As a seventh-grade student, I went to school with students who were predominantly like me: children of immigrants. Thus, following celebrating the Islamic holiday Eid, I went to school indifferent to the curved, colorful henna design decorating my hands; in fact, I expected my brazen display of culture to be embraced by my fellow classmates. Instead, as I passed by the hallway, a boy suddenly shouted that my fingers were bleeding, even though they were evidently not. The henna stain on my hand suddenly made me feel ashamed and even dirty. When I went home telling my mother of the incident she told me to my surprise that the vibrant red henna designs on my hand might be seen as garish to those unfamiliar with the practice. Instead, wearing cultural ornaments in public seemed to denote a sense of being a “foreigner”, which my mother in times would deter me from simply owing to a genuine fear of me being taunted by fellow classmates. I found it perplexing as to why my classmates, well aware of the sense of being labeled an “outsider” would likewise integrate xenophobia apparent in mainstream culture into their outlooks of diverse social practices.
Though seeking to better integrate oneself into American society can be very rewarding, some individuals seem to incorporate a prejudiced, nationalistic mindset as an essential means to being perceived as more patriotic. This seems to have given way to the fear individuals in my own community seem to have of the act of being “Americanized”. Through a very derogative lens, it seems like being “Americanized” signifies losing one’s link to one’s family roots. As Gordon describes, the concept of Americanization involves uprooting an immigrant of their native heritage in order to promote assimilation into an Anglo-Saxon culture. An individual who undergoes an interracial relationship or converts from their parents’ respective religion has been, through the lens of any people in my community been “Americanized”. Some traditionally-oriented individuals even identify choosing to forego marriage for the sake of pursuing one’s career as being “Americanized”. Ironically, such tightly-held cultural notions seems to compel many individuals my age to want to be more “American” in their deeply-rooted community’s understanding of the word. Ironically, the pressure to be more “American” can be derived from a desire to break free from the overbearing, traditional outlooks of individuals within a cultural community. Nonetheless, for such first-generation and second-generation immigrants, I do not think that a desire to completely forsake one’s cultural heritage is simply rooted in an act of rebellion.
Contrary to the prejudices conveyed by nationalistic sources, as Gordon underscores, the insular communal lifestyles of immigrants is far from exclusive to modern-day immigrant communities and remains an enduring custom since the days of the Puritans. Rather than detaching ourselves from the immigrant narrative, creating greater social cohesion requires an ability to both question long-established norms while interweaving the immigrant narrative as fundamental to our identities as Americans.
