In Sandra S. Yamate's article, she brings up the re-occurring issue Asian Pacific Americans must face quite often:
"Asian Pacific Americans are a diverse group. They are comprised of over fifty different ethnic groups who share no common history, language, religion, or culture. Some belong to families who have lived in the United States for five generations, no longer speaking any other language but English..."(Yamate, 96).
Quite honestly, while I was aware that there were more than two groups of Asians beyond Chinese and Japanese, I had no idea that there were over fifty ethnic groups. I can't imagine how frustrating it would if I was an American living in Burma and the Burmese thought I was German or Italian.
In Linda Park's Project Mulberry, Julia is put in this awkward position of being called Chinese:
“Well I reckon your momma will be able to get some good use out of them. Don’t Chinese people use a lot of peppers in cooking?” (139).
Julia was embarrassed and offended by this comment because she was, in fact, Korean. While it is clearly a sensitive subject for Pacific Asian Americans to be placed in the inappropriate ethnic group, children's stories and other sources that can inform those that sometimes make false and naive assumptions can be properly educated.
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While reading this article I was also shocked to learn that there are over fifty different ethnic groups! This was something I was completely unaware of! After becoming enlightened of this fact I contemplate how to become better informed to be able to differentiate between the groups.
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