Out of Class Essay #3: Multiculturalism

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.