Contradictions in Asian American Communities

Throughout its history, the United States has symbolized freedom and the opportunity to build a life independent of caste or class. As such, it continues to lure immigrants from across the globe, fleeing religious persecution, economic deprivation, political oppression, and familial restrictions, hoping to achieve the American Dream. Asian immigrants, though initially restricted by racist laws, have been well represented in this stream of immigration.

Whatever their country of origin, immigrants begin their journey with an inherent contradiction: however much they love their homeland and treasure their cultural heritage, they are leaving home to become part of a new culture. The co

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tity in varying degrees" (11). The individual contradictions may be even harder to bear because they are not shared with others. The immigrant who was a respected doctor in his or her homeland but finds that training ignored by a new bureaucracy may have no one to share the hopelessness and helplessness that such an experience engenders. The individual stories are each different, in part because of personal differences and in part because "Asian American" is too broad a label to describe more than a few, extremely general similarities. Sharma argues, "When it comes to self-identity issues, neat boundary lines drawn on paper in colonial times seem inhumanly constrictive" (13). Asian Americans share some very vague physical characteristics; to the inattentive, racist eye, these are often enough to group them together. Amita Vasudeva's poem, "Can You Talk Mexican?" summarizes the kind of ignorant questions many immigrants face. She tries to correct this ignorance: "I'm not Mexican I'm Indian, and besides they speak Spanish" (Rustomji-Kerns 71). History, culture, religion, and so many other factors render the "Asian American" label almost meaningless. One of the most basic contradictions inherent in being Asian American is
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Approximate Word count = 1280
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)