Jami Michie

Professor Fiona Harris-Ramsby

English 1050

April 17, 2017

Diversity Issues Reflection Essay

As I reflect upon the things I have learned over the past few months in this class I am

forced to realize that I have been wrong for a very long time. As an adult, I have always thought

the world was very accepting of others, very accepting of diversity, and very kind to those who

look different than you do. Throughout the years, I held on to this belief. It seemed that in my

little world, everywhere I looked there were interracial couples and their biracial children. The

articles and passages that I have read, along with the research I have done in this class have

forced me to think otherwise. The world does still harbor judgements on someones race. I

have learned that racism today takes on a very different appearance however. Back in the days

of Frederick Douglass, America was filled with slaves and plantations, but these days instead,

we have divided families when children choose interracial relationships. I have learned that

people are still struggling to have a voice and be heard. Ive been taught that many in the world

still think like Grandpa did. Throughout this paper, I aim to explore this idea, in addition to

what I have learned about racial differences and the way the world deals with race, including

why my view of this issue has been broadened.

 When I was young, I was raised in a home that was very diverse and yet still experienced

racial tension there. My mother is Scottish and my father is Mexican. I was born with a head full

of dark black hair, dark olive colored skin and the brownest eyes you'd ever seen. My cousins

were English, had blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Our families were so diverse, you would

never guess we were as closely related as we were. That being said, I never knew that I was

different from my cousins. Until that one day. The day I heard my grandfather say how much he

loved his grandchildren who were blonde haired and blue eyed. I don't think he knew I was

listening, but I don't really think it would've made much of a difference if he did. He talked

about how pretty the color of their skin was and how nicely it looked with their blue eyes. This

was when I realized I was different. My skin wasn't that beautiful milky color that theirs was.

Nor were my eyes the same color, neither my hair. Even through his actions, I could see he liked

us less than them. This caused me serious anguish throughout my childhood. I hated that I

wasn't the same beautiful color as my cousins. I hated that my grandfather didn't say those kind

things about my skin. I grew a little older, and we moved a neighborhood in West Valley where

there were primarily Mexicans and Polynesians. I entered Junior High School, and was exposed

to kids who were just like me. Brown skin, black hair and I felt like I had finally found where I

could fit in and be proud of the way I was born. I could be proud of the color of my hair and

skin. I was able to forget that I needed to be self conscious of these things I could not control. I

decided Grandpa was wrong and the world wasn't as closed minded as he was. My life went on

and I started my own little family. I had 4 children who had my Scottish/Mexican blood, and

their father's Native American (Navajo, Ute and Hopi) blood. He and I never got married and we

went on without each other. Time passed and I met a man who I married. We then had two
more babies of our own and now we had two little Scottish, Mexican and Armenian babies to

add to our home. There was no home more diverse than ours. Diversity was the way our life

was. It was all we knew. The memories of the grandpa who didn't love the way I looked were

gone and forgotten. This was what I thought was a bigger view of the world. I had decided the

world wasn't anything like my childhood home was and was everything like my adult home is.

The biggest flaw in this idea is that I was born, raised and live in Utah. This is where the

majority of people are middle class white folk. Don't get me wrong, we have other races here,

but they are still not nearly as populous. I also never watched television and therefore never

really got a view of the world outside of Utah. When I started this class, and we began to

discuss race and diversity further in depth, I did some research on race relations as

assignments. I have since realized that the "bigger world" I had been seeing my whole life was

Utah. Not the world so to speak. Here, in Utah, it is easier to think that there's little racial

tension, but that's only because you rarely run into someone who is other than caucasian. I

have discovered that outside of my little bubble, there is racial tension in the "bigger world."

The issue of race has been addressed in multiple readings through this class. One

particular reading that really hit home for me was the one by Margaret Mead titled, "We Are All

Third Generation." In this reading, Mead describes how each following generation becomes

more like their environment as opposed to keeping to the ways of the family and older

generations. In the reading, Mead states, "...the paramount difference between vice and virtue;

that it is only a matter of which comes first, the pleasure or the pain." (97) This has meaning to

me because I believe my mother married a Mexican man against my grandfather's wishes

because it was socially acceptable to do so in the community she grew up in. She knew it was
going to bring both pleasure and pain, but which would come first? Would the pleasure

outweigh the pain to make this decision worth it? An insight I have gained from this reading

was this was my mother being more of the third generation rather than more like grandpa's.

Mother's actions made Grandpa angry and his anger trickled down to me and my brothers. This

reading assignment also gave me insight to better understand him and wisdom as to why

grandpa was the way he was. In my teenage years, I learned to speak Spanish from school. I

used it rather routinely in my home and like Gloria Anzaldua who wrote "How to tame a Wild

Tongue," was reprimanded for it. My mother was fine with it, but of course, Grandpa wasn't. I

can relate to her statement, "At Pan University, I and all Chicano students were required to take

two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents." (522) This statement reminds me

of not being allowed to speak Spanish in the presence of Grandpa, which I was fine with, but I

even said some English words with a little more Mexican flare than he liked, so he would always

make sure to call me out on it.

