Edwards 1

Hannah Edwards

Stephanie Maenhardt

English 1050

August 1, 2017

Essay 2: Diversity Issues Reflection

Part 2: Written Reflection

Ethnicity

What is ethnicity? When searching the word ethnicity into google the result is,

The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural

tradition. With knowing the definition, it is now easy to pin point the problems that arise

within ethnicity. For the purpose of saving time, I have chosen the four most concerning

problems. Immigration and assimilation, Race and language, food and culture, and

intersection of cultures are very critical topics.

Although we still need to work on immigration and assimilation, Americans

werent always so inviting towards the immigrants of other countries. In the 1800s-

1900s, immigrants from all over the world would come over to America in search of

becoming free. As more and more immigrants would come, those in charge found that it

would be much better to have the immigrants be sent to immigration centers and
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checked out before they were allowed into the country. With this, they created

immigration centers such as Ellis Island and Angel Island.

The immigration centers werent all fancy and relaxing like you would think them

to be. They were more like prisons. At Ellis Island, they would check for different

illnesses, and if they found someone with an illness they would chalk them with a letter,

making it easily known to everyone around them what they had, or suspected of having.

The letters were labeled as so, E-eye trouble, K-hernia, L-lameness, X-mental defect,

H-heart disease. Angel Island was just as bad if not worse. The immigrants would write

poems to pass the time while at the island. As I looked up some of the poems that were

written from Angel Island, it makes me really want to do more research on them and

learn more about the Chinese immigrants who were taken there. Here is one poem I

found very interesting, America has power, but not justice. In prison, we were

victimized as if we were guilty. Given no opportunity to explain, it was really brutal. I bow

my head in reflection but there is nothing I can do.

Americans have been doing a lot better on the race and language, but there are

still a few problems that arise. For those who were part of an ethnicity that didnt speak

English, life wasnt all that easy for them. In the article How to Tame a Wild Tongue It

talked about the hard ship of growing up speaking a different language. This made

Anzaldua feel as though she couldnt really talk to them because she didnt quite speak

the language perfectly or she would accidentally mix the different languages. Another

example comes from the article From Silence to Words Lu. Lu had the same

hardships as Anzaldua. She felt as though those were her only two options in life, learn

English and be a success, or dont and fail at life.

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The food and culture ethnicity is still in very big trouble. Americans cant decide

who to blame their problems on. The article Dont Blame the Eater Zinczenko claims

the government is at fault. He states that the fast food joints would do well to protect

themselves, and their customers, by providing the nutrition information people need to

make informed choices about their products. Without such warnings, we'll see more

sick, obese children and more angry, litigious parents. What You Eat is Your Business

Balko has the opposite opinion. He claims well all make better choices about diet,

exercise, and personal health when someone else isnt paying for the consequences of

those choices

For the intersection of cultures, it is still hard to know what to think about it. The

article Passport Photo Kumar sure does make you think about the sign they display.

When looking at the sign it looks like it means caution families passing. At the same

time in Spanish it looks like it says families crossing is prohibited. The officer is making

it known that just because it says caution in English it doesnt mean it say the same

thing in Spanish. The one in English is for the drivers and the one in Spanish I assume

is for those who secretly cross the border.

I have very much enjoyed taking this class over the summer break and have

learned a lot. I can proudly say that I can now critically analyze how social groups

exercise power over each other based on issues of language, race, gender, etc. Before

this course I had a hard time with synthesizing my sources. I do know I need to work on

that, but I do believe I am doing a lot better at the end of this class than I was doing at

the beginning. This class help me be more aware of the different culture and diversities

in our country.
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Work Cited

Anzalduo, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Reading Culture. George, Diana and
thing and Trimbur, John. 8th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. (521-528). Print.
Balko, Radley. "What you eat is your
business" file:///C:/Users/hit%20girl/Downloads/What%20You%20Eat%20Is%20
Your%20Business.Balko%20(1).pdf website.
Gordon, Mary. More Than Just a Shrine: Paying Homage to the Ghosts of Ellis
Island. Reading Culture. George, Diana and Trinbur, John. 8th ed. Boston:
Pearson, 2012. (431-434). Print.
Lu, Min-Zhan. From Silence to Words: Writing as a Struggle. Reading Culture. and
George, Diana and Trinbur, John. 8th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. (147-156).
Print.
Lum, Lyndia. Angel Island History. http://www.angel-island.com/history.html Website.
Kumar, Amitava. "Passport photos". READING CULTURE. GEORGE, DIANA
AND TRINBUR, JOHN. 8TH ED. BOSTON: PEARSON, 2012. (514-518). Print.
Zinczenko, David. "Dont Blame the
eater".file:///C:/Users/hit%20girl/Downloads/Don't%20Blame%20the%20Eater.Zi
czenko%20(1).pdf website.