Multiculturalism: The Identity of Minority Groups in America

The abandonment of foreign culture in America continues to reflect a social norm in which western civilizations tend to incorporate with and the only culture that survives tends to be based on foreign colonial ideals The rapid development of a national infrastructure early in America's history, can be attributed due to England's own personal hand purse, the abundance of natural resources found in America, as well as free slave labor. The influence of England's aristocracy helped to instill in Americans an inherent distrust of outsiders, which is so unlike the ideals that this country was theoretically founded on. The inevitable destruction of the individual seen in capitalism is only persevered by our own freedoms. A norm in which is delayed by inbreeding negative social values. This typically english speaking, male-dominant mindset has been responsible for dismissing the voice of the oppressed for centuries before the US was even a nation. This colonial system of the overruling of lower social classes caused this Nation's personality to heal slowly and throughout American History. The standard voice to be heard used to be one that typically stemmed from a caucasian state of consciousness of higher affluence and wealthy disposition. The individuals who founded this system of power identified themselves simply by the pigment of their naked skin and met up regularly to talk and discuss politics.

This is what many writers of multicultural literature are beginning to add to, a diverse collection in a library of sorts in order to replace an antiquated system of social interaction. In a time when the new American identity has become a trademark owned by just another common household name. This categorization of multiculturalism in literature has thus allowed an arena for its authors own cultural biases to be clearly examined and addressed in a much more institutionalized system of social integration. The authors of multiculturalism who however due to their own heritage present an alternate viewpoint on the inescapable American or English Dream inflicted upon their own character's culture. This essay attempts to question what exactly is identity and when it is socially prescribed.

The consequences surrounding social prescription to fix deeper social dilemmas surrounding issues of social abandonment and survival, include but are not limited to the identity of the individual. The romanticized concept of identity can be clearly seen in The Autobiography of My Mother, By Jamaica Kincaid, in a country where colonial education imparted a great amount of self-conflict. As identity is defined as being a projection of one individual's un/common stereotypes of a group, and sometimes more prophetically, even an entire nation. An identity that is nationally desired and in some cases even enforced by law. This is what these two writers of multiculturalism strive to change. Their "imposed" identity, that leads to an imposed sense of social location that has been bred into the structure of so many institutions since the dawn of written time. These concepts of control have been seen as far west as the equal and democratic USA. The quick removal of any personal liberty's that the Native population once possessed only showed to them that this land was the "New World." The colonial racism that England pressured shows that both racially and ethnically motivated hatred towards minority groups have evolved into complex structures of non-verbal oppression not since the signing of the Constitution by our forefathers but by their poor and impoverished ancestors of England, at least in the beginning of the world power transfer to a new empire, a new nation who walks around with a big stick ready to attack those who try to disrupt the civil liberty, a claim it manages to maintain.

The "white" race has dominated history since the inception of written time, or maybe that's just what America was founded on, and whoever has disagreed with them have become public martyrs reminding us that this country was founded by immigrants searching freedom from the same oppressive forces that now surround them to this day. At least, as Americans we don't have to ever have be forced to say, "God, save the queen!"

Sherman Alexie and Jamaica Kincaid, who are otherwise completely unassociated with each other, both play critical roles in their cultural history dialogues. The understanding of the many backgrounds which create an American identity that is less imposed than previous social standards. The advent of a term such as multiculturalism lays down the framework if a more complex standpoint on equality is ever to be sought. Sherman Alexie can now become the voice of a group and in less attainable terms, even a Nation with a pulsing desire to be heard from the outskirts of Society. Through her writing, Jamaica Kincaid displays the evils of English colonialism. Critically acclaimed authors in this elaborate web of history evoke new understandings into what it really does mean to be a minority. An individual's perspectives, whose own history of past experiences are constantly contradicted with what has been the majority's voice or the standard melting pot heritage. A heritage with gross ties to enslavement and domineering tactics and the legal control of other peoples.

The social stigmas that have been passed down from generation to generation in a Native American sense are the same issues that surround laws that remain unchanged and requited for the first few hundred years in America, and even to this very day. Sherman Alexie's use of pop culture icons and historical figures is no new writing technique, however, they are not used to raise his own acclaim rather give insight to the reader that as a Native American the oppressive voice of American culture that floods into their society and becomes their own unique language and stereotypes of the "outside world." The outside world which they did not choose to escape, as one statistic would suggest through alcoholism, yet it was rather the forced movement of Native Americans as a whole into very isolated and poorly contracted reservations that act as a barrier to any action that they may have had to voice out against. When Sherman Alexie was once asked by a critic, "how does your work apply to the oral tradition?" his response went as written, "Well, it doesn't apply to me at all because I type this. And I'm really, really quiet when I'm typing it." (Cox). This lightheartedness seen clearly here in the projection of his own lifestyle is evident throughout his writing. It's obvious yet to an outsider even, as clearly seen in the text with the two examples of social predators, General Sheridan and Colonel Wright, historical military figures whose lives intersected those of Alexie's own ancestors on both reservations he associates with. "I had promised these Indians severe treatment," chronicles Colonel Wright, "and accordingly six of the most notorious were hung on the spot. The others were ironed for the march." -Sept. 24, 1858 (85 Hunt).

