When considering a person’s ethnicity, no one factor can be taken into account to form a specific answer. Judith Ortiz Cofer suggests that two distinctly different cultures can bridge together, allowing for an inbetween, a way to have both without choosing one over the other. As a child Cofer moved between American upstate New Jersey and the Spanish countryside of Puerto Rico. Going back and forth allowed her to eventually adopt both cultures as her own. Cofer could speak, read, and write in both languages, making her a translator- and often decision maker- for her monolingual mother. This curve in identity allowed Cofer a new aspect on ethnicity as a whole. In each of her writings she combines the two cultures in a way that makes a story, and sends a message to readers. Her American experience was at first a negative one, associated with movement and instability, but as time wore on she found herself mastering English and pursuing a career in a culture other …show more content…
In his 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo Reed writes about an epidemic of black culture-or Jes Grew- seeping into the American mainstream like the black plaque. He suggests that white culture is the true form of civilization “Don 't you understand, if this Jes Grew becomes pandemic, it will mean the end of Civilization as We Know It?"(Reed chapter two). He argues that the two cultures are completely different, with white culture being the face of normality. Reed suggests that blacks show contempt even for their own race when they have become more successful- or more “white” cultured. Reed wrote stories that were playful, relevant, thought provoking and left readers yearning for more. His ideas on race dealt more with people’s own intrinsic views of inferiority as opposed to the true nature of skin tone. The idea that white culture was the goal to be supreme, not white