Defining Multiculturalism in
California
California is a very diverse state that embraces
immigrants from many different countries. Californians have all different skin
colors: brown and chocolate colored African Americans, cinnamon Latin Americans
and Filipino Americans, jasmine or ivory Asian Americans, and last but not
least: creamy Caucasians. With all these people living in the same
neighborhood, life is always interesting and remarkable in California. California’s
miscellaneous and unique population creates a multicultural Californian style
which none of the other state can ever attain. But what does “Multiculturalism”
really means for California? It is a very broad topic in terms of culture,
population, and power. The answer can be as simple as many people from
different countries just living together in one place, or people with different
countries living together and getting along and with a few misunderstandings
here and there. The dictionary definition of “Multiculturalism” is “a
situation in which all the different cultural or racial groups in a society
have equal rights and opportunities, and none is ignored or regarded as
unimportant.” From the book
“American Son” by Brian Ascalon Roley, the play “Bordertown” directed by Sam Woodhouse in
“Culture Clash in AmeriCCa”, and the movie “Crash” directed by Paul
Haggis, multiculturalism is kind of complicated. Within California, there is always
some kind of discrimination between different people. In “American Son,” the
two brothers Tomas and Gabriel have a hard time fitting into California society
because of their Filipino heritage. In the play “Culture Clash in AmeriCCa” the
author uses Shamu the whale as a metaphor for the American citizens, and the
Mexican killer whales as a symbol of illegal immigrants who are ‘taking away
their jobs’. The movie “Crash” shows how people from different crash into each
other’s lives while struggles play along. Even though we all come from
different races, cultures, and backgrounds, that does not
separate us from each other because we have all gotten used to coexisting together,
and while there are problems and conflicts, we all have to be generous and more
open-minded to learn and understand people from other races, and at the same
time still love and enjoy living our lives together in this wonderful state.
In
“American Son” by Brian Ascalon Roley, the main character Gabriel has a
difficult time fitting into
multicultural California. Gabe lives in Los Angeles
with his mother Ika and his older brother Tomas who “is really half white, half
Filipino but dresses like a Mexican.” Gabe and Tomas are forced to grow up too
quickly with no father, and an over-worked mother who is losing her grip on her
family. Ika believed that life will be good for her two sons in California, but things do not go right as she expected. Gabe and
Tomas both were shamed on their Filipino heritage, because it was not as
recognizable as Black, Latino, and Asian. They also feel embarrassed with their
mother’s look since she has an Asian appearance with brownish skin color. Ika is a smart intelligent woman but because of how she
looks, she is not welcomed into society and thus loses her voice. In California, there are many people like Gabe and
Tomas who feel that they have to belong to certain stereotypes in order to get
accepted into the society. Most of the time people try to fit into the dominant
culture and leave their roots behind, even though supporting their original race
and heritage can give them authority, power, and confidence. “American Son” also uses the characters to argue that
America's multicultural society is a melting pot in which people fight to
assimilate into the dominant culture, consequently leading to violence,
insecurities and shame of their own culture. Through the characters of the
novel and the events that take place throughout, people begin to see and
understand that racism is a universal thing; White, Black, Latino or Filipino,
we all have prejudices that we are forced to deal with every day. Thus,
living in a multicultural society that values assimilation and tries to curb
cultural diversity leads to gang violence as we see in Thomas's character. Tomas as the older brother styles himself as a
Mexican gangster who has quit school and trains pricy attack dogs with German
and sell them to rich White people, but “He is the son who says that if any
girlfriend criticized our mother or treated her wrong he would knock the bitch
across the house” that shows the good side of Tomas that he is a responsible
son who protects his mother. Tomas chooses to dress like a gangster is because
he wants to make sure that people will pay him respect. His look also gives him
power to protect his family. Thomas's
character is a metaphor for White cultural dominance in society. Throughout
the book, he is constantly in charge, pressuring his brother to follow in his
footsteps and taking advantage of people; however, no matter what he does, no
one stands up to him. Gabe, the
younger one, looks up to Tomas but at the same time denies him since he does
not want to become a gangster. Gabe
represents the minorities who strive to be as powerful and dominant as the
leading culture. However, the more they try, the more they are pushed down
and rejected. Both of
them have lost their own confidence in their Filipino heritage, but instead of
ignoring it, they should try to accept it. Many people try to fit into certain categories, and to be accepted by the bigger group. In
the multicultural society, people from different backgrounds can be treated
unequally, and making them lose their confidence and start trying to be somebody
else in order to fit in. However, it is nearly impossible for them since we are
all multidimensional in our appearances, what we do and believe, and what shows
on the surface is not nearly the complete picture of who we are as people and
what we are capable of. People should not assimilate into other cultures
but instead embrace themselves, and diversity.
In “What is Multiculturalism” by Gregory Jay, he states
America's traditional conception of
itself as a ‘melting pot’ of diverse people joined in a common New World
culture has been challenged by those multiculturalists who consider the
"melting pot" metaphor a cover for oppressive assimilation." He explains that people in
America try to assimilate with one dominate culture others are trying to differentiate and keep their own
cultures. Many people think that multiculturalism only refers to one race, but
in reality it has to do with everything that portrays culture in America. The
different nationalities, races, ethnicities that are in America are what
created the melting pot. Taking the various steps to get to where America is
now was not a simple process; in fact it took many centuries of United States history.
