Two Ways To Belong In America, By Bharati Mukherjee

Racism is the belief that one's race is superior compared to others. When people start to believe their race or religion is superior to others, they tend to have a harder time accepting others views. Therefore they are more judgemental about others opinions. Race and religion can be tied to a person's cultural beliefs as well. Culture greatly informs the way one views others because of culture, religion, etc., make up your individuality/ individual identity. People see others the way they were raised to see them, and the way our culture and environment expects us to see them. In the story, “Everyday Life” by Alice Walker, one of the main characters, Maggie, didn't let her culture affect the way she viewed others or the world, though.
She never felt oppressed when people didn't like her African culture, never wanted to change her name like her sister, nor was she ever ashamed of it who she was. Through the years her sister Dee was conflicted about her feelings towards her culture, Maggie never really said a word. She always “mhmed” and “okayed” the things Dee was doing. She didn't get angry at first when Dee wanted to take her grandma's old quilts but instead remembered that “[She] can ‘member [her] Grandma Dee without the quilts.” (Site) Back when her culture was semi-hated, she appreciated all the meaningful things whereas Dee was embarrassed. Once their culture became popular, Dee wanted the material items. She started saying how “[she] never knew how lovely the benches [were]. You can feel the rump prints.” Maggie, not caring about the material items, let Dee have what she wanted. She did get mad at first saying “blah blah insert text quote ik what I'm talking about..” but put her emotions aside and came to the realization that if Dee wants to live her life this way, then let her. If she wants to love her culture depending on if others do, then so be it. Maggie didn't need to do that. Although I feel this proves that Maggie's culture did not affect her views/ change any of her views, I also feel that it was her culture that helped teach her to be so carefree of other opinions. It taught her to not be judgmental of others just because they might be changing theirs. So in conclusion changing her views on the world. Though “everyday use” has some examples where culture does not affect a person's views , one of the other stories “Two Ways to Belong in America” by Bharati Mukherjee (check spelling) clearly shows it does.
In this story, the author Bharati sees America as a new beginning from her old life while her sister ( insert sister's name) sees the new American life as just an excuse to diminish their original culture. As Bharati mentioned in the beginning of the story, “[her and her sister] dressed alike, in saris; [They] expressed identical political views, social issues, love and marriage.” (Mukherjee 70) saying how they share the same culture. In her text, Bharati shares their differences when she states how “[They] probably pitied another. She for [her] lack of structure in [her] life… I, for the narrowness of [her] perspective” (Mukherjee 71) The sisters are similar in the way of heritage and how they were raised but differ in cultural identity. Bharati is happy others were taking the oath of citizenship because it made people more of a community, but by the end of the story, after listening to her sister's words, she changed her
views.
Another story, “An Indian Father's Plea” by Robert Lake, a young boy named Wind-Wolf is put into an official public educational system after growing up in a Tribe with his family.
He did not learn the same things the children in his class did and from day one, was considered “behind” by his teacher. Instead of helping Wind-Wolf, she labeled him as “slow” and made his culture seem like a burden/misfortune problem that's holding him back. Culture is more than one aspect of someone. Culture us the way someone is raised, the way they are taught to act towards others and the way they portray that knowledge to the world. Wind-Wolfs heritage affects the way he sees everything. He sees his fellow classmates as more in place because they all fit together. Wind-Wolf was even laughed at by his classmates due to his culture. After the constant teasing and bullying, he talked t his father and (insert quote) wanted to cut his hair, etc. his father thought that Wind-Wolf would have known better than to let these mean comments get to him, that he loved who he was too much, but he was wrong. Being so young, he didn't know how to fit in, he wasn't used to change, and because there was room for change, he felt the need to
adapt.
In my own experience, I've dealt with many situations where a person's own cultural views have impacted my life. I have grown up to be very optimistic and open-minded. It's actually quite ironic because I didn’t learn to be this open-minded from my parent. I sort of learned those things on my own because my parents had cultural views that just didn't seem right, so, in conclusion, I adapted my own.