Assimilation

Villanueva writes ....it brought back so many memories of Mom's push for assimilation at the loneliness of the "other" in a foreign place, of California, of how we are not meant to be alone, and the lengths we will go to not to be alone (pg. 39). Villanueva uses the term assimilation in a way which I believe Wikipedia defines best: the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another and by cultural assimilation as a political response to the demographic fact of multi-ethnicity which encourages absorption of the minority into the dominant culture. It is opposed to affirmative philosophy like multiculturalism, for example, which recognizes and seeks to maintain differences. It is going to be extremely interesting to see how many sites, communities, software, and games use the term in the same way and how they do it. It should be an eye opening experience where i probably would of never thought to do before this assignment. If and when I participate in these genres, I have never thought deeply about the way it is/was constructed and meant to be viewed.


According to Villanueva, biculturalism is:

a. cultures that swing both ways
b. an equal ease with two cultures
c. the tensions within, which are caused by being unable to deny the old or the
new
d. none of the above



T/F: Villanueva in Spin in English attempts to convert a GED into a diploma (and is denied) sees the school library's extension that looks like the one he designed.


Villanueva, Victor. "Spic in