Introduction
Both Eric Liu and Bonnie Raitt speak to issues that are not only important to them personally, but have a wider social interest, for friends, family, community, and perhaps in some ways universally. Liu (para 3) speaks of the issue of assimilation, becoming American at a time when there are virulent social forces that see immigration pejoratively, that demand that anyone on American soil not only speak English, but appear American, meaning white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and to behave in an American way, meaning to “eat gourmet greens,” or be “a member of several exclusive institutions” (para 1). Raitt, for her part, sings passionately about issues of privacy, and what it means to be in a secret affair, or a secret relationship (line 4). Taken together, there are four distinct social issues that have a broader impact than just individually. The purpose of this paper is to examine these four social issues in terms of their broader impact in American society.
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The Issues
Liu”s thoughtful piece in the Washington Post identifies three social issues of concern to those who are obviously not Caucasian Americans. Liu is an Asian American who is trying to assimilate himself into a white American culture that stereotypes Asians and discriminates against them because of the obvious differences in physical characteristics, and perceived academic tendencies. Thus, three social issues that are interrelated, but which also can stand alone.
Liu speaks of stereotyping– Aren”t Asians smarter than the rest of us? Don”t they go to school like twelve hours a day?– and discrimination because they don”t look like the rest of us, though not in nearly openly hostile terms, at least in genteel America, in genteel white America. The Klan, after all, has lost membership egregiously in the last fifty years. But it is there nonetheless, in Liu”s detailed effort to assimilate into an American culture that defies assimilation. It was an effort that he said felt like it was costing him his identity. But that”s what we expect these days of those who would be assimilated– you can”t be Asian anymore, you can”t speak your native language, even if it”s English with an accent, and you don”t dare dress differently, and you don”t ever live anywhere but the suburbs, and you don”t dare be anything but a producer of American culture, and you don”t dare be ethnic, and you must always be a credit to your race” (para 1). And the issue comes, because there”s something about all of that that makes us all feel at least slightly uncomfortable, because we all came here the same way, and we know our family histories, and we know what it”s like to be stereotyped and to be put down for other things.
Raitt talks about issues of privacy. In a 21st-century America, let alone during the early 70s, twenty-four hour news feeds, social media like Facebook, and tweets and instant messages, privacy has become the issue du jour. Things thought hidden are known somewhere (Toronto Mayor Rob Bell should have known better), and even a lingering glance at someone gives away fodder for someone else”s gossip, and the better-known one is, the more gossipy it becomes. But be certain that no one is safe from that kind of scrutiny, that kind of titillating tabloid talk that destroys reputations and belittles those who start to wonder because they happen to hear the rumors (line 18).
Conclusion
There are some issues today that, though they are intensely personal for some, affect all of us in one way or another. One doesn”t have to go far or think too hard to be aware of issues of immigration, and what that means for those who emigrate. There is stereotyping, and discrimination, and an intense pressure to assimilate into the American culture as quickly and as noiselessly as possible. But that awareness isn”t enough. Maybe in our schools we should set up antidiscrimination councils, entirely made up of students. Along with that, perhaps we could set up a network of mentors to help with the assimilation process as much as can possibly be done. And through it all, we should always know and believe that no one should ever feel like they have to lose their identity in order to fit in. And no one should ever suffer the sting of losing their privacy, of losing what belongs to them, and only to them. We are better than that, and we can change that part of ourselves that really wants to know, and make it socially painful for those who breach that most sacred of trusts.
- Liu, Eric. “Notes of a Native Speaker.” Special feature from the Washington Post . Seventeen. May 1998. Web. Accessed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/middleground/liu.htm.
- Raitt, B., “Respect Yourself.” By The Staple Singers. Be Altitude.Stax Records STS-3002. Vinyl LP.
