Many people of other ethnicities experience some sort of racism in America. Typically as Americans we assume because someone is of Asian or Mexican ethnicity that they express Asian or Mexican culture even if they were born in the US. Though the people of other ethnicities may participate in their ancestors cultural experiences, they still have American identity. In both Okita's and Cisneros's works they express American identity as being the culture you express rather than how you look or where your family came from.
Dwight Okita's poem "Response to Executive Order 9066" is about a young Japanese American girl who grew up in America, and she was best friends with a white girl. Once the war started Japanese Americans were targeted as being traitors and terrorists, and they were sent off to a form of a concentration camp. The Japanese girl's best friend, Denise, falsely accused her of giving secrets to the enemy because her ethnicity was Japanese. Although the girl's family was from Japan, she was born in America, and she expressed the American culture more than her Japanese heritage. The white Americans started targeting people due to how they looked instead of who they actually were. …show more content…
Although the kids know Spanish and the grandmother speaks Spanish, the children are from America. The girl and her brothers wait outside a church for their grandmother return. While they are waiting a couple approaches them and offers them gum. The couple starts speaking to them in Spanish, but they are very surprised when one of the boys speaks to his siblings in English. The white Americans assumed because of the way the children look, they must be Hispanic and speak strictly Spanish. If anything, they should have assumed they spoke English because they are in
Dwight Okita's poem "Response to Executive Order 9066" is about a young Japanese American girl who grew up in America, and she was best friends with a white girl. Once the war started Japanese Americans were targeted as being traitors and terrorists, and they were sent off to a form of a concentration camp. The Japanese girl's best friend, Denise, falsely accused her of giving secrets to the enemy because her ethnicity was Japanese. Although the girl's family was from Japan, she was born in America, and she expressed the American culture more than her Japanese heritage. The white Americans started targeting people due to how they looked instead of who they actually were. …show more content…
Although the kids know Spanish and the grandmother speaks Spanish, the children are from America. The girl and her brothers wait outside a church for their grandmother return. While they are waiting a couple approaches them and offers them gum. The couple starts speaking to them in Spanish, but they are very surprised when one of the boys speaks to his siblings in English. The white Americans assumed because of the way the children look, they must be Hispanic and speak strictly Spanish. If anything, they should have assumed they spoke English because they are in