5.
Blue Heavens: Asia America's Failure to Assimilate
Blue Heavens: Asia America's Failure to Assimilate
“Because my house had bare walls, I began rushing all about.
The waves are happy, laughing ‘Ha-ha!’
When I arrived on Island, I heard I was forbidden to land.
I could do nothing but frown and feel angry at Heaven.” (Lai et al 46)
The waves are happy, laughing ‘Ha-ha!’
When I arrived on Island, I heard I was forbidden to land.
I could do nothing but frown and feel angry at Heaven.” (Lai et al 46)
Assimilation is the adaptation to a culture. The United States of America has always had newcomers to take on the job of assimilation, and it is evident by their roles in U.S. society today that Asia America has failed at this task. This is due to many factors brought by standards impossible to meet and behavior within the immigrant group that has pushed its country away. The written explanation of this mass failure will begin in the present and work its way back allowing us to see the strings that have existed throughout this history. Through American politics, the educational system, and jobs and socioeconomics we can see that Asians don’t quite fit. In addition we can see more personal misrepresentations and social faults in American media.
This failure will show itself to not be black and white, and in that case, neither yellow nor brown. The immigrants spoken about will be those who are arriving today and those who arrived after since the 1850’s. In Jean Wu’s and Min Song’s Asian American Studies Now: A Critical Reader the term Asian-American is used to describe members from or descended from South, Southeast, and East Asia (14). There is no reasoning for this today as there is a size-able number of immigrants from Western Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia, however as many histories continue to use this definition, this paper will too. Also, each individual group faces its own unique problems from within and outside. Each group carries its own culture and history. Most importantly the failure argued here is just that–an argument–and if it is true, it is not to be applied to every Asian-American. Similarly, the immigrant groups who have successfully assimilated aren’t a commentary of each individual of those groups. Assimilation is a layered struggle; its proceeding success or failure is chosen by the state’s mainstream culture.