In our week 8 reading, we looked at "Signs from the Heart: California Chicano Murals." I

really enjoyed this reading and the murals. I think this was my favorite assignment in this class.

The writing techniques used in this passage were far more interesting to me than the written

ones. The murals bring ideas to life. These murals are the artists trying to be heard and

represent their culture. It is a very loud way of getting their message out there. In street

murals, there is very little chance that people won't see this message, and not just the people

who live there will be looking. Everyone who comes through their community will get a small

understanding of the culture there. My classmate, Meagan Hodges made the statement in our

week 8 discussion of these murals, "as humans we seek out the moments that will allow us to
relief from struggle and turmoil. I believe this idea of interpretive space expressed by

Cockcroft and Barnet-Sanchez gives way to our personal moments of space." The Chicano

murals claim these spaces as their own. One mural that I am especially fond of is "La Familia."

(304) This one makes me proud of my heritage. It depicts a Chicano husband with his wife and

children. I especially love that his arm is wrapped around his wife and his other arm is pulling

his daughter close to him. It shows that the Mexican family just wants what everyone else does.

Love, security, happiness. It shows that the men can be good husbands and fathers as I feel that

society has pegged them as otherwise due to the recent immigration debates here in America.

The three of these readings, Third Generation, Chicano Murals, and How to Tame a Wild

Tongue speak to one another in that they all communicate the need Mexican Americans feel to

stake their claim and not be a forgotten culture. It is important for them to not be forgotten

because throughout history they feel like the things that set them apart from other cultures are

being taken from them such as their language, their accents and even the way they dress as

illustrated by Anzaldua and Mead. It is well known that Americans have a habit of referring to

Mexican immigrants as "aliens." I know this term is not meant to be derogatory or slanderous.

However, when you hear the word alien, what do you usually think of? Is it a person? Or is it a

little green guy from outer space? Most people would respond with the latter. We should

rethink this term when referring to people. "Several years ago, in a public speech, Reverend

Jesse Jackson... reminded his audience that the undocumented Mexicans were not aliens, they

were migrant workers. E.T., Jackson said empathetically, was an alien." (496) It is time to

rethink the terms we use to describe one another. We live in a transnational world and there's

no way around it. We should just learn to enjoy and celebrate our differences. In Reading
Culture on page 497, there is a paragraph that states, in part, "the interpretation of cultures has

been complicated, often conflictual, and absolutely crucial to understanding what life in a

transnational world means." (497)

To better understand the plight of an immigrant, I looked up a few of their stories. I

found on the intranet, a website where immigrants tell their stories. I read on there a tale of a

girl named Marisela. Marisela was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and now lives in New York. This

passage, written by Marisela herself states, "One day, I was at home when I found out my

father had been killed. It was a tragic day and my mother, devastated from the loss, wanted to

move to America, speaking of being safer there and how America could help us all. We moved

the following week, wanting to leave Guadalajara and the crime of the small town."

(https://myimmigrationstory.com) Her family just wanted to be safe. Is that too much to ask

for? Immigration laws are very complex, but there are three basic principles the laws

encompass. I researched the laws and found these three basics, "Immigration to the United

States is based upon the following principles: the reunification of families, admitting immigrants

with skills that are valuable to the U.S. economy, protecting refugees, and promoting diversity."

(https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org) These are all well meaning attributes to a very

complex situation. They show love and empathy for the fellow man. I feel like much of the time

we forget that we all are immigrants in one way or the other. This land did not belong to

anyone when the Europeans invaded. The Native Americans did not even claim to own it, but

rather that it was for all the tribes use. The Natives are the only ones who did not immigrate

here. I wish people would remember that when they are dealing with such a sensitive issue.

People such as Grandpa.

 We have the power to make our world more like my adult home as opposed to my

childhood home. This course has helped me to look at issues of diversity with more empathetic

and understanding eyes. We all are seeking the same end goal. Love, security, safety. I can

make the choice to see everyone as my equal and instead of the anger that Grandpa trickled

down to me and my brothers, the positivity will trickle down to my children, making for a

kinder, gentler, more empathetic and progressive future. Besides, where would we get all this

amazing international food from? I can't imagine life without Thai food! This in itself should be

a reason to celebrate immigration of all races!

Works Cited:

Margaret Mead, "We are all Third Generation" Reading Culture Contexts for Critical Reading

and Writing pages 94-103

Gloria Anzaldua, "How to Tame a Wild Tongue"Reading Culture Contexts for Critical Reading

and Writing pages 521-529

Wayne Alaniz Healy and David Rivas Botello, "La Familia", 1977. Reading Culture Contexts for

Critical Reading and Writing page 304

Amitava Kumar, Reading Culture Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing page 496

Diana George and John Trimbur, Reading Culture Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing page

497

Hosted by Ramos Y Snchez, Raul

https://myimmigrationstory.com/

American Immigration Council

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/