Blog Post # 4
I truly enjoyed watching and reading these pieces. The TedTalk “How Long Does It Take To Become A True American” especially resonated with me because this is a story that has been told by so many wonderful, intelligent, hardworking souls that I feel are never truly appreciated. I feel like America is driven by a sense of work ethic, always something more you could be accomplishing or simply the fact that it is where opportunities are endless. But to what extent, and who are these opportunities really for. Along with those who are truly the most hard-working Americans? And are they getting treated as such? His mother spent her entire life working to provide a better life for herself and her family. And it honestly gave me the chills when the guard at costumes had the audacity to ask “What about her? Is she an American too?”, but sadly this is the world we live in today. Little did he know the sacrifices and hardship that women went through just to provide her children with the same opportunities their pupils had. How she immediately crouched, to play the role as her son said, what they want you to be rather than who she really was. Truly an amazing piece. Moving to his piece in The Times, I thought he beautifully captured the sad reality of men becoming unable to withstand the stress of their domestic responsibilities and leave, comparing it to “Out to Sea” which strangely fits the scenario well. I love the raw emotions and authenticity found in these pieces and all and all enjoyed them.
For the "What it means to be an American" video I also felt that the detail of his mother playing a part resonated with me. My mother is entirely Peruvian and there have been several times when I've been out with her in public and I think she did that too, for instance when we went to a bank. I understand the reasoning behind it, its strange to see a family member do it and not really comment about it. However I do feel it is a common thing to do as a foreigner in any country, what makes the detail he shared about his own mother more sad though is the fact that she had lived there for so long already as well as the fact that she worked with our military. At that point I think she is owed some credit, however it's hard to discern that from anyone just by what they look like, and throw in the fact that she isn't one from one of the prominent races that make up America, sometimes the instinct to just pretend or "crouch down" is the quickest and least conflicting action to take.
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