Almost every day, as the school bus approached his bus stop, my father would peer out the window to plan his escape route. For when he stepped off the bus, he knew he would have to run. He didn’t have to run because he wanted to get home in time to watch his favorite cartoon, or because he would late. He would have to run because he knew the group of Moroccan boys would be waiting, rocks ready in their hands, to throw at him. And as he ran away, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him, the group of boys sneered “Shinwa.” Chinese.
My father and I share a common experience: we learned from a young age what it meant to be a foreigner, what it meant to not belong. My father was not Chinese. But because of the way he looked, and because of the foreign language that he spoke, he was labeled as an outsider. He simply didn’t belong. And that was reason enough for the young boys to throw rocks at him, and reason enough for him to run home every day after school.
With time, situations have changed. True, the majority of people may not throw rocks at foreigners today, but that does not mean that “outsiders” are not being discriminated in different ways. To understand how the treatment of foreigners has evolved, let us look at the history of the term “foreigner.”
There may not be a specific time or place from which the term originiated; however, it can be traced. The Romans, for example, called anyone non-Roman “barbaric.” Justifying their discrimination with religion, the Romans exploited the Eastern European Slavs as slaves. Interestingly, over time, the term “Slav” evolved to mean “foreigner.”
In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay, opening Japan to the Western World. The Japanese, defenseless and with out any other choice but to open up its ports, called Perry and his sailors “Barbarians of the West.” Over 150 years later, the term has changed, yet the meaning remains the same.The Japanese term 外人, (gaijin) to translate literally, means “outside person,” further differentiaing between those who belong, and those who don’t.
We can also explore the history of exploitation of foreigners and use of the term “alien” in America. America exploited African slaves as cheap labor on Southern plantations before the country even gained independence from Great Britain. In the late 1700‘s, worried that America would soon be at war with France, Congress passed the Alien Act of 1798. Aimed towards “aliens,” or foreigners, the act authroized the President to “deport aliens dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States.” Related acts, such as the Alien Enemies Act, further presents evidence of prejudice centered towards foreigners who supposedly posed a threat national security.
Sound farmiliar? Are things really that different today?
Foreiners are still be exploited. Take, for example, the “foreigners price.” Do we not almost instinctively raise prices on food, rent, and tuition for outsiders, because we assume they can afford it? Don’t inhabitants of well-to-do countries exploit foreign immigrants by providing low wages and harsh working conditions to this day?
Racial prejudice has always played a role in the treatment and perception of foreigners as well. From slavery in the U.S., to derrogatory remarks, racial prejudice has always been linked to the treatment of outsiders. As controversial as the issue is, we continue to pull people out of security lines at airports simply because of the way they look. The Alien Act may not be in effect today, but that doesn’t mean other acts aren’t discriminatig against minorities. Take for example, the Patriot Act. In our post-9/11 society, we immediately associate “different” as suspicious, and the act allows the U.S. government to detain any “suspicious” individuals. Do their acts, or their appearance lead us to discriminate? We are still exploiting and discriminating against foreigners to this day.
I didn’t have to run home every day to avoid being thrown rocks at; instead, my experience led to feelings of frustration at other peoples’ cultural ignorance, and possibilty that things would never really change. History teaches us that conditions will change, but the prejudice towards foreigners will remain. While we may think that in the 21st Century we are open-minded, we continue to exploit foreigners, distribute the term “outsider,” and are thus, just as close-minded as ever before.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The Human Alien
The planet Earth is just one piece of sand on the beach we call the Universe. Hence, it is really hard to think that we are the only inhabitants of this immense structure. This explains the many searches for life on our neighboring planets, the alien image in pop cultures and all of the dubious alien-abductions and UFO’s. That is why until we don’t encounter those green, round-headed creatures, we try to find, or rather create aliens among ourselves.
Sadly, it is human nature to feel superior to others – to alienate. Therefore, just by being a foreigner, having a different religion, different color of skin, or simply by belonging to a different clique, a person can be alienated. However, in my article I would like to concentrate on the people of different sexual orientation: homosexuals and society’s outcasts: prisoners.