Not only did it take years of history, it also took many individuals who suffered
and were punished. Minorities were discriminated the most throughout American history
because they were not of American-White decent. Chinese, Japanese, Indians,
Mexicans, Filipinos and any ethnicity that was not White, high of power and
well respected was discriminated against. However, no one has the right to
dominate any other culture but to appreciate
living in
the multicultural world. People are
still very racist in California because inside,
each of us thinks our own culture and race is better than others. As human
beings, we each have many pieces of our
identity pulled together into one person: ourselves. With different
experiences, backgrounds, cultures and so on, we each grow up learning
different things, and molding into different people. We change from our
surroundings, and because there are so many different things and people around
us, we each have unique experiences, and therefore no two people will be the
same. And that is why there is always something that we do not agree with
people from a different culture, a problem we have to deal with in a Multicultural
state.
"Crash" is a great movie that shows the
difficulties people are facing in a multicultural country and dealing with
racism in their daily lives. In the movie, the door is a symbol of choices and
freedom. When the old Persian man named Farhad was trying to shoot Daniel, a Hispanic locksmith who Farhad thinks took his money away, Daniel’s daughter
opens the door and runs out of the house, and even though her mom tried to stop
her, still runs out to protect her father; luckily, there are no real bullets
in the gun. Suddenly, Farhad realized that he was wrong the whole time, and he
notices that he just made a horrible decision. The little girl is like his
angel that frees him from his pains and makes him realize that he was wrong the
whole time. Farhad understands that instead of moaning with his struggles, he
has to face reality and move on with his life. In another scene, a young Black
teenager named Anthony ‘opens the door’ and frees all the Chinese people from
the car he has stolen, again symbolizing freedom and choices. When Anthony tried
to rob the African American Hollywood director Cameron with his gun, Cameron
told him "You embarrassed me, and you embarrassed yourself." That was
a huge lesson to Anthony; he realized that he has brought shame to his family
and his own race and he decides to open the door and free those Chinese people.
Nowadays, people close their doors for others, and do not welcome anybody in
which disadvantages them from fitting into a multicultural society and reduces their
knowledge of other cultures. Guns are also an important symbol in the movie; they
represent supremacy, power to dominate or defeat, and release. Farhad was
released from his anger after he found out that he did not kill the little girl
with his gun, waking him up and making him notice that he lost himself in hate,
and in grief over his store. In the reality, guns do give people power but
sometimes they also lead to tragedy, demonstrating the insecurity that people
have towards the other races. Overall, the movie "Crash" portrays
multiculturalism as a conflicted topic through character development and plot; the
symbols suggest that life is intertwined in a multicultural society. The movie
shows that our society is a mixed melting pot; one part tries to assimilate
into the dominant White culture while the others want to keep its own, which leads
to conflict. It becomes apparent through Cameron’s character that living in a
multicultural society and trying to assimilate into the dominant culture leads
to the departure of self-assurance and pride.
In the play
“Culture Clash in AmeriCCa,” Shamu the whale symbolizes the American citizens, unhappy
that illegal immigrants represented by the Mexican killer whales, are taking
away their jobs. Shammy mentions “These Whales have no documentation, no work
permits, no papers, no real training, but they work for cheap and eat less fish.”
It applies to reality, in which everybody wants better opportunities and more
benefits just for their own people. The
play looks at the idea of multiculturalism from a comical point of view, mostly
focusing on the discrimination and racism among people from different ethnic
backgrounds. It is similar to the film “Crash” because it does not have a
single story. The play also shows the lack of knowledge some people have toward
a foreign culture and how this could affect the relationship between
them. Many Californians complain that their jobs are being taking away by
illegal immigrants and that it is one of the major struggles that people are
facing in multicultural California. Many people think about Mexicans or Latin
immigrants when they talk about cheap labor, but they always forget how hard
those immigrants have work, that they are the ones that do the jobs that most
Californians would never want to do in their lives. They deserve the same opportunities
and rights to live in California. Furthermore, in our diverse society, people
build borders to isolate themselves from others, and do not like when others
try to cross it. It is not the borders between countries and states, but abstract
borders that people create in their minds, like a huge and heavy stonewall that
is impossible to tear down, that isolate them. Those walls block people away
from each other, and with no interaction and communication, people never really
get any chance to know their neighbors or even co-workers from a different race.
However, animals do not have those borders, they are free to go wherever they
please but people do not that pleasure. In a multicultural animal world, animals
do not isolate themselves others from different species, but as humans, we do. We
should look up to the animals and try to accept our multicultural diversity.
For me, I
cannot say that I am not racist because sometimes I make jokes with my friends
about their skin color, but we do not take it seriously. I appreciate and enjoy
living in a multicultural country, because it is just so wonderful being
surrounded by people from all over the world, and I have learned so many things
from my friends from other countries. Even though there might be some
thoughtless people come up to others saying that they do not like their race or
culture, etc. that is not important. People really should believe in themselves,
even though there are many people who may not like their skin color because
they think their identity has not been recognized by the general society. But
the real question is: How can others accept or like a person when they try to
ignore and dislike their own race and heritage? People really have learn to
love themselves and be confident in who “they” are, and what “they” do, especially
living in this multicultural state in which everybody wants to do something
amazing to represent their own race and show that it is better than all other
races. They should also be carefree when others being critical or judgmental
since it come naturally for us as human beings. Life can be complicated in this
hot melting pot, but as long as people embrace diversity, they will find
happiness and joy in this wonderful multicultural California.
