A Reaction to A Different Mirror of the Face of America
Robert Takaki's book A Different Mirror is a history of the people of the nation of America. The book is not, however, a history of America that a reader might expect when he or she first opens an introductory text. The subtitle of A Different Mirror is A History of Multicultural America. The book attempts to give a fuller history of America. It tries to give a fuller history of the America of nationalities such as the Native Indian peoples of America, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, Chinese Americans, Irish Americans, and of the people of the Jewish religion in America. By telling the different stories of these different groups, Robert Takaki demonstrates that more conventional American history books are incomplete. The history of A Different Mirror is not simply the history of many different American groups-it is a more complete history of America itself. The book shows that America is a nation founded by immigrants, rather than a nation dominated by one White people and one White face or image. Robert Takaki begins his book on a personal level, explaining how on one day he had traveled from San Francisco to Norfolk, Virginia "and was riding in a taxi to my hotel to attend a conference on multic
Despite the many differences between the ethnic groups in the book, the one similarity in all of the experiences of the different ethnic peoples of A Different Mirror is that all of these groups continue to have trouble being seen as fully American today. Despite the fact that Indians were in America before Europeans, they are still seen as nonwhite and thus not fully Americans. Despite the fact that Robert Takaki's grandfather may have come to America before his European neighbor's grandfather, Takaki is not seen as fully American. Overall, the idea of who is an America must change before discrimination can end, suggests the author, a conclusion all readers of all nations and nationalities will agree with. Takaki thus shows that not all groups experience the same difficulties in seeming American. Some groups, such as Chinese women, often experienced double forms of discrimination, both as women within their own community, and as Chinese people in Caucasian communities. (209) Plus, some White missionaries used the plight of 'poor' Chinese women to justify discrimination against Chinese culture. Also, discrimination against oppressed groups has resulted in different kinds of revolt. Indians used military tactics in revolutions such as Wounded Knee. (228) Groups that were discriminated against such as African Americans have resisted not only through legal action but also fleeing America-as African Americans often did not come to America by their own free will, they would go 'back' to Africa. (126) This "Nostalgia on the Niger," as Takaki calls it, resulted in the founding of Liberia in Africa. ulturalism" when his White, forty-something taxi driver complimented him on his excellent English. Takaki was surprised. His Japanese grandfather came to America in the 1880s! Of the many European immigrants, Takaki reminds the reader, although he did not remind the taxi driver at the time of his journey, that Asians and Africans make up large numbers of individuals who emigrated to the United States during the 19th century-of which his own ancestor was one of that proud number, yearning to breathe free! (2) Of course, Takaki's English was excellent-it was the only language he spoke! But because of his Japanese appearance, the White, Southern taxi driver assumed that Takaki was a recent immigrant from Japab, even in the year of 1993, when A Different Mirror was written. To understand the way a culture defines itself, one must ask, who is 'we.' And Takaki states that "we" Americans as a people are diverse. The "we the people," that
Some common words found in the essay are:
Liberia Africa, White Americans, Robert Takaki, Jewish Irish, Williams Indians, White Southern, German Americans, Plus White, Robert Takaki's, University Minnesota, white americans, african americans, history america, america book, taxi driver, japanese americans, seen american, majority nonwhite society, irish americans, americans people, conference multiculturalism, fuller history america,
Approximate Word count = 1719
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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