Lately, a person’s sexual orientation has become an important part of the person’s identity; namely, society puts too much stress on it. People get tagged – they become straight or gay, a distinction that is simply too vague. Yet, the alien among these two is the homosexual. Why? Simply because they are ‘different’ (whatever that might signify) and because they do not follow nature’s canon. And instead of accepting that difference, society chooses to alienate them. An example of this is the death penalty for homosexuals that existed during the French Revolution and the horrible treatment that they received in the concentration camps during World War 2. Why? Just because they were homosexuals.
On the other hand, the prisoners are psychologically and physically alienated – they are put into prisons and segregated from society. This is an example on how society punishes people for their wrongdoings – puts them between four concrete walls, in a world guided by routine. Also, the only communications that they have with the outside world are letters and the few visits that they have the right to. And after their ‘stay’ in the prison they are expected to reintegrate into society; however, that is not an easy task for they have been turned into E.T. and they will act like the alien. At least for the first few months.
Thus, in order to satisfy the people’s hunger to be someone different, someone alien, society has created aliens among us. Everyone has felt like an alien at least at one point in their lives, you know that feeling when you are in a room full of people, and yet you feel completely alone? Not a very comfortable feeling, eh?
Sadly, it is human nature to feel superior to others – to alienate. Therefore, just by being a foreigner, having a different religion, different color of skin, or simply by belonging to a different clique, a person can be alienated. However, in my article I would like to concentrate on the people of different sexual orientation: homosexuals and society’s outcasts: prisoners.
Lately, a person’s sexual orientation has become an important part of the person’s identity; namely, society puts too much stress on it. People get tagged – they become straight or gay, a distinction that is simply too vague. Yet, the alien among these two is the homosexual. Why? Simply because they are ‘different’ (whatever that might signify) and because they do not follow nature’s canon. And instead of accepting that difference, society chooses to alienate them. An example of this is the death penalty for homosexuals that existed during the French Revolution and the horrible treatment that they received in the concentration camps during World War 2. Why? Just because they were homosexuals.
On the other hand, the prisoners are psychologically and physically alienated – they are put into prisons and segregated from society. This is an example on how society punishes people for their wrongdoings – puts them between four concrete walls, in a world guided by routine. Also, the only communications that they have with the outside world are letters and the few visits that they have the right to. And after their ‘stay’ in the prison they are expected to reintegrate into society; however, that is not an easy task for they have been turned into E.T. and they will act like the alien. At least for the first few months.
Thus, in order to satisfy the people’s hunger to be someone different, someone alien, society has created aliens among us. Everyone has felt like an alien at least at one point in their lives, you know that feeling when you are in a room full of people, and yet you feel completely alone? Not a very comfortable feeling, eh?
Alienation in Society
The issue of alienation has become a rapidly growing problem in our modern everyday society. Directly or indirectly, we are all targeted by this term which certainly has lived up to its infamous reputation. Alienation is used as a broad term to describe situations in which people have been affected in various ways with negative outcomes. These outcomes occur as the result of ill-treatment within a society.
Targets of alienation are distributed along a wider range; therefore to narrow this broad range of targets down to children is a crucial task. This is so because to understand the minds of children is a sensitive effort due to their vulnerability to the influence or corruption of the outside world. That is, the world of adults, the world in which their innocence and youth do not belong. To complete this task successfully we must first investigate the unique elements of the mind which are then linked to destructive emotions, as well as the significance and impact of human relationships.
Let us begin with the home. Due to the madness of the 21st century the values of the home are continually degrading in such a way that the necessary contributions each family member owes are being overlooked. It is up to the parents to create and provide the children with a safe environment in which to live. A safe environment is one in which the parents do what they can to protect their children from harm. They give value to the home, and raise their children in a trusty environment. In an ideal home, children feel free to express and discuss important things with their parents thus creating an unconditional bond which cannot be broken. However, in some unfortunate cases, the bonds that link the members of a family can be broken.
