A Different Mirror

Ronald Takaki describes flying into Norfolk, Virginia, and talking to the taxi driver who collects him from the airport. During the conversation, the driver asks how long Takaki has been in the United States, commenting that his English is very good. Takaki explains that his grandfather immigrated to the US from Japan in the 1880s. Yet he knows that despite how long his family has been in the country, the driver does not really think of him as American. Takaki thinks about how Virginia was the beginning of “multicultural America.” This was where English colonizers seized land from Native people, and where the first slave ship arrived carrying Africans to the continent.

Takaki knows that the driver’s thoughts were influenced by what Takaki calls the “Master Narrative of American History,” which falsely asserts that being American means being white. If you are not white, you are “Other,” and treated as “inferior” and “unassimilable.” The Master Narrative can be attributed to Frederick Jackson Turner, a historian who gave a talk in 1893 about the closing of the frontier. Turner argued that a new, distinctly American culture had emerged from the imposition of civilization onto the “savagery” of Native life and the natural landscape.

Shortly after, a Harvard professor named Oscar Handlin argued that immigrants were not just a part of American history; “they were American history.” However, his study of immigrants was limited to those who came from Europe. Takaki explains that today, overhauling the Master Narrative is urgent. White people will soon be a minority in the US, and because of the Master Narrative, most Americans have not been properly educated about the history of people of color in the nation. Educational institutions are beginning to realize this, and are establishing requirements in ethnic studies.

However, scholarship on ethnicity thus far has tended to only focus on one ethnic group at a time, which means the “bigger picture” is difficult to see. Takaki aims to study “race and ethnicity inclusively and comparatively,” examining many different groups side by side. Briefly introducing each group in the study, he begins with African Americans, who have been a vital component of the nation since its founding, yet who have been severely exploited and dehumanized for most of American history. Asian Americans also have a long history in the US, often brought in as much-needed labor and then shunned as “unassimilable” Others.

Many of the first Irish immigrants arrived as indentured servants; millions more later sought an escape from the deathly clutch of the Potato Famine. Jewish immigrants, meanwhile, were also seeking an escape from death, this time from the Russian pogroms and, later, the Holocaust. Many were disappointed by America’s lack of support for Holocaust victims, and as a result became important figures in the fight for (African American) civil rights. 

Many Mexican Americans did not actually choose to move to the US, but rather found themselves residents of the nation after the 1846-48 war shifted the border. Today, they represent the greatest proportion of undocumented immigrants to the US, and there remains disagreement over how to best address this issue. The book also looks at Muslim Americans, and specifically the Afghani refugees who came to the US following the 1979-89 war and rise of the Taliban. Following 9/11, many Afghan Americans were terrified of facing retaliation in their new home. The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2002 also confirmed that Afghan Americans would not be able return to their homeland anytime soon.

Native people were in what is currently the US thousands of years before Columbus “discovered” it. The creation of the American nation state meant the forced eradication of Native people and their ways of life. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson expressed hope that one day Americans would be a homogenous people who all spoke the same language. However, the demand for labor meant that workers from all over the world came to the country, bringing with them vastly different languages and cultures.

Ethnic tensions were rife, for example, between black and Irish people, who found themselves pitted against one another and developed deep resentments. However, different ethnic groups ultimately shared much as well: “labor experiences, hopeful dreams, and, above all, values.” Indeed, different groups were united through their shared participation in the US’ booming industries. These industries were literally tied together by the Transcontinental Railroad, which was built by Chinese, Irish, black, Japanese, and Mexican-American workers.

United by “shared class exploitation,” workers of different ethnicities at times maintained solidarity, such as by going on strike together. Struggling together as workers could make people forget ethnic differences. Likewise, immigrants of different ethnicities were linked by their hope in the American nation. Rumors would spread in various home countries depicting the US as a country of freedom, abundance, and possibility. Immigrants had faith that the Declaration of Independence assured equality for all.

The Civil War was initiated by enslavers who desperately opposed the abolition of slavery, and President Lincoln originally refused to allow black people to serve in the Union Army in fear of rebellion by those from the border states. However, a shortage of men led him to allow African Americans to serve. In the end, 186,000 black men fought, which proved essential to Union victory. Later, President Roosevelt’s decision not to desegregate the army during the Second World War led many people of color to question whether they should fight for a country where they were treated as second-class citizens. Many did serve, only to find that they would have to keep fighting for equal treatment following the end of the war.

In the 1960s, a wave of legislation helped promote justice for immigrants and citizens of color. In 1988, the government issued an apology and compensation for the Japanese-American victims of internment camps during the Second World War. The stories of ethnic minorities in the US have not always been heard, but listening to them is a powerful and vital way of understanding the nation. It can be painful for people of color to look in the “mirror” of American history and not see themselves reflected. The African-American poet Langston Hughes insisted that we “let America be America again,” meaning honoring the American principles of freedom and equality for all. Despite exploitation and oppression, ethnic minorities have built a rich and diverse nation, and it is important to recognize this truth.