My synthesis essay was lowkey garbage, I can admit that, although I can say my grammar has improved a lot from prior things I have handed in.
Things I did poorly was formatting and overall relevancy because to be completely honest this was a topic I wasn’t particularly interested in and that definitely shows within this piece. so overall mechanics were better but the ideas behind it were not up to my typical standards. I feel like there is no real improvement to be made cause given my passion behind it, it’s the best I can do. A lot of my connections were stretched and forced and I was aware of that while writing.
Although this isn’t my topic of choice I can say that Hasan Minhaj’s show was so good though.
Being a minority has many (Cant remember what I meant to put here) because of the discrimination they have faced and the unique circumstances they are placed in because of a multitude of different factors. What conflicts may arise when one has a minority identity? Homecoming King (on Netflix) by Hasan Minhaj is a comedy piece that utilizes his ethnicity for humour. Minhaj talks about his life experiences as a first-generation immigrant; he was raised by his father in Davis, California during the late 80’s and 90’s. Minhaj’s humour is centered around his life using purely anecdotal comedy; he covers topics from prejudice to parental expectations being an American Muslim Indian. What Kind of Asian are You? by Alex Dang is a spoken word that talks about the stereotyping he faces being an Asian-American. Dang primarily stays focused on the stereotype racism from being Asian ie: bad driving, good at math, and famous Asian people. Dang is from Portland, Oregon and is a first-generation immigrant from Asia; his family also had struggles with monetary struggles and communication issues due to his guardians not being fluent in English. Both sources speak on the topic of having a minority identity and touch on similar ideas. However, the way the conflict is originated is very different: the problems Minhaj faces comes from a 1960 southern USA mindset where it is just senseless discrimination for seemingly little reason. Conversely, Dang’s issues with racism stem out of misinformation about his culture perpetuated by stereotypes surrounding Asian people. Nonetheless, both sources deal with the same minority issues: parental communication, lack of understanding from other kids during grade school, and self-confidence or lack there of. Despite that they cover similar minority issues some of the actual conflicts within the issues are different but enforce the same ideas.
H.K (Homecoming instead for all instances of this) and Kind of Asian both have portions where they speak on parental issues as first-generation immigrants. Minhaj (H.K) talks about parental expectations as an immigrant child; his parents are strict and pressure him to do well: “’Dad, what’s your favourite colour?’ Dad: ‘Stanford!’” (Minhaj). The only thing on Minhaj’s father’s mind is the success of his son. Minhaj further explains that even success is not celebrated by first-generation immigrants and their parents; he says this because he feels children have been conditioned by their parents to believe that success is the bar they need to be constantly above. Minhaj uses a clip of a young boy winning 30,000 dollars on national television with no visible reaction from him or his parents to emphasize the point that this is the expectation immigrant children must adhere to because of pressure from parents. Alex Dang covers similar parental issues in a few lines of his spoken word: “Let me tell you about the struggle of Asian parents not knowing the language so we ate pet food because it was cheaper Let me tell you about the job of interpreter” (Dang). In these lines Alex explains that his parents lack of linguistic knowledge causes monetary issues and huge responsibility placed on his shoulders by having to be the middle man in communication. This is different from the parental expectations faced by Minhaj, but it supports the same idea that immigrants are stuck with a lot of responsibility whether it be in school or in life. Dang also suggests that immigrant families may have a lower quality of life due to monetary struggles; minorities may have a harder time finding steady jobs due to lack of communication skills due to linguistic inabilities.
Facing racism is a common event for most people in a minority group. Both Minhaj and Dang utilize their experiences with racism in their work (This is fine because I’m not talking about their physical workplace but their artistic pieces, kind of struggled with the wording on this one but it does work). Minhaj has two sets that showcase the type of prejudice any minority may face daily. On his prom night he has plans to go with a white girl who he has studied with and hung out with on numerous occasions, but, to his surprise, when he shows up at her house he sees a white boy with a corsage and her mother says, “We have a lot of family back home in Nebraska, and we’re going to be taking photos, so we don’t think you’d be a good fit” (Minhaj). Nebraska is generally more racist than California, so the girls mother decides that Minhaj shouldn’t go to the dance with the girl because of the family conflict it might cause. Additionally, after 9/11 some people smashed the windows of Minhaj’s family cars and yelled, “Sand nigger” at him and his father. Dang speaks more on the history of the racial slurs he hears and emphasizes how brutal they truly are by sharing their origins: “Like how chink comes from the clanking of metal to railroads as the slaves built train tracks for this country to be connected.” (Dang). Racism and prejudice can be very diverse; Dang speaks more about the offensive terms and how they degrade cultures on every level; these terms are designed to put other people down and Dang further explains that it makes him question his worth and feel shameful of his race and culture. These slurs are typically heard from people who do not play an important role in one’s life. Minhaj talks about a different aspect, he speaks about how the people you think you can trust can discredit any relationship already built based on skin colour and what people might think. When one receives this type of discrimination it is not as verbally cruel but it still has a similar effect to slurs because the people involved play a bigger role in one’s life.
There are more than just concrete examples of conflict that any minority may face; psychological conflict may also occur, in the cases of Minhaj and Alex Dang it centered around. People will often react quite differently to discrimination of their culture and, thus, have a different out look on it. In Kind of Asian, Dang clearly has a harsher out look on the stereotyping and racism he has experienced as an Asian immigrant as demonstrated by his lyrics: “Every time you confuse me with some other nationality that I might share similar features to is stripping away my individuality and I still feel the shame of being Asian”(Dang). Dang deals with discrimination by stating his concerns about the conflicts he is involved in. Contrarily, in H.K, Minhaj takes a lighter approach and is not as emotional: “Do you know when brown kids get slapped? Every brown birthday party.” Minhaj speaks about how immigrant children get hit by their parents to be kept in line. This is a serious issue because, at least in Western philosophy, no kids should ever be hit by their parents, but he makes a joke out of it showing that it is his way of coping with an issue that he faces as an immigrant. There are many more ways people may react and cope with the conflicts that they endure, Minhaj and Dang are just two examples of how people resolve inner conflicts
Though the serious ideas both H.K and Kind of Asian cover are very similar, the actual conflicts addressed are different. Both Minhaj and Dang talk about how they have faced discrimination due to their ethnicity. Minhaj talks about how he received it from people he had trust in and was friends with whereas Dang talks about the general stereotyping and racial slurs he hears seemingly out of the blue from people he has less connections with. Both artists also speak about how family dynamics are different than what is considered normal in western society due to the responsibilities pressured on them as children. Dang was forced to be the interpreter and was given the responsibility of communicating for his parents which is a huge job for a child to handle. Conversely, Minhaj was pressured to do very well in school because his parents had left everything at home to give their child a better life in America. Where Dang and Minhaj’s experiences differ is all in their mindset and the way they mentally dealt with the problems they were faced with while younger. Dang takes a more emotional and serious approach whereas Minhaj takes a joking and humorous approach to it; it is important to note that these are 2 popular ways of coping with issues. Minorities, and more specifically immigrants, face more than just racism; family dynamic and heritage conflicts also arise. Immigrant children may have a harder time being accepting of their own heritage because they do not grow up completely immersed in it; in fact, they grow up almost entirely in a different heritage besides at home. Additionally, because of this, when immigrant children are picked on for their different culture it can make it harder to keep their heritage because the people they grow up around do not share the same the background. If a society is accepting and celebratory of different cultures it may create more happy and flourishing people with less insecurities.
But my vocab though ^^^^^^
