Growing up as an immigrant in the United States can be an uncomfortable, debasing experience.
By the simplest definition, everyone except American Indians is an immigrant or descended from immigrants, but when most people hear the word ‘immigrant’ what comes to mind is an outsider to the white-majority norm. The connotation of the word also has a clear distinction between adult and child. Many elementary schools teach solely about the waves of European immigration with only token mentions of other diasporas. Every kid could tell you about the Ellis Island route to the US, but nothing about the numerous land and sea routes taken by non-Europeans.
The modern-day isn’t much better. Frequently, the general white masses don’t take the time to recognize the frankly huge variety of immigrant populations. I remember rather vividly the uncomfortable number of times I was referred to as ‘Mexican,’ solely because of my proficiency in Spanish. The demeaning and overgeneralizing of immigrant minorities is an unhealthy and toxic environment to live in. Often, I was isolated and mocked for such ridiculous things, like my name or family traditions.
Traditions and culture are other points of conflict. The United States pushes an aggressive individualist, self-sufficient lifestyle that doesn’t gel well with many other cultures’ tightly knit family structures and communities. I can only speak from the context of Dominican culture, but the family was and is an important part of the culture, and even within the country itself there is a far more homely and open atmosphere. If you vaguely know someone on the street and talk to them, it’s easy to get lost in the conversation with someone you barely know. That doesn’t happen in the States. How easy would it be to strike up a conversation with a restaurant owner you only know because he spoke to your dad once two years ago? Here, “success” is the main goal in life and what that means in the United States is very different from what other cultures see.
All of this ties back to the simple fact that the white population of the United States is generally ignorant, both to the history and the current states of the world that don’t explicitly affect them, even if it’s happening right on their doorstep.
In February of this year, there was a huge protest led by Dominican immigrants on the streets of New York City. The cause of which was the Dominican government canceling that year’s election with the reason being “faulty voting machines.” This was such a clear and blatant affront to democracy that affected millions of people in a country so close to home and living within US borders, but news coverage of the whole event was spotty at best and nonexistent more aptly. This is only one example of this kind of ignorance the US exhibits regularly. This isn’t anything new either; US military and economic involvement have directly caused most, if not all, dictatorships to rise in the Latin American world in the 20th century. The reigns of many of these dictators still impact the countries today, with corrupted democracies usually being the replacement.
What a ridiculous irony. The United States, a country that praises itself as a bastion of democracy and freedom, willing to accept all into its lands, only to be the cause of the people leaving those lands in the first place, and still causing those people societal isolation. Their views of happiness and success are not the views held here. A country so blinded by that egotistical praise that it can’t see the atrocities that built it up in the first place.
The United States of America is not a perfect country. Stop acting like it is and work to fix it.
