Book Report 2: Invisible Asians
1 In the book, “Invisible Asians,” written in 2016, the author Kim Park Nelson argues that even though Korean adoptees have only been depicted positively, there are various problems Korean adoptees are facing. Media especially emphasizes three things: 1) heroism of internationally adoptive parents, 2) a way of American families to be culturally enriched at a time of increasing interest in multiculturalism, 3) rescue of the Korean orphans from the “war-torn, impoverished, and culturally backward” country. Under the condition of the Cold War, the first adoptees were adopted in order to demonstrate the greatness of the U.S. to the world. The first-generation adoptees were especially pressured to be assimilate …show more content…
This situation has been improved since then, but the problem is still continuing. In order to combat racism, Americans, especially whites, tried not to be conscious about race itself, but this created the reverse racism. Many whites became “color-blind,” which is the situation that everyone is treated as whites and ignore the racial differences and uniqueness. Race problem is complex because whether the race is invisible or hypervisible, some types of problem occurs. As a response to the colorblindness and demand for the recognition of minority groups, the notion of multiculturalism was built. The author calls it “weak multiculturalism” because it is disregarding the racist national histories and policy while celebrating other cultures to …show more content…
Even though multiculturalism was advocated within adoptive families, Korean adoptees were inserted into assimilative situation because their parents don’t know about Korean culture and most people around them were whites, so they also don’t know Korean culture. Korean adoptees also have difficulties when they form their identities. Since they’re brought up by white’s family in the dominantly white’s environments, their cultural identity is whites. However, their racial identities are Korean, so they won’t be fully accepted as Whites and also feel uncomfortable thinking themselves as whites. In addition to this, they aren’t also fully accepted as Koreans because their cultural identities are whites, and how they behave are whites. Therefore, their identity is sometimes called in-between identity which doesn’t apply to both of them. Korean adoptee’s in-betweenness also cause the problem of isolation. Because they are not only neither fully Korean nor Whites but also neither immigrants or non-immigrants, they feel severe isolation not belonging to any groups. Even though many Korean adoptees are suffering from the problems that I’ve illustrated, most of them have been ignored or haven’t been taken seriously. However, many researchers and adoptees stood up and started fighting against the norm that
1 In the book, “Invisible Asians,” written in 2016, the author Kim Park Nelson argues that even though Korean adoptees have only been depicted positively, there are various problems Korean adoptees are facing. Media especially emphasizes three things: 1) heroism of internationally adoptive parents, 2) a way of American families to be culturally enriched at a time of increasing interest in multiculturalism, 3) rescue of the Korean orphans from the “war-torn, impoverished, and culturally backward” country. Under the condition of the Cold War, the first adoptees were adopted in order to demonstrate the greatness of the U.S. to the world. The first-generation adoptees were especially pressured to be assimilate …show more content…
This situation has been improved since then, but the problem is still continuing. In order to combat racism, Americans, especially whites, tried not to be conscious about race itself, but this created the reverse racism. Many whites became “color-blind,” which is the situation that everyone is treated as whites and ignore the racial differences and uniqueness. Race problem is complex because whether the race is invisible or hypervisible, some types of problem occurs. As a response to the colorblindness and demand for the recognition of minority groups, the notion of multiculturalism was built. The author calls it “weak multiculturalism” because it is disregarding the racist national histories and policy while celebrating other cultures to …show more content…
Even though multiculturalism was advocated within adoptive families, Korean adoptees were inserted into assimilative situation because their parents don’t know about Korean culture and most people around them were whites, so they also don’t know Korean culture. Korean adoptees also have difficulties when they form their identities. Since they’re brought up by white’s family in the dominantly white’s environments, their cultural identity is whites. However, their racial identities are Korean, so they won’t be fully accepted as Whites and also feel uncomfortable thinking themselves as whites. In addition to this, they aren’t also fully accepted as Koreans because their cultural identities are whites, and how they behave are whites. Therefore, their identity is sometimes called in-between identity which doesn’t apply to both of them. Korean adoptee’s in-betweenness also cause the problem of isolation. Because they are not only neither fully Korean nor Whites but also neither immigrants or non-immigrants, they feel severe isolation not belonging to any groups. Even though many Korean adoptees are suffering from the problems that I’ve illustrated, most of them have been ignored or haven’t been taken seriously. However, many researchers and adoptees stood up and started fighting against the norm that