Yogi,
I did not want to get down this path because the risk to
degenerate this conversation is too great. Anyway, if you
ask for my opinion, I will say there's nothing to fear.
Every ethnic group has its own 'Little Country' town in
its initial phase and these ethnic communities serve
the role of a cultural support base. It eases the stresses
of uprooting a family from one place to another. Usually,
the successful immigrants or their offsprings will migrate
a second time away from the ethnic hub as they melt into
the American pot.
It's not anywhere near the truth when you think that most
new immigrants do not make an effort to be part of the
mainstream. They all want to be successful and proud to
be living in the land of Liberty. They may fail in their
efforts because of various reasons but never because of
not trying. The rate at which a family becomes mainstream
depends mostly on how fast it can succeed economically
with economic success defined as self sufficiency. The
'tribal enclaves' will fade away as fewer and fewer people
need their cultural support. My kindergarten-age son understands
a little Vietnamese, but when my father, who understands just
a little English, speaks to him in Vietnamese, he always
responds to him in English. I witness everyday this phenomenon
of one generation breaking away from the mooring of another.
As a bridge generation, how I react to it you may ask. Many
years ago when I was struggling to mainstream myself, it was
a huge fear of losing one's root when my daughter responded
to me in English instead and now it is a total acceptance of
my son's response to my father.
Yogi, don't worry about what you perceive from the outside. The
day when an ethnic group refused to fight for this country's
defense is when we all should worry for our republic. As long
as, we work, pay taxes and willing to put our lives on the line to
defend our way of living, I think we all can consider ourselves one
'people' even though where we came from, when we got here, how
we got admitted may not be any more different.
-Al |
