(1) Americanization: Why My Name Is Amy

Americanization, the act of adjusting to and internalizing American culture and values, is one that immigrants in the United States experience no matter their race, but this explanation will center on the process for minorities. Americanization isn’t inherently bad. Without it, we wouldn’t enjoy deep dish pizza or use many words in the Americanized version of the English language. But this doesn’t mean that the process of assimilating is always easy. While doing so, immigrants may find themselves forced to juggle between their ancestral and American heritages from others who may not consider them to be American or those who may not understand their non-American cultural identities.

    Given the recent influx of Hispanic and Asian Americans when compared to the racial demographics of this country, it is much easier to identify non-White immigrants and their descendants by sight than their White European counterparts. For example, if one had to assume that either someone who was White or someone who was Indian was an immigrant or a recent descendent of one, many would likely pick the Indian.

    These assumptions of foreignness can manifest themselves in the forms of questions such as asking someone who is Asian where they are from, having a minority specify their ethnicity (e.g. “What kind of Asian are you?”), asking a minority if they speak the language of their ancestral land, or complimenting a minority on their abilities to speak English. These assumptions in turn, warranted or not, can lead even well-adjusted minority immigrants and their children to feel like perpetual foreigners in their own land. These feelings can also be reinforced when cultural aspects that may have been taken for granted in the ancestral land become a source of alienation and confusion by Americans who cannot understand them. For example, having to choose between honoring one’s ancestral culture through something as simple as a name and between being understood by others is a privilege many Americans take for granted that many of these Americans don’t have. Some of this confusion simply can’t be helped and requires an honest compromise between both parties. Americans not recently descended from immigrants simply need to make a sincere effort to learn about the cultures and names of their acquaintances. And those of you fellow Americans who are recent descendants from immigrants, just be patient with us.