The ideas involved in “Americanization” and “Anglo-conformity” that are thoroughly discussed in Milton Gordon’s book, Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins, are all too familiar. From as early as elementary school, I clearly remember the feeling of shame when a fellow classmate stuck their head up, sniffed around, and finally asked in a disgusted voice, “What is that smell?” Everyone else was eating either the school cafeteria food or cold cuts, and I was the only one with fried rice. I had only eaten a couple bits of my food, but I quickly closed the lid of my container and put it back in my lunch box. At home I begged my mom to pack me sandwiches, even though I didn’t enjoy eating them and despised how the bread got soggy. I also subconsciously started to think that American things were superior to Chinese things. For example, when I went back to China, I subliminally looked down on how Chinese people dressed as well as how “rude” they acted, but this was coming from the perspective that I had, over the years, begun to believe that the way Americans dressed were ideal and that American etiquette was the “right” manner. My close friend, who immigrated to America when she was in elementary school actually stopped speaking Chinese completely, and tried so hard to learn English when she came to America because peers had made fun of her accent.
Although my parents didn’t initially flock where all the other Chinese immigrants were, being that Kansas City was the first place they lived in after arriving in America, as my sister and I got older, they did strive to live in a community where the asian population was more prevalent. This was because my parents heard that when children got older, they were more aware of racial differences and would be more likely to discriminate.
Gordon suggests that people should be more open to “build onto the newcomer’s heritage rather than treating it with disdain,” and I have to say that I have been lucky in many cases because there were many times where I felt my culture was appreciated. I remember in Kansas that some of the students in my class thought it was so cool that I spoke Chinese.
