Sunday, April 27, 2008
Closing Statements about My Overall Understanding of My Cultural Experience
For my final blog entry, I thought I would close with a few statements about my overall understanding about my cultural experience. From the beginning, I was trying to understand why Filipino-Americans tend to gravitate towards those of similar heritage and why my white skin always overshadowed my own Filipino heritage. However along the way, I learned about Filipino family structure and its importance, the relationship between the United States and the Philippines both past and present, and the arguments for same-race matching and cross-race matching. All such things thus contributed to answering my question in some way or another about Filipino-Americans, while I also gained insight into the lives of indigenous Filipino people as well. The past relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines may very well have put a bad taste in the mouths of Filipino people, therefore contributing the reactions I met in the Filipino village. In terms of Filipino-Americans, their tendency to gravitate towards those of similar appearance and background may be a result of their desire to form a sense of community in a new country in which they can share and maintain certain traditions and ideologies, such as their focus and great respect for the family unit. Furthermore, I think it also important to state that it is not only Filipino-Americans that tend to gravitate towards those of similar appearance and background but also it is all people in general who do this, whether they are members of a minority group or they consider themselves Caucasian. While suspending judgment during this blog was difficult for me at first, I am glad I did because in doing so, I gained a greater understanding and appreciation not only for an outside tradition and heritage but for my own tradition and heritage as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Sam,
I really enjoyed reading this blog. It captivated my attention because of the way you use research to explain your personal encounters. While I cannot relate directly to your personal experiences as am I not Filipina, the way you write about your emotions attached to the experiences allows me to understand where you are coming from. I feel I am able to indirectly relate, especially when you explain feeling like an outside in a community you identify yourself with. As you write these personal experiences, you do a good job of stating how you felt at the time but removing yourself from the situation as you try to understand why you felt that way. This shows a level of maturity, and also shows how you were able to suspend your beliefs and emotions as you began to investigate why you felt ostracized. Your entry titled “The Philippine-American Relationship from a Historical Point of View” exemplifies your ability to intertwine personal experience with research to come to an understanding that you did not previously have. You begin by discussing your experience during your second trip to the Philippines in which you were not immediately accepted into Pia’s village, and through outside research, you were able to understand that it is part of the culture and history to have resentment towards the country by which they were controlled for so long. I like how this experience further shows the point you make in earlier blogs about how important family and community is: as soon as the village knew you were Filipina, they immediately accepted and embraced you.
I also really enjoyed your blog entry about same-race matching vs. cross-race matching. I think you did a good job of expanding your blog beyond just your personal experiences about not immediately being recognized as Filipina. This entry is something that most people are able to relate to, even if it is indirectly. There are times on the Wheaton campus when I wonder why so many minority kids and Posse kids hang out with themselves rather than branching out. I think this blog poses interesting questions about why people stick with those that look like them. You are able to take your personal experiences and expand them to an issue that many others can relate to, which makes your cross-cultural encounter more relevant for most readers.
Your conclusion sums up your overall experience well. At the beginning, you mostly talked about your personal experiences, which set up a solid background for your research. Your last few blogs were filled with research and show where you were really able to suspend your prior beliefs and grow as a person. Good work!
Love,
Sara
Post a Comment