Adrian Garza

AAS 115
Panel Paper
In Asian American Dreams, author Helen Zia emphasizes the issues and injustices AsianAmericans have had to face and continue to face today. This panel paper will focus on injustices
suffered by both Asian Americans and Mexican immigrants.
In chapter four Zia talks about a time in her youth where she suffered an identity crisis. Her
parents would tell her at every meal never to waste a single grain of rice. They shared their tales
of the hardships of life in China. As a child, her father was severely punished for wasting a single
grain of rice.
Zia then questions herself if she is still Chinese if she acts American; if shes what she calls a
twinkie: yellow on the outside but white on the inside. [1] When you live in a country not native
to your own, you are forced to assimilate and live by that countrys standards in order to fit in
and avoid prejudice.
Like Zia, me alongside plenty of close friends holding a hispanic heritage have questioned before
if living in America is merely sacrificing ones identity to live up to the standards. My parents,
like Zias have urged me before to not take anything for granted despite living in America and
retain my culture.
I believe there is such a thing as assimilating and acculturating, and there is a significant
difference between the two. To assimilate is to adapt and do what is necessary to survive in an
unfamiliar environment; to acculturate is simply to adopt the culture of that environment and
possibly replace it with your native traditions. I believe one doesnt have to be an American to
survive in America; one has to simply play by Americas rules,or partly act like an American to
avoid the white mans prejudice whilst retaining his or her native culture. In short, assimilating is
not an option, but acculturating is.
Furthermore, it is important to recognize that ones identity as a person of color does not depend
on the white majoritys generalizations and stereotypes. Many people of color choose to submit
their language, beliefs, traditions, and even names to Americanize themselves to avoid
persecution and marginalization. Throughout Zias book, she explains how Asian Americans are
stereotypically seen as gangsters, gooks, geishas, and geeks [2] and are constantly seen as
threats over historical events like the Pearl Harbor bombing. Additionally, they are also seen by
the white man as a narrow identity; they will assume any person with the facial features of an
Asian are all Chinese, or Japanese.
Like Asian Americans, many people of hispanic descent are seen solely as Mexican by
Americans as if it is the only hispanic identity out there; they are also constantly seen as
suspicious threats since Hispanics all assumed to be undocumented immigrants, or the rapists
and criminals Trump claims us all to be. For example, almost every time I have ever told any
white person that Im from Mexico, the first thing they ask is if Im here legally. Asian
Americans and Hispanics both share a delusional, incriminating identity in the eyes of the white

majority, and its important for anyone who wishes to retain their own ethnic identity in the
United States to realize and see past that. As professor and psychologist Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld
would put it, the generalization and defining of these identities could be seen as othering;
usually in the case where the American identity is positive, patriotic, and belonging and the
Non-American identity is negative, treacherous, invasive, and untrustworthy [3] This idea
could practically be applied to any person of color, not just Asian Americans and Hispanics
immigrants. Due to these xenophobic ideals and lack of trust, segregation occurs and people try
to establish their own identity somewhere as territory.
Zia elaborates in the 4th chapter about how Asian Americans from New York would segregate
themselves from all other ethnic groups, how anyone who wasnt Chinese was some kind of
devil [4], in Zias words. This could correlate to the still prevalent segregation in Mexico
between the white-skinned Spanish-Mexicans, who are rendered as the wealthy and the darker
skinned Indian/Latino Mexicans who were rendered as poor. They are often seen as two different
identities, and there is still much unnecessary conflict and territorial struggle between these two
groups.
In conclusion, it is important to understand how to retain an identity while assimilating to
another country, and despite the way that identity is perceived by the white majority, it is also
important to see that not all white people are racist; should we generalize the entire white
population as racist wed be no different than them stereotyping and generalizing all people of
color. But nonetheless, if the white majority had not persecuted people of color as much as they
did throughout history, much of this segregation would not exist.
References
[1] Asian American Dreams, pg. 82
[2] Asian American Dreams, pg. 109
[3] Crimes of Hate: Selected Readings by Phyllis B. Gerstenfeld & Diana R. Grant
[4] Asian American Dreams, pg. 83