Multiculturism
... the oppression of the Native American Woman. Rich’s essay deals with the topic of being raised as a participant in the Jewish community, yet being taught these things in a W.A.S.P (White Anglo Saxon Protestant). She talks about the constant struggle of trying to fit into the white Christian society like her mother, yet still bring up the Jewish traditions like her father. She also is a lesbian, which neither of her parents approves of. Her essay also deals with the fact that throughout history, people have looked down upon the people of the Jewish faith. And how there are two types of Jews. There is the so-called typical Jew, who is stringy with money and then there are the hidden Jews, who try not to acknowledge the fact that they are of the Jewish faith and try to keep from the ‘ dirty, ghetto Jews’. Both of these essays have concurring themes. These themes show numerous examples of the still prevalent feelings of discrimination. Leduke’s essay starts off with the standards of the Native American school system. The schools almost have an internal discrimination. They do not care about their traditions or history. For a society to succeed they must strive to create a history and record it. The council doesn’t want to teach the history of the tribe. If the history of the culture is not recorded, the future has no meaning. To not record the history of a culture is to kill the culture. That is one reason I think that the tribal council shows evidence of discrimination. They are discriminating against themselves. Another discrimination is against Leduke’s gender. Leduke says that the tribal council is mostly male, and that they are scared that a woman might rise up and then they would lose the spotlight. According to Laduke, the council takes credit for a lot of the work done by Laduke and other females. Rich’s essay shows the obvious signs of discrimination, with the telling of the ‘dirty ghetto Jews’. It is evident that the Jewish culture has been repressed for a long period of time. This is evident with the father telling her to try t...