History to Histories
A look at a negative or absent Hispanic American history.
According to Martin and Nakayma in Intercultural Communications in Context, “many different kinds of
history influences our understanding of who we are—as individuals, as family members,
as members of cultural groups, and as citizens of a nation” (Martin &
Nakayama, 2013, p. 128). The history of
societies is truly based around the concept of power: whatever culture has more
of it gets more history. For instance, in the United States, our nation’s
history is focused around a positive white perception and experience, rather
than say an African American or Hispanic American history. Because of power,
our history books are “white.” We are now in a time of change; therefore, if
our nation and overall human society attempts to shift from one single history
to a multitude of histories that make up our world, we will broaden our
understanding of others and strengthen relationships and the effectiveness of
communication.
Coming
from a small town in Nebraska, I must admit, I have led a pretty sheltered
life. I am surrounded by a lot of the same culture (rural, white, middle-class,
etc.) However, being at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, I have met
people from many cultures. Recently I have become friends with several students
within the Multicultural Student, particularly a few amazing Hispanic young
women. While they like much of the same music as I do and same activities as I
do, their cultural histories are much different than mine. They constantly face
discrimination because of recent and on-going issues with illegal immigration.
Many look at someone who is Latino and assume they are here illegally, which is
entirely false. Many are here perfectly legal simply looking for better lives. 
A fairly
recent event that has impacted many of that culture is the push for strict
immigration laws in Arizona. The law called into question the integrity of many
Hispanic individuals who were living in the state of Arizona. It would have
allowed for government officials to be able to ask for a legal form of U.S.
identification if there was any suspicion of trespassing, transporting of
illegal immigrants, human smuggling, etc. (Morse, 2011). While the bill was a
clear representation of racial profiling, many were in support of it. This is a
prime example of stereotyping and racism simply because there is so much
ignorance in our country. Although I may not have a clear understanding of the
Mexican and Latino culture, I do know that there is more to the people than a
border between the U.S. and Mexico. There is strong, positive history that
needs to be told.
By
embracing other histories, various cultures would be able to accept and respect
one another for being able to experience and understand not just a white
culture or an African American culture or a Hispanic culture, but rather just culture, a whole culture, not just
pieces. This would allow easier and more respectful communication between
diverse backgrounds. To gain respect, a group must simply listen to another’s
story or experience—their history. By being able to identify with various
perspectives on history/histories, our society would grow in its capabilities
to negotiate peace and understanding. (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).
References
Martin, J.N.,
& Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural
Communication in Contexts (6th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Morse, A. (2011).
Analysis of Arizona’s immigration enforcement laws. National Conference of State Legislatures, Retrieved September 26,
2013, from http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/immig/analysis-of-arizonas-immigration-law.aspx.
National Hispanic American heritage month
2013. (2013). Retrieved September 26, 2013, from
http://hispanicheritagemonth.gov/legal/index.html.
It still amazes me that people were okay with that law passing in Arizona. I even know people from Nebraska with relatives that were first-handedly affected by it. American racism at its finest, that's for sure. I'm wondering if you think stereotypical laws will be passed when our generation is running the country. Of if America has a long line of learning to do before citizens are okay with other cultures being in this country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily that it's amazing that such a bill could be passed in any state. It's a shame that such archaic ideas are still around.
ReplyDeleteYour visual aids are really well-chosen and helpful to your overall presentation. You got me interested with the silly Dwight picture, and ending with the news story really draws it all together.
First of all, when you said "The history of societies is truly based around the concept of power: whatever culture has more of it gets more history", I felt that this was a very important and strong statement. When you tied the United States with a "positive white perception", you show basically that majority holds power and in turn, holds the history in their hands. Really strong blog Rachel!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that in America we overlook a lot of other cultures that we aren't in direct contact with on a day to day basis. It is important to learn about other cultures and their history, not just our own. If everyone did that there wouldn't be a thing called racism in the world today.
ReplyDeleteWait, what? "This (the Arizona immigration bill) is a prime example of stereotyping and racism simply because there is so much ignorance in our country" - you are stereotyping the supporters of the bill as being "racist" and "ignorant"? Interesting. Aside from the fact that your statement is, in your own words, "a prime example of stereotyping", I'm curious: what led you to conclude that the bill was motivated by racism and ignorance? When I think about that bill, "racism" and "ignorance" seem to be no part whatsoever of it, but perhaps I am wrong. I may have missed news stories about the motivations for the bill. Thus, I am curious: what led you to conclude that the bill was motivated by racism and ignorance?
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, you appear to be in the throes of what Martin & Nakayama describe as the Resistance stage of Majority Identity Development (p. 185 of our textbook).
To clarify, since I realized that my statement may appear harsh: I don't agree with some of the overall ideas in our textbook, among which is the theory of how majority identity development occurs. Thus, I was simply reminded of that stage while reading your blog post. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the depth to your blog and connection to course concepts especially the issue with power. What I would like to read more of is specific historical examples or think about these as stories. I think the example that you provided is certainly important to include in the dialogue about Latino/a American identities and cultures, but I would love to read more about the history.
ReplyDeleteI also see much improvement with your implication paragraph. Keep working on developing those ideas. I enjoyed reading your post.
Peter,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification. Looking back on this blog post after our most recent chapter on language. I see some parallels between the conversation that you have sparked here and the power of labels especially in terms of your third blog post. I appreciate that you challenge the position of the text. I am interested to hear more about where you diverge from Martin & Nakayama.