Divorce has become a norm in the western world but its consequences must not be overlooked by society. Parental alienation arises from the wish to divorce. The Parental Alienation Syndrome (P.A.S.) refers to the efforts of one parent to spoil the child’s perception of the other parent. In other words, P.A.S. refers to the efforts to turn a child against the other parent. These efforts would obviously have long-term effects on the child who must suffer from the selfishness of such a parent. Do you find yourself asking what kinds values a selfish parent might have? Parents constantly have to give something of themselves in order to make their children’s lives as good as possible. In this case a parent that has given too much might in the end lose or forget the values of his or her own life. In such cases, we cannot blame parents for making a decision which would benefit their own lives. However, those parents, whose lives’ intentions are to benefit themselves only, are indeed selfish. Children are pushed aside feeling unwanted and unloved. Money, jealousy, fear and revenge are all factors which contribute to self-centered decision making.
Children tend to have complex internal emotions which can often lead to guilt. Maybe they were the reason why their parents divorced? It is mere exposure that sparks curiosity in children’s minds and leads to painful emotions. Negotiations between the parents and children must be made in order for a healthy transition to take place. We must never underestimate the effects of divorce on children because divorce is often a reason why children develop social problems. If parents make their children feel unwanted, then these children would naturally reach the conclusion that they are not wanted by anyone, resulting in societal difficulties.
Yet how can this possibly be a healthy transition? The alienating parent intentionally risks the health of the relationship of the child and the other parent. Such domestic problems lead the child to experience such emotions as fear, anger, or increasing insecurity which have an effect on the roles children play in society and most importantly in large social institutions such as school. In school, their insecure states of mind could become the targets of bullying.
Domestic problems may or may not cause children to become insecure. In such cases when this does occur, insecurity could lead children to have certain behavioral problems through which they easily become outcasts in society. Domestic problems could lead to behavior problems such as increased anger, violence, or in some cases emotional detachment, depression, self conscience or isolation.
It is known that people in society today either consciously or unconsciously steer away from the company of people who are not very open towards others. Children with bad approaches to society become emotionally isolated from the rest because they do not feel anybody else understands them. We have to understand that divorce causes children to undergo a drastic change in their lives. When people in general undergo such changes, they focus only on the pain that the change brings to their lives. Focusing on the pain, children fear that it could get worse which is what causes them to draw back from society. Emotions can cause us to act in irrational ways; this is why emotional isolation can prevent the freedom of expression in children suffering from alienation due to divorce.
Personally, I have a friend who has suffered from the emotional pain resulting from her parents’ divorce. Although we have never been as close as we might’ve been, I assume she indulged herself in her interests as a way to escape this problem when we were little. When I moved back, others told me she was strange and unsocial, yet when we talked, she was about one of the nicest people I stumbled upon. The view a society has of a person has a lot to do with how they are treated. In small societies, domestic problems are so often talked about that they no longer remain domestic. The mere knowledge that someone has a specific problem naturally causes people to treat that person differently. So how can children fit in societies in which they already know what is spoken of them? I hold the belief that children can find ways to heal, but it is tragic that they should be put in such positions in the first place as a result of ignorance.
Targets of alienation are distributed along a wider range; therefore to narrow this broad range of targets down to children is a crucial task. This is so because to understand the minds of children is a sensitive effort due to their vulnerability to the influence or corruption of the outside world. That is, the world of adults, the world in which their innocence and youth do not belong. To complete this task successfully we must first investigate the unique elements of the mind which are then linked to destructive emotions, as well as the significance and impact of human relationships.
Let us begin with the home. Due to the madness of the 21st century the values of the home are continually degrading in such a way that the necessary contributions each family member owes are being overlooked. It is up to the parents to create and provide the children with a safe environment in which to live. A safe environment is one in which the parents do what they can to protect their children from harm. They give value to the home, and raise their children in a trusty environment. In an ideal home, children feel free to express and discuss important things with their parents thus creating an unconditional bond which cannot be broken. However, in some unfortunate cases, the bonds that link the members of a family can be broken.
