creative part of the play was displayed in dialect between a husband and wife. In the play the man and woman enter the stage and the man climbs over the border and roughly makes love to his wife, he then climbs back over the fence and sleeps covered in an American flag. The wife, sleeps under a Mexican flag symbolizes being Tijuana. She confronts him and asks him why he uses her. The man – an America uses her for all the cheap alcohol, donkey shows and lust that San Diego does not want but wants easy access to. This was a well thought out description on how San Diego uses Tijuana but is described in a marriage. The skit showed how the U.S draws from Tijuana but still looks down on them and has the attitude like “not in my back yard”. Even though the U.S looks down on Mexico, we need them.
The Sheriff’s character stated that “in the 60’s you would have 5-10 thousand cross a year, now 4.5 million a month, dangerous felons here cross and live here illegally”. He implies that most of the Mexican immigrants that enter the United States have felony records and will bring more crime to the states.
Racism ideas also affected other immigrants like the china mans character. He came to the U.S in 1914, and started a started fishing business that grew to be a distributor. Then in 1882 Congress passed the racial Covenant Exclusion Law stating that immigrants could not go beyond a two mile limit in open ocean therefore, forcing him out of business.
Bordertown is a wonderfully created play that used humor to address the serious issue of racism brought on by a multicultural society struggling to learn a balanced community.
As seen in Crash and Bordertown, stereotypes and racism is an effect of multiculturalism. American Son, is an novel by Brian Ascalon, where he explores the life of two immigrant boys and how they stride to blend into a diverse society. The main character, Gabe, is an interracial boy. His father is a white American who deserted his family and left him with a longing for a father role. His mother is a working class Filipino who moved to the US for a better life for her children. Tomas, his older brother is also searching for an identity. Tomas has however adopted the Mexican gangster persona by dressing, having the tattoos and mannerisms of a gang member. He breeds guard dogs and sell them to the wealthy society of Los Angeles.
Gabe is ashamed of his Asian coloring and facial features. His lack of self esteem allows him to be victimized by his abusive brother who physically assaults and verbally offends him. Thomas, the older brother expresses his own lack of identity by intimidating Gabe and lashing out at society in an aggressive manner.
Gabe joins his brother Tomas on a delivery in an upscale neighborhood. The client was a famous movie star and wanted to purchases a guard dog for his home protection. During their meeting the client asks a Latino looking maid what she thought of the dog. Tomas was offended that a maid would give her opinion and interfered with his business deal so Tomas asked her to get him a glass of water in a demeaning manner as to imply that she has no business interfering in the client’s matters. The client then corrected him stating that she was his wife. Tomas awkwardly apologized and replied that he was just thirsty but it was a advious statement of discrimination because she was Mexican.
Later in the story Gabe steals Tomas’s dog, sells him to the movie star and heads to Oregon in his brothers stolen low rider style car. His car breaks down and he is forced to settle in a small town in northern California. The community is mainly populated by white people which are a great difference from the melting pot of Los Angeles. Gabe is taken aback by the friendliness of the community members and questions his sense of place amongst them. His white skin is too white for his Filipino group back at home but here in the north he feels too Asian for the white people.
Gabe needs the assistance of a tow truck and is surprised to see that the tow truck attendant has taken a likeness to him. He questions if the tow truck driver is “blind to his Asian skin and face” because he is treating him so well. The tow truck driver secretly contacts his mother and she arrived in the town to bring Gabe home. When they meet Gabe tells the driver that his white aunt is his mother, but the aunt actually accompanied his mother to the town. He lied because he is ashamed of his Filipino mother dark skin and her funky eye glasses. During their conversation, the fact that the aunt is not the mother came out and Gabe was caught in a lie and embarrassed. His mother was devastated that her son lied and questioned if she should send her son to the islands for her bother to raise. She brought her children to California for the “dream’ but is failing to provide a strong role model and guidance for her boys.
This novel shows how the Filipino mother came with a dream of a life for her children. Yet, they face a lack of cultural identity because once she got to the states she abandoned her strong sense of Filipino heritage and also lacked truly blending into the American culture.
Multiculturalism is a give and take between cultures. For a society to succeed they need to stop the wars within. In the three works that we reviewed we saw an evolution of cultural. In Crash we saw a world living in discrimination and how different cultures intertwine together. Sometimes they are racist while other times they expressed cultural tolerance.
While “Crash” was a serious piece with a deep meaning the play Bordertown also uncovered a deep meaning but through comedy. The play showed two very different sides of government and the U.S and Mexico’s stand on immigration. The different opinions were alike in more ways then different, showing the true meaning an imaginary line called a border differentiates American and Mexican but we look the same and are the same in other ways.
“American Son” described multiculturalism on a dissected level showing that once the immigrant gets here how they might feel with a sense of lost culture. This was a good piece that shows what happens when multiculturalism fails to assimilate.
With all of the negative stereotyping in the movie, play, and novel the fact remains that no where else in the world is there such a diverse culture as in California. People from all over the world come for opportunity in California that they can not get in their country. The fact remains that multiculturalism is every where in California. As a society we have embraced multiculturalism more then anywhere in the U.S. We can learn form the other cultures around us as well as they can learn from us. We all are not that different for after all we all have the same “California Dream”.
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