Bringing Awareness to The Fight for Equality It seems quite ridiculous, really, that the struggle for equality still holds present as an issue. People born with the same rights and status are presented with unequal opportunities and whether it be due to race, religion, or anatomical design, justice and equal treatment should be an unspoken right. Vickie Nam in her book YELL-Oh Girls! uses emerging voices from around the globe to explore culture, identity, and growing up Asian American. Nam, using herself and countless other women, promotes equality for all people by giving the reader a feel of what it is like to grow up a minority. In “My Mother’s Food” an excerpt from YELL-Oh Girls!, Nora Keller loved gobbling bits of her mother’s kim chee. She and her friend Frankie, hooked on the garlicky Chinese cabbage, would eat it everyday. She hesitates, “But I didn’t realize that I smelled like kim chee, …show more content…
“I held my smile, frozen, as she flitted away from me. She had punched me in the stomach with her words” (Nam 105). Keller was victim of stereotyping and it happens everyday all around the world. Due to her ethnic background she was singled out. “Stereotypes are a big problem in our society. It puts labels about how a person should act or live according to their sex, race, personality, and other facts. This could affect individuals who perhaps like different things or do different activities, but feel ashamed of doing so because of stereotypes” (Robles).
A similar situation unfolds in “My Country’ Tis Not of Thee”. Elizabeth Leung explains, “I was a good student, extremely docile. That is what girls were supposed to do: obey and be quiet” (Nam 31). Leung expresses her disgust with the common conception about women. She tells on, “I also learned how the great white men of America have been kind enough to educate the wretched countries of the Third World about the