Divorce has become a norm in the western world but its consequences must not be overlooked by society. Parental alienation arises from the wish to divorce. The Parental Alienation Syndrome (P.A.S.) refers to the efforts of one parent to spoil the child’s perception of the other parent. In other words, P.A.S. refers to the efforts to turn a child against the other parent. These efforts would obviously have long-term effects on the child who must suffer from the selfishness of such a parent. Do you find yourself asking what kinds values a selfish parent might have? Parents constantly have to give something of themselves in order to make their children’s lives as good as possible. In this case a parent that has given too much might in the end lose or forget the values of his or her own life. In such cases, we cannot blame parents for making a decision which would benefit their own lives. However, those parents, whose lives’ intentions are to benefit themselves only, are indeed selfish. Children are pushed aside feeling unwanted and unloved. Money, jealousy, fear and revenge are all factors which contribute to self-centered decision making.
Children tend to have complex internal emotions which can often lead to guilt. Maybe they were the reason why their parents divorced? It is mere exposure that sparks curiosity in children’s minds and leads to painful emotions. Negotiations between the parents and children must be made in order for a healthy transition to take place. We must never underestimate the effects of divorce on children because divorce is often a reason why children develop social problems. If parents make their children feel unwanted, then these children would naturally reach the conclusion that they are not wanted by anyone, resulting in societal difficulties.
Yet how can this possibly be a healthy transition? The alienating parent intentionally risks the health of the relationship of the child and the other parent. Such domestic problems lead the child to experience such emotions as fear, anger, or increasing insecurity which have an effect on the roles children play in society and most importantly in large social institutions such as school. In school, their insecure states of mind could become the targets of bullying.
Domestic problems may or may not cause children to become insecure. In such cases when this does occur, insecurity could lead children to have certain behavioral problems through which they easily become outcasts in society. Domestic problems could lead to behavior problems such as increased anger, violence, or in some cases emotional detachment, depression, self conscience or isolation.
It is known that people in society today either consciously or unconsciously steer away from the company of people who are not very open towards others. Children with bad approaches to society become emotionally isolated from the rest because they do not feel anybody else understands them. We have to understand that divorce causes children to undergo a drastic change in their lives. When people in general undergo such changes, they focus only on the pain that the change brings to their lives. Focusing on the pain, children fear that it could get worse which is what causes them to draw back from society. Emotions can cause us to act in irrational ways; this is why emotional isolation can prevent the freedom of expression in children suffering from alienation due to divorce.
Personally, I have a friend who has suffered from the emotional pain resulting from her parents’ divorce. Although we have never been as close as we might’ve been, I assume she indulged herself in her interests as a way to escape this problem when we were little. When I moved back, others told me she was strange and unsocial, yet when we talked, she was about one of the nicest people I stumbled upon. The view a society has of a person has a lot to do with how they are treated. In small societies, domestic problems are so often talked about that they no longer remain domestic. The mere knowledge that someone has a specific problem naturally causes people to treat that person differently. So how can children fit in societies in which they already know what is spoken of them? I hold the belief that children can find ways to heal, but it is tragic that they should be put in such positions in the first place as a result of ignorance.
Fused Feelings
A personal shock
“…It was a great shock for the girl when she came to the United States for the first time. She was one in the crowd of foreigners on the airport. The girl thought she is lost. Completely alone, wondering what will happen. Then, she got there, at the college where she was going to attend a summer program. The first week was a real shock. She felt alone. There was no one to whom she could talk. Slowly, everything started changing. The girl found friends. She started adapting to the new environment and accepting things. She did not feel like foreigner any longer. She was one of the many walking on Brooklyn Bridge, one of the many who were reading in Columbia’s Low Library, one of the many who were living in Manhattan’s borough. At the end of the program, she was happy. The girl managed to find her place in NYC. It was the place where she discovered herself for the first time. It was the city that helped her discover what she wanted to do in life…”
Mixed feelings of a foreigner.
How do foreigners feel in another country? It really depends, but what usually happens to most internationals is a cultural shock.
