A Different Mirror Book Review
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America is an art masterpiece from a Chinese perspective. A plethora of factors that were instrumental in shaping current America, as we know it. The factors included power, gender issues, Chinese expectations, discrimination, jobs, and bachelor society. This paper focuses on the pertinent issues raised in Ron’s Work of literature and provide an appropriate response. Chinese moved to the United States of America in pursuit of opportunities to better their lives (Takaki). Life at home was unbearable with wars among many challenges. The Chinese believed that the US was a place of possibilities. Notably, the improved infrastructures in the US attracted many Chinese who moved in to make a mark. The Chinese had a high expectation upon heading to the US. Additionally, the Chinese hoped for gainful employment in the United States. To their shock, they were met with slavery. Most of the Chinese were brutally handled and suffered a great deal. Notably, they were forced to work in plantations with little food, and no pay with their women relentlessly harassed destroying the family units.
Furthermore, the job market was flawed with racial discriminations. Reportedly, the Chinese, though working at the same rate with the whites, as they described themselves were handled inhumanely. In one instance, more than 24000 Chinese were exempted from the mining industry based on their race (Takaki). Moreover, though they performed the same duties, whites received high and better remuneration than the Chinese. In many instances, the Chinese contributed immensely to the elevation of the American economy. Besides, enormous work in Agriculture, they too developed roads and installed an irrigation system. Upon the installation of the irrigation system as Ron Points out, the value of land, for an acre rose from 25$ to a 100$ within two years.
Finding it extremely hard to secure a job, and unemployed Americans being very hostile to their Chinese, they had to devise survival means. Consequently, the Chinese, out of desperation, ventured into the self-employment. Across the streets of American, Chines ventured into the business by the first restaurant, stores including the laundry in an attempt to create jobs for themselves. At one point, Ron points out on some cases, though isolated, of Chinese being ferried into the states of Mississippi and Louisiana and forced to work among the slaves. The move was a clear infringement of their inherent rights as human beings. However, this brutal act is interpreted as some intimidation to compel the chines to submit. Ron Takaki describes the treatment Chinese received from their supposed host. In one of the instances, the magazines racially abused the chines by using racially segregated language in demeaning the Chinese (Takaki). They were seen as inferior in terms of morals and that lust and their actions drove them were childlike. In the year 1854, the Supreme Court join the bandwagon of the racist by literally stating that the Chinese were not whites. The authorities infringe on the rights of the minorities with impunity. The Indians, the colored and the blacks are not spared either.
In conclusion, the 19th century depicts American Society that was racist.
One may argue that the society was economy defining itself at the expense of other races. Though most of the different nationalities viewed America as a land of endless opportunities, the opportunities came at a price. Most of the immigrants were harassed, discriminated, brutally treated, and in extreme cases murdered. Shockingly, the groups mentioned were not authorized to give any evidence that probably might incriminate the whites. Their rights are infringed upon and treated as lesser human beings. Moreover, the judicial system does not provide relief either. Similar to the brutal and racist society, the Asians are declared nonwhite.
Works Cited
Takaki, Ronald. A different mirror: A history of multicultural America (Revised edition).
eBookIt. com, 2012.
