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The Dartmouth
March 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Exploring Multiculturalism

11.8.13.mirror.multiculturalism
11.8.13.mirror.multiculturalism

“There are too many Asians around me right now,” complained an Asian-American girl as she abruptly detached herself from me and a couple other Asian girls on my high school track team during practice one day. Having lived in the United States for only about two years by then, I felt not only a jolt of surprise but also an inexplicable sense of shame and mortification at my teammate’s half-joking, half-serious pronouncement.

My high school, located in a cozy, predominantly white Pennsylvania suburb, had scarcely any immigrant students from South Korea, my home country, or any other foreign countries for that matter. As I struggled to adapt to this radically new environment, I found myself in bewildering and sometimes maddening situations that forced me to question my identity.

I took refuge in my Korean heritage, distancing myself from a campus and curriculum that remained largely indifferent to the immigrant experience. At other times, I strove to assimilate into mainstream culture, joining sports teams and music groups to make friends with peers who often regarded me as just another “FOB,” or fresh off the boat.

A broad spectrum of students who identify themselves with two or more cultures, from international students to minorities with deeper roots in the United States, frequently face the same dilemma of reconciling their conflicting allegiances to their native culture and the dominant American culture.

Hayley Son ’15, who identifies herself as Korean and, to a lesser degree, Asian and international, said that before coming to the States for the first time, she had a generalized notion of Americans as WASPs. Most American films she had seen didn’t focus on minority cultures living in the United States, and she was surprised to find many more non-white students at Dartmouth than she had expected.

Son said she had difficulty communicating with American students of all races because of her unfamiliarity with American culture. She especially felt uncomfortable in group settings, not being able to understand her American interlocutors’ use of slang or sense of humor.

“I was very stressed my freshman year because I was so FOB-y,” Son said. “And it was such a derogatory, frustrating term because it meant that I could never be at the same starting line as Americans.”

While her decision to join a sorority has helped her meet a more diverse group of friends, Son said she has reservations about the experience, sometimes feeling pressured to conform to American culture at the expense of Korean culture. She endeavors to reconcile her conflicting loyalty to the two cultures by maintaining an open, humble and sympathetic attitude toward everyone and reaching out to people from all different backgrounds.

Language can present a unique challenge for students straddling cultural boundaries. With language being such a central aspect of culture, different linguistic habits can make for a modern-day Babel.

George Boateng ’16, an international student from Ghana, said that while he has found a strong Ghanaian community at Dartmouth, he has felt torn between his home culture and American culture linguistically.

Since English is Ghana’s official language, Boateng grew up speaking English alongside two local languages. The Ghanaian variant of English, however, is distinctly different from American English, and he often suppresses his native Ghanaian accent when speaking with American students at Dartmouth.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve had to get used to here,” Boateng said. “Imagine that you’ve been speaking English all your life, but now it’s the first time you’re not understood.”

Boateng also recalled his initial shock at class discussions about religion, as Christianity, practiced by more than 70 percent of Ghanaians, is the implicit, accepted faith back home. In forcing him to become more open-minded, this pressure from American culture influenced him positively.

Karima Ma ’14, a second-generation Chinese-American student, said she grew up speaking Chinese at home but did not have a chance to acquire fluency during her formative years. As a result, Ma decided to be a Chinese minor at Dartmouth, as she values preserving her heritage and wants to make sure that her kids will have the chance to learn to speak, read and write Chinese.

Sometimes the challenge exists in holding multiple different identities together in one’s mind.

Ayaan Roble ’14, an American citizen with a multicultural African heritage, said her experiences living in the United States, Ivory Coast and Tunisia and her parents’ ethnicity as Somalis means she identifies herself as American, Somali, Ivorian and Tunisian.

When she first came to Dartmouth, she felt a major conflict between her African international identity and her black American counterpart.

“The African community on campus is predominantly West African,” Roble said. “Though I lived in Ivory Coast, my parents are actually East African, so I was not really accepted in the group. On the other hand, the African-American community saw me as international.”

Over Roble’s time here, she has gradually come to terms with these conflicting identities, finding friends from both groups and beyond and enjoys attending events sponsored by African cultural organizations.

Casidhe Bethancourt ’16, who identifies herself as Dominican-American and Latina more broadly, said she does not consciously act differently around her American friends but feels more at ease discussing culture-specific issues with her Hispanic friends. Attending private schools in which she was usually the only Hispanic student for much of her life, Bethancourt said she no longer feels much pressure to conform to an American ideal.

“I’ve felt the pressure to suppress very passionate emotions I have about certain Hispanic issues,” she said. “For example, if you’re not Hispanic, it’s very hard to wrap your head around the issue of blatant racism in Latin American society.”

Bennie Niles ’15, who identifies as African-American, said that the word African-American itself speaks to duality. Niles made references to the concept of “double consciousness” coined by W. E. B. Du Bois.

“It’s about having to feel American and black at the same time,” Niles said. “It’s a constant battle between the two identities because it’s hard to make them coexist.”

Niles said he often feels pressure to conform to the dominant white culture at Dartmouth and constantly encounters questions of identity and authenticity. When asked about one of the salient yet seldom-addressed issues of “self-segregation,” Niles said that it is a degrading term often used to condemn people who are simply searching for spaces that cater to their cultural needs.

“Going to classes and not seeing people who look like me every day — for me at least, it’s natural to want to go to spaces where there are people from similar backgrounds,” Niles said. “We don’t call white kids who hang around other white kids as self-segregating, so I don’t use the term at all.”

Ma was a member of The Dartmouth staff.

Reporter Maggie Shields contributed reporting.