As the world grows, as increasing number of people travel, work or study abroad, more attention is given on the type of silent sickness that most of the time damages the inexperienced traveler. What basically happens is the loss of emotional equilibrium that a person suffers when he/she moves from a familiar environment where the person learned to function easily and successfully. This basically describes the shock a foreigner feel. The individual in the new environment might feel miserable and often consider that there is something wrong. Not all, to be sure, suffer significant emotional disorientation. However, many do, especially the ones who have never before been away from home.
The transition to an alien culture often has an impact. For example an American is visiting certain Eastern European country. The American can find himself depressed by some living conditions in most of the rural areas.
When a person takes up residence in a foreign country there is a period of excitement when everything seems new and challenging. However, after a while, that person may fill like victim. The victim says to himself, "These people don't seem to know or care what I'm going through. Therefore they must be selfish, insensitive people. Therefore I don't like them." In that way the individual receives negative feedback and the self-esteem gets lower and lower.
Often communication is difficult for a foreigner in another country when is in the company of bunch of people who belong to that country. Experts in communication emphasize the fact that language and voice are by no means the only form of communication; they can be supported by number of facial expressions that are misinterpreted.
Almost always, fortunately, symptoms of culture shock subside with the passage of time. The first sign of recovery may well be the reappearance of the victim's sense of humor; she/he begins to smile or even laugh at some of the things that irritated him/her so much at first. As familiarity with local language and customs increases, his/her self-confidence and self-esteem begin to return. In fact, there is a slow progress.
Foreigners should:
• Be aware that a culture shock exists, that will have an effect, but it doesn’t last forever.
• Try to remember that the problem is in them.
• Accept the idea that is painful, but they should not give up easily. At the it is just a wonderful experience.
“…It was a great shock for the girl when she came to the United States for the first time. She was one in the crowd of foreigners on the airport. The girl thought she is lost. Completely alone, wondering what will happen. Then, she got there, at the college where she was going to attend a summer program. The first week was a real shock. She felt alone. There was no one to whom she could talk. Slowly, everything started changing. The girl found friends. She started adapting to the new environment and accepting things. She did not feel like foreigner any longer. She was one of the many walking on Brooklyn Bridge, one of the many who were reading in Columbia’s Low Library, one of the many who were living in Manhattan’s borough. At the end of the program, she was happy. The girl managed to find her place in NYC. It was the place where she discovered herself for the first time. It was the city that helped her discover what she wanted to do in life…”
Mixed feelings of a foreigner.
How do foreigners feel in another country? It really depends, but what usually happens to most internationals is a cultural shock.
As the world grows, as increasing number of people travel, work or study abroad, more attention is given on the type of silent sickness that most of the time damages the inexperienced traveler. What basically happens is the loss of emotional equilibrium that a person suffers when he/she moves from a familiar environment where the person learned to function easily and successfully. This basically describes the shock a foreigner feel. The individual in the new environment might feel miserable and often consider that there is something wrong. Not all, to be sure, suffer significant emotional disorientation. However, many do, especially the ones who have never before been away from home.
The transition to an alien culture often has an impact. For example an American is visiting certain Eastern European country. The American can find himself depressed by some living conditions in most of the rural areas.
When a person takes up residence in a foreign country there is a period of excitement when everything seems new and challenging. However, after a while, that person may fill like victim. The victim says to himself, "These people don't seem to know or care what I'm going through. Therefore they must be selfish, insensitive people. Therefore I don't like them." In that way the individual receives negative feedback and the self-esteem gets lower and lower.
Often communication is difficult for a foreigner in another country when is in the company of bunch of people who belong to that country. Experts in communication emphasize the fact that language and voice are by no means the only form of communication; they can be supported by number of facial expressions that are misinterpreted.
Almost always, fortunately, symptoms of culture shock subside with the passage of time. The first sign of recovery may well be the reappearance of the victim's sense of humor; she/he begins to smile or even laugh at some of the things that irritated him/her so much at first. As familiarity with local language and customs increases, his/her self-confidence and self-esteem begin to return. In fact, there is a slow progress.
Foreigners should:
• Be aware that a culture shock exists, that will have an effect, but it doesn’t last forever.
• Try to remember that the problem is in them.
• Accept the idea that is painful, but they should not give up easily. At the it is just a wonderful experience.
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