Sherman Alexie, whose life as a Native American has provided a unique experience throughout his writing with accounts from both the Spokane and Coeur 'Alene Indian Reservations. The voice of his heritage clearly shown in his own writing and actually quite removed from those big flashy CASINO signs is one which attempts to create a new 21st century image of Native American storytelling. The one-way mirror that, due to the dramatic decrease in the Native American population, creates isolation while at the same time allows misrepresentation by the once foreign, now culturally standard WASP identity. The colonizers to this country destroyed this once free and beautiful country, disrupted peace and harmony, and instead of killing the Natives all off, the politicians set them aside to be forgotten about until their lives and their heritage were to be lost forever. Sherman Alexie is just one author who changes this pre-wasp American history into present day relevance

The continual nature of colonial oppression seen on the isolated island of Dominica as portrayed by Jamaica Kincaid, writer of Xuela Claudette Richardson's autobiography. An author whose own voice has been empowered by simply presenting the prejudices and lifestyle that a half-carib woman in Dominica would have faced, and of course the oppressive system of government that inevitably presides over her characters and reminds us that many modern institutions are still overcome by racially bred value systems. "The colonizers had made the colonized compete for a secret, undisclosed prize, making any _expression of generosity or love suspect, leaving them convinced that genuine emotion could lead to vulnerability, thereby giving someone else an advantage." (159 Paravisini).

The book so suddenly begins with the traumatic loss of her mother and the isolation she encounters from childhood that continues to worsen due to the abandonment by her own father into the caretaking hands of Ma Eunice. The symbolic aspect of this illustration in Kincaid's work is magnified by her Half-Carib blood. While in England, children such as poor Oliver Twist, as depicted by Charles Dickens, spent their time in orphanages, when their parent were neither present in their lives or even held financially responsible for their upbringing. The life of Xuela, another individual, whose own destruction stems from social norms that were in place long before England was even a country of its own.

Xuela Claudette Richardson is one such narrator who exemplifies what it means to be socially outcast. Her narrator's voice has been empowered by simply writing it down and talking about her own loss and experience of socially constructed colonial racism. Jamaica Kincaid, she recounts the lifetime of Xuela growing up as a child in Dominica, an island in the Caribbean, once colonized by England and forever affected by that history of foreign control. Only in this past century has this struggle for equality to be heard from diverse authors been challenged due in part to the increase in civil liberties. The loss of her real mother continues to play a critical role into the underlying concepts surrounding her identity as not only a female minority, but as well as a survivor throughout the text.

The death of Xuela's mother at childbirth, issues more than just grief. She is to live with Ma Eunice, her dad's laundress. Her father's dirty laundry and a dirty half-breed baby. She is thrown out of the house yet still raised with an education instilled with social worth according to the Queen's colonial education program. She is transferred from one residence to the next due to the abandonment by her own father early on because her father not only had discontent for her but as well as a social duty to discard her. The romanticized concept of identity is one of which a solid family structure is present and everyone is treated fairly. A value that in real life is nearly impossible. What Xuela had been taught to despise is that her father's new life consisted of a new mother for his somewhat full-blooded children. The short homecoming where Xuela is not at all welcomed into rather threatened to near death experience. This has become the foundation of Xuela's early formational years as Kincaid outlines it, abandonment and survival are just two themes from The Autobiography of My Mother. The true corrupt nature of her father's character is rarely seen only until later is it revealed on in the book. Unfortunately for Xuela, her belief in illegitimate freedoms that others so wholly possess has been limited. Based solely on their social status, race, religion, gender, educational level, and own personal drive to become an "American."

An ideal that is sometimes difficult to achieve, even with pale skin, due to a limited point of view on what is truly American or simply human nature, survival. The limited access to provoke a change in that naturalistic point of view can be seen in society even to this day. It is also functions as an internal characteristic and as Lizabeth Paravisini-Gerbert states because "she has no mother and god has given no evidence of caring or whether or not she lives or dies, she must fend for herself." (149 Paravisini).

In both Alexie and Kincaid this social segregation glares into the viewpoints of socially constructed racism in the 20th century. However the vast array of multicultural curriculum that is seen today not only in academic classrooms but workplace training seminars, which hopefully has begun to create social liberation for all races and cultures in America. Multiculturalism has become a new category of literature that survives off of one central theme that continues to show up time and over again. An attempt to present the author's personal experiences into identity, through a text that is not necessarily in direct correlation with their background or heritage yet still maintains to ask questions and present arguments into the consequences of unequal representation of the diverse and once minority individual that creates American culture as we know it. The ideals that were first imposed into the making of the melting pot theory have been for centuries continually reinforced with a foreign cadence, rather than a native perspective, one of mutual peace. These concepts of the social dominance over a minority have been clearly seen in the free country of the U.S. since its lucrative beginning as a major commerce point for the trading of slaves from Africa for raw merchandise, a piece of the triangle of the primary trade route to England's Aristocracy. Which is due to the fact that America soon became too powerful for England to endure its governing command. However since the end of the Civil War, social change has begun to be seen more as progress and less like slavery.

The Social Liberalists of this country have begun to decay the structure of racially and ethnically motivated hatred towards non-caucasian groups, that through the past centuries of history have evolved into very complex ideals of normality and non-verbalized oppression. As for the categorization of multiculturalism in literature. It has provided an open arena for its authors own cultural biases to be clearly examined and addressed. The term multiculturalism is one example of the framework in case a more complex standpoint on equality happens to be sought, action. The issues surrounding racism can be controversial, so to be offended and learn from personal/group/national abuse of power is what truly makes the government of liberty so appealing; the ability to make change happen.