2. Parent’s contribution to assimilation
Was raised to assimilate
Value of English language over his heritage
Felt his life was made to progress more
His life is a continuation of his parents assimilation
3. Banana
Yellow on outside and white on the inside
http://college.usatoday.com/2015/02/27/asian-
american-students-share-their-struggles-in-
mybananastor
“You look like us, but you don’t act like us.”
Asians= collectivistic; America= individualistic
class
culture in general
4. Banana- Theories
Class
Guilty of learning the ways of upper middle class
“a minority’s climb up the social ladder is often willfully misnamed and
wrongly portrayed,”(Liu 1998, p.36).
Internal Colonialism
becoming white is beneficial and connected to glorious things such as
power and wealth
Racial Formation
“banana”
5. White list - Assimilation
My Dad
to move in society as his parents want him to
which is to become white
“The absence of Asian Americans as top
executives also indicates that their success
is not complete,” (Schaefer 2010, 286).
6. Intermarriage
class has swapped who intermarries
interconnection of class and race
Changes in Male Asian intermarriage (Fryer 2012,
366)
by education Level
1940-1960
Less than high school education 10-12%
Higher education 1-2 %
From 1990-2000
In 1990, plummeted to 1 percent to almost 0 in 2000
Higher education risen above 4 percent by 1980
8. Additional Information
Never forced Chinese heritage on him
p.37
“For young Asian Americans, life in the United States often is a struggle for identity when their
heritage is so devalued by those in positions of influence. Sometimes identity means
finding a role in White America; other times, it involves finding a place among Asian
Americans collectively and then locating oneself within one’s own racial or ethnic
community,” (Schaefer 2010, 289).
Grandparents/Chinatown
safety net
