POW in a PWI (2.0) - Me No Speak English

When I was working at a PWI (Primarily White Institution) in Santa Barbara, I thought it was going to be okay. Part of it was due to my still being ignorant about the dynamics of race and my own identity. I had glimpses of understanding when I was in graduate school at another PWI west of Chicago but not enough to propel me towards true cultural competence. Also, it was California! The land of diversity (so I thought) where I could find every kind of food within a few square miles and that Asian Americans were found outside of Chinatown and other urban spaces. So different from Boston! Hooray!

Well, not so much.

One encounter ----One day a staff member and me were talking on the steps facing the library and frankly I can't recall exactly what we were discussing. BUT, I remember this...she told me that TRUE Americans speak English meaning no English as a Second Language or even a distinguishable accent. All I could think, "Do you have any idea who you're talking to?" I think that my Model Minority albeit Honorary White status allowed her to say this insulting and rather stupid statement to me.

The truth is that my grandmother who immigrated from China with two young sons in tow barely speaks a lick of English. However, she's a loyal US naturalized citizen who loves Bruins hockey and worked in the sweatshops in Boston's Chinatown. Even if she wanted to learn "perfect English," no such programs existed for people like her in the 1940s due to the racism and nationalism in the US at the time. Add to it she became a young widow with now four children who was working, working, working to take care of her family.

When it comes to citizenship, it's a complex issue but knowing English should never be a sign of one's loyalty to a country, a people or a to another person.

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