English Other Linguistics Website forum postings

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"Coping with prejudice and racial discrimination (People)"

An interesting thing about living in the U.S., I have
found, is the expectation of cultural and social assimilation. Because I have grown up in a small, New
England town that was predominantly "white," for a very
long time I subconsciously regarded myself as white. This is a weird concept to try to explain, but because I was always taught things from the "white" perspective, I
identified myself more with "whites" than with Asians.
My parents also made it a point to avoid teaching me Chinese so that I would not have an accent when
speaking English and would not be discriminated against
because of my ethnicity. This is a pity, because I feel that many minorities are taught to ignore their cultures and become "American," or "white."

*** To build upon this idea,*** I'm not sure if you have heard of the clothing company Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F), but there have been lawsuits against them for racism. A&F claim to promote a "classic American look," but all their models and sales staff are usually white, and it has been said that this is part of their hiring practices. This seems to say that being white is American and nothing else. Also, it is sort of hidden in advertising, but in most
commercials there is a strategy of making a product seem
like the product of the "average American family." These families almost always consist of a Caucasian family: a mother, father, daughter, son, and sometimes dog. When I
look back at these facts, it is no surprise to me that
it has taken me 19 years to realize that I am in fact Asian-American, and not "white." I feel that classical images like this marginalize other races that are living in this
country, making it seem like they qualify as less than
American. It is hard for me, because it makes me feel like I am not quite American enough to be American, but I am also not quite Chinese enough to qualify as Chinese. Up
until recently being Chinese-American has been a very
displaced, disjointed identity for me! This, however is a very lengthy and twisted debate to get into!

I FIRST POSTED THIS QUESTION IN THE ENGLISH-SPANISH VENUE, JUST CON CONFIRM MY FIRM BELIEF THAT THE WRITER HAD MADE A MISTAKE. NOW I AM NOT AS SELF-CONFIDENT AS I WAS, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE YOUR OPINIONS AS NATIVE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH.

I DO UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THE SENTENCE IN CONTEXT, BUT I THINK THE GIRL USED THE WRONG PREPOSITION. AS YOU CAN SEE FROM THE TEXT, SHE IS A 19-YEAR-OLD AMERICAN, BUT I GUESS SHE MEANS "PARA FUNDAMENTAR ESTA IDEA," IN WHICH CASE THE CORRECT CONSTRUCTION WOULD BE "TO BUILD THIS IDEA," WOULDN'T IT?

I WOULD VERY MUCH APPRECIATE YOUR CLARIFYING THIS FOR ME, NOT FOR TRANSLATING, BUT FOR MY OWN BENEFIT IF I'M WRONG.