Multicultural California (Out class essay#3) with Reflections

Tsung Cheng Lin
Instructor: Brian Curran Lewis
English 1B
25 June 2010

Multicultural California

Is California multicultural? According to the 2008-2009 U.S. Census Bureau, California's population is approximately thirty six million, 42.3% of whites, 36.6% of Hispanic and Latino, 6.7% of blacks, 1.2 of American Indians, and 12.5% Asians. California is the most popular and the third largest state in America. Its four largest cities are San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angles, and San Diego. Ron Stodghill and Amanda Bower in their article “Integrated City” state, “But by 2059 at the latest, according to U.S. Census figures, there will no longer be a white majority in America” (93). The white population will decrease. California is a multicultural society and a melting pot since there are many different races and cultures. Many people from different countries immigrate here for variety of reasons, better jobs, better education, better lives, etc. As stated in the article “What Is Multiculturalism” by Gregory Jay, “The critique of American’s ‘common culture’ led many people to identify with a particular group, rather than with nation…” (2). People in America can be divided by the category of class, race, religion, gender, etc. The book American son by Brian Roley Ascalon, the play “Bordertown” by Sam Woodhouse, and the movie “Crash” by Paul Haggis reveal the different perspectives of what life is like for a foreigner and a non-white person in America. In those different forms, a play, a novel, and a film are showing the meaning to live in multicultural California.

The novel American Son by Brian Roley Ascalon is a story that based on a Filipino family living in Los Angeles. The first main characters in the story are the mother, Tomas, and Gabe. The second characters in the story are Stone, Aunt Jessica, and Betino. The author uses Betino’s letters to shift different points of view. Tomas, Gabe, and their mother Ika are Asian Americans. The novel is writing about a mixed culture family, showing how they adjust the environment, trying to help reader to understand what multicultural society is in California.

People tend to use stereotype to prejudge others. Stereotype is a form of prejudiced images that people prejudge a particular characteristic without having any knowledge of the person. One of the main characters Tomas, who always keeps his mother up late with worries, trains dog and sells them to celebrities. In the book, the narrator says:
He is the son who causes her embarrassment by showing up at family parties with his muscles covered in gangster tattoos and his head shaved down to stubble and his eyes bloodshot from pot. He is really half white, half Filipino but dresses like a Mexican, and it troubles our mother that he does this (15).
He is not trying to look like white. Most people think he is a Mexican because he looks like a Mexican and also he always hang out with Mexicans. Also stone thinks most Asians are quite. It is also a prejudiced image. Although many Asians are shy and quite, there are still lively Asians. Based on race, class, religion, gender, etc, people will see the way they want to see you.
California is a dream land for most people. Starting from the Gold Rush time, California has become a golden land. To get a better life, a better job, a higher opportunity to get successful, a better education, etc, many foreigners immigrate to California. In the novel, even though the brother Betion sends many letters to mother Ika, saying that he could teach her sons the values of education, work, and the respect for their elders, suggesting her to send her sons to Philippines, she doesn’t want to. She says, "I've lived in the States longer than the Philippines, she said firmly. I'm American now" (33). She thinks she is an American. She is shame to be Pilipino. She likes America better than Philippines.

The author also addresses the difficulty of California dream. There are many immigrants who want to live in California; however, living in such a multicultural state is not easy. Kirse Granat May in his article “Suburban Eden May writes, “Millions shared the dream of a ‘palm-shaded ‘pad’ with a patio, ten dollars down, 100 years to pay…lotus land on the installment plan’” (19). The living expenses in here are high. In the novel, the family isn’t rich. The mother Ika doesn’t have money to pay car insurance even the son Tomas has to help to pay the mortgage by selling attack dogs and stolen car stereos. It shows the poor of immigrants. Immigrants often need to do a low position job; in California there are many Mexicans work as a labor to do the hard working jobs—washing dishes, washing cars, washing toilets, etc. To pursue California dream, we need to pay higher living expense first.

The play “Bordertown” is based in San Diego and Tijuana. It is writing about different races and different points of view in the exact same area. The play begins with two Mexican men who are interviewing Mexican nationals for their play about San Diego and Tijuana. They get caught by a Militia Man who thinks them as illegal immigrants and drug runners. The Militia Man points gun at that two Mexican men and treats them badly just because they look like Mexicans. Even though the two Mexican men explain to the Militia man they are a theater group and have passports and driver’s licenses, the Militia man still doesn’t believe them. Until the Militia man asks them, “What level do you park on in Horton Plaza Mall” (12), he realizes that they are Americans. He doesn’t believe those people who look like illegal immigrants easily because he is sacred, “I’m sacred for my daughter, my country, I have the right to be scared don’t I?” (16). In the act2, the plot shifts to a Mexican Militia Man with two Americans comparing with act1. The Mexican Militia Man believes them they are legal Americans easily when he finds their theater schedule. The writer in here wants to show the different reactions between different races.

