Reading the chapter about Asian Americans, it talked a lot about the discrimination they faced coming into the U.S. whether it was the reasons they came, the struggles they overcame to get here, or how they were recieved once they got here. While many of these problems are no longer in existence today, there are still so many stereotypes that are negative that do very much exist. In the poem we read about Chinese Americans signing the Oath of Loyalty to the United States, the very last line said something like, "I wasn't good at math. I signed my only ticket out". The person in the poem was basically saying that she wasnt even good at math, the one thing that Americans assume all Asians are good at. If she wasn't good at math, then what was she good for in the United States? How is it possible that an Asian is not good at math? This is a stereotype that so many Americans have towards Asians. So basically by saying she wasn't good at math, she is saying she didn't fit into the category Americans put her in. I think it was implying that she didn't really have a place in this counrty, that classify people based on trival things such as math skills. And now, she signed away her loyalty to the United States, therby no longer making her a Chinese citizen, and keeping her in this country, where she was stereotyped, categorized..and not even good at math.
Brigit May, Post 11
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