paper assignment

Paper #1 due Monday, July 19th, preferably by 12pm and no later than Monday evening.

English 231: Introduction to Asian American Literature Paper #1 Prompt

“That same day, the president signed a proclamation declaring that every adult Japanese citizen inside the U.S. was now an ‘alien enemy’ and must follow strict regulations. My father loved this country and had lived here for twenty-five years, but the U.S. had never allowed him to apply for citizenship. Now he was considered an enemy in a war that hadn’t even been declared yet” (Takei 16).

In this first paper, please share a major insight you received or gleaned from the materials we covered in Takei’s They Called Us Enemy and Episodes 1 through 3 of Asian Americans by PBS. Identify a major theme, tenet, issue, and so forth, that resonates with you and establish an overall idea you have about it.

Establish that major idea and then support it with developed discussions, illustrations, analysis, etc. on specific specific moments, pages, characters, details, etc. from both Takei’s work, pp. 5 - 73, and any part from Asian Americans (Part I: “Breaking Ground,” Part II: “Questions of Loyalty” and/or Part III: “Good Americans”).

Format & Requirements:

· Follow MLA style and guidelines (see Purdue OWL for a refresher and consult with me if you have questions).

· Please provide a Works Cited page and follow in-text citations (see also Purdue OWL ).

· Page Requirement: 750 - 1000+ words minimum. This is about 3-4 full+ pages. I am looking for quality, not just quantity.

· Proofread and review your work. CTAS one-on-one tutoring (no appointment necessary!) and TigerWrite is available. I strongly encourage you to use these FREE resources if you need help getting started.

You can refer to the rubric below to get a sense of what I am looking for. Keep in mind, I will reward those who put in effort and time into their work since these are things that will become clear to me. Communicate with me, email me and/or set up some time to connect with me on Zoom Monday if you have any questions, or if you would like to go over a draft.

Works Cited

Asian Americans. “Name of Part (I, II, or III): subheading title.” PBS, May 2020. PBS.org, url link. Accessed day month year (most recent date you screened documentary).

Takei, George. They Called Us Enemy. Kindle Ed. Top Shelf, 2019.

Professor comments on the assignment you did and he asked for the revision

are these ideas that you learned about from somewhere or learned in school, Bibi? Please take a careful look at the assignment prompt. I don't see connections being made and I don't see a lot of things being asked in the prompt in this paper. This paper feels more like a survey, an introduction paper.

Introduction to Asian American Literature

Asian American literature has been an area of communication from the Asian immigrants into the united states. Different people perceive phenomena differently, and that is why Asian American literature explains to the world how it feels to be an immigrant from their point of view. Americans themselves may feel the Asian immigrants are living their best life in the country while deep down to the root of the matter, they might be facing challenges only they can feel and understand. This made it clear to the world how matters truly are, opening eyes to many.

Books like dog eaters and the best we could do are good examples of how the Asian Americans used to spread their word to the public for effective response to be taken. The intentions were real and good as the Asian Americans wanted their allies to view life from their perspective. The communication was often misinterpreted, and therefore felt like the Asians were asking too much and were not content with whatever they had regardless of the commitment to host them. One of the reasons the Asian Americans were conflicting was unfair yet unnoticed treatment from the Americans judging by their ethnicity.

The mild conflicts merged into big ones, which were more intense as the two groups did not ever seem to agree on something. Which propelled the matter to Asian hate with more and more recruits making it become a major inconvenience to the once settled in the united states; this may also cut across to other ethnicities like African Americans. The problem is still present up to date as more natives still have the mentality that other ethnicities do not deserve anything good in their country; they perceive their presence as mere and needy and does not deserve equal chances the law and other priorities and are less entitled to fancy and expensive things.

This may be one of the reasons that led to the global pandemic of racism. This can be defined as having the mindset that race, ethnicity, and skin color can be a direct factor that determines character and personality. It is common as it gained recognition and stormed the internet as the case went as far as putting human lives at stake. It was normally just a minor issue between high school kids and neighbors with verbal conflicts. Racism could be a result of the following causes:

· Inability to tell racism is a huge problem as most of us may be practicing racism daily without recognizing it is racism. It may be an innocent mistake, but the consequences may be tough.

· Judging, some of us are very quick at judging whoever crosses their path; for instance, African Americans are usually associated with being too loud; this would therefore be used against all the other victims as long as they are African Americans.

· In the blame game, as humans, we tend to feel more comfortable when addressing a problem with an excuse instead of solutions as it was in South Africa, where a group of unemployed stated the slogan that whites are taking their jobs, instead of looking for jobs or other means of survival.

· Science, in as much as science, is good and educative, and through it, so many problems have been solved, it still creates a problem in racism. The more we study and understand the human anatomy, there are certain things common to humans with a certain ethnicity, and others are different; this creates that gap and division between the two.

· The media has impacted society both positively and negatively about views concerning race; they are commonly shown in movies and cinemas where a certain group of ethnicity is always identified with a certain role, for instance, Arabs and terrorism, Russians and hitmen.

Racism is just a state of mind, and therefore it can be managed and controlled either by forceful or peaceful means. They include the following:

· Appreciating and celebrating other people’s cultures is effective as one will get to know the interesting parts of culture thus would have it difficult to think of them as any different due to their skin or ethnicity.

· Creating awareness can be done through rallies and crusades that will advocate for unity; the best way to handle or approach a problem is by creating awareness about it.

· Speaking out for those who are mistreated by the same and supporting organizations that stand out for such incidents will help in educating the public on the importance of respecting each other.

Humans are prone to mistakes but not to the extent of putting others' lives in danger or even taking innocent lives for mean reasons. It only takes common sense and direction to be bold enough and avoid judging by skin color or ethnicity. Taking yourself in their shoes should dictate what exactly is requested of each individual.