Also, the play shows many different points of view saying about what they feel in San Diego city. One of a woman, Julia, says, “To cross the border is a big decision, it’s like being reborn” (20). It shows what California means to a foreigner. It is a dream land for foreigners. Julia’s mother lives in San Diego. Although it’s very hard to cross the border, she tried very hard to get in. Her family members are all illegal immigrants. They illegal cross the border to find better lives.
The play presents what symbol of America is. In the play, there is a couple. Husband is from America, but wife is from Mexico. Man usually has more power than woman. Man in here represents America. Woman represents Mexico. The author wants to show America has more power than Mexico does. America has bigger land and richer than Mexico.

The play also reveals the fearfulness of American with foreigners. Shamu says, “Now these whales (Mexican killer whales) have no documentation, no work permits, no papers, no real training, but they work for cheap and eat less fish” (58). In here, it shows American people are afraid that the foreigner might take their jobs and positions. Staying in California is not easy, so most foreigners work very hard in order to stay in here. Some foreigners have made enormous successes like president Obama, the first black president in the American history.

The film “Crash” by Paul Haggis is a very good film that talks many different races with racism in Los Angeles. In the movie, there are many different groups of people with different races, showing prejudices, racism, discrimination, and stereotype. It talks many different small pieces of plots with different races of characters to connect with a whole story. The little plots show how people connect with others in the daily life.

Most people have racism to blacks. There is a couple, Cabot, a state public prosecutor, and Jean, gets gun point at face and car jacked by the blacks. The wife later in her home is upset, saying to her husband to have another locksmith to change a new lock in the next day because she believes that the current locksmith might give the key to another gang member just because the locksmith is black. She immediately prejudges him without having any knowledge of him just because of his race. It reveals the racism with black that most people think blacks are bad.
Also there is another couple that driving a black Navigator stop by cops just because they are black. The police Ryan command the driver Cameron to get out of car. Cameron is polite, because Ryan is warming him with giving a ticket. But Christine is a little drunk and argues with the cops. Ryan gets angry and humiliates Christine. The white police Ryan wants to show his power just like the man privilege and white privilege. In the article “White Privilege” Peggy Mcintosh says, “Denials which amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages which men gain from women’s disadvantages” (97). Man actually has some certain privileges. Peggy states, “I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege” (97). For non-white person, there might have some certain disadvantages. White Privilege is like an invisible package that is not easy to recognize, but it actually exists. Peggy has made a list of some particular advantages of just being white. Some of the list things might easy to be recognized, “I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me” (98). Those are some privilege examples that some non-white person might not have.

Cars are also important characters in the movie. Car shows racism that most people think black people don’t match expensive car that they might steal it from somebody else. Also at the very beginning of the movie, the driver Waters gets out of the car and starts to argue with the Asian woman because of a car accident. Then, the movie goes on other car crashes. At the begging of the movie, the narrator says:
It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk. You know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In LA, nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.
It wants to express that people in the daily life need to crash into each other in order to earn something back.

There is another plot that exhibits racism. At a gun shop, Farhad , an Iranian man, and his daughter Dorri are trying to buy a gun. The Iranian man doesn’t speak English well, so he is talking his native language with his daughter. The shop's owner is upset about this and begins insulting Farhad. Later, the perspective shifts to Faehad’s side. At Farhad's shop, the locksmith Daniel replaces a lock. After Daniel replaces the lock, the door still can’t be closed. He says to Farhad that he needs a new door. Farhad doesn't believe him, assuming that Daniel is cheating at him. He doesn’t believe him maybe because Daniel is a Mexican. Those are the examples of racism. On the other hand, the police officer, Tommy, is trying not to have racism but actually he can’t. He kills a black man by mistake when he is hitchhiked by the black man and thinks that the black man is getting a gun out. Racism is in anywhere although some people think they don’t have racism.

All those different forms help us to understand what the meaning is to live in multicultural California. Those forms are actually showing the very similar issues, prejudices, racism, discrimination, and stereotype in the same state. In the exact same state, there are many different viewpoints of perspectives. Depending on what person you ask, the perspective is all different. The perspectives from whites might be very different from the perspectives from non-whites.