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America isn’t a promised land, nor is it a hodge-podge of everyone who wanted a different life from the norm. It’s a hypocrisy, from the roots to the leaves.
The first time I realized this was the summer of my sophomore year of high school. The day in question, August 9th, didn’t start out any different for me. I woke up to the early morning peeking and browsed the internet, as any teen with a free summer day on their hands does. I had only just logged onto Tumblr when a headline seized my attention. “Michael Brown Murdered by Police Officer.” I scrolled down the post and read everything there was to see. Cold pooled in my stomach. A million questions ran through my head; how could a police …show more content…
Balcita goes over similar issues, though on a less broad scale. Using her father’s experiences of immigrating from the Philippines to the United States, Balcita creates an engaging and relatable picture of the subtle moments of integration, while also illustrating how the great American hypocrisy affects this transition. A great example of this comes from two paragraphs discussing her father’s first job at a blood bank. The job is temporary, as he’s trying to get official certification to be a doctor in the United States, but he encounters difficulties. One woman is xenophobic to him, “[requesting] to see an “American” doctor” (Balcita 2006, 1) when he comes to her aid. While this is a prime example of American hypocrisy as I explained it before, one example stands out to me more. In the paragraph below, Angela recounts specific instances of her father learning English, one of which is related to his job at the blood bank. The director of the hospital, during a meeting, turns to him and asks “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”, but Angela’s father doesn’t understand the idiom. Later, he buys a book of idioms and teaches himself the meaning, and decides to try using some to appear more American in the eyes of his co-workers. When the director asks a question during the next meeting, Balcita describes her father as feeling “compelled to say, “The proof is in the pudding!” and that “everyone [looked] at [him], puzzled” (Balcita 2006, 1). …show more content…
From our government institutions to the way we treat others, our social makeup is mostly isolationist and rude, despite the fact we’ve through similar conflicts. We refuse to assist others for fear of hurting ourselves, but in doing so, we hurt everybody, and from the looks of this country right now? Things aren’t going to get any better any time soon. Maybe in a couple years, or even a decade or two, but for now, there’s just too much to deal with that needs more than a handful of people to care about it and try to fix it. The majority of America is completely desensitized to the need for collective judgment and help, and whatever it takes to wake it up will need to be momentous and immediate. Unfortunately, this won’t come from one person. It’ll have to come from
America isn’t a promised land, nor is it a hodge-podge of everyone who wanted a different life from the norm. It’s a hypocrisy, from the roots to the leaves.
The first time I realized this was the summer of my sophomore year of high school. The day in question, August 9th, didn’t start out any different for me. I woke up to the early morning peeking and browsed the internet, as any teen with a free summer day on their hands does. I had only just logged onto Tumblr when a headline seized my attention. “Michael Brown Murdered by Police Officer.” I scrolled down the post and read everything there was to see. Cold pooled in my stomach. A million questions ran through my head; how could a police …show more content…
Balcita goes over similar issues, though on a less broad scale. Using her father’s experiences of immigrating from the Philippines to the United States, Balcita creates an engaging and relatable picture of the subtle moments of integration, while also illustrating how the great American hypocrisy affects this transition. A great example of this comes from two paragraphs discussing her father’s first job at a blood bank. The job is temporary, as he’s trying to get official certification to be a doctor in the United States, but he encounters difficulties. One woman is xenophobic to him, “[requesting] to see an “American” doctor” (Balcita 2006, 1) when he comes to her aid. While this is a prime example of American hypocrisy as I explained it before, one example stands out to me more. In the paragraph below, Angela recounts specific instances of her father learning English, one of which is related to his job at the blood bank. The director of the hospital, during a meeting, turns to him and asks “What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”, but Angela’s father doesn’t understand the idiom. Later, he buys a book of idioms and teaches himself the meaning, and decides to try using some to appear more American in the eyes of his co-workers. When the director asks a question during the next meeting, Balcita describes her father as feeling “compelled to say, “The proof is in the pudding!” and that “everyone [looked] at [him], puzzled” (Balcita 2006, 1). …show more content…
From our government institutions to the way we treat others, our social makeup is mostly isolationist and rude, despite the fact we’ve through similar conflicts. We refuse to assist others for fear of hurting ourselves, but in doing so, we hurt everybody, and from the looks of this country right now? Things aren’t going to get any better any time soon. Maybe in a couple years, or even a decade or two, but for now, there’s just too much to deal with that needs more than a handful of people to care about it and try to fix it. The majority of America is completely desensitized to the need for collective judgment and help, and whatever it takes to wake it up will need to be momentous and immediate. Unfortunately, this won’t come from one person. It’ll have to come from