Unknown America Character Analysis

Many know that difficulties are probable to arise when moving to a completely different town, state, or even country. However, most who have not experienced such a situation do not understand exactly how difficult and stressful such a situation can be. For example, being of a different race can mean getting treated differently when moving to a different place or sometimes even being of a different gender can get you to be treated differently. In Christina Henriquez’s book The Book of Unknown Americans, Alma, the main character describes many of the burdensome situations that she and her family have to face when moving to the United States after having to leave Panama. The book also includes various chapters about individuals from other countries …show more content…
When the school picks up it turns out being a woman who does not speak any Spanish, but Alma begins to speak in Spanish anyways as a desperate attempt to get through to the lady on the phone in whatever way that she can. However, on line seventeen, it says “A second later, I heard the clap of plastic against a hard surface...”, this indicates that the woman hung up and in the end was not able to help Alma. This shows how people get treated differently for not being able to speak the same language and in many cases it is looked down upon. People face these kind of situations all the time and it is unfortunate that people would get treated differently over reasons that are at times …show more content…
Being of a certain race or a certain ethnic group automatically segregates you from the rest. Another passage by Margaret Anderson and Patricia Collins that outlines race and minority issues is titled System of Power and Inequality. On page fifty-seven the term “color-blind racism” makes an appearance. The passage describes it as a, “…a form of racism in which dominant groups assume that race no longer matters-.” I had never heard this term before until I read this passage but I think it is a term in which many fall into. In a way it is an ignorant way of seeing things because being a part of the dominant group seems to somehow make a person forget about others. There are occasions in which a minority is treated a certain way that a dominant group probably would not be but because it is such a norm for minorities to be treated differently, the dominant person probably does not see it as a discriminatory act. And I find it interesting that there even is a dominant group of people when every race has its own negative connotations and there is not a single element that could cause a person to be superior to another. Considering the way, we are taught and raised I do not see a solution for discrimination against minorities and this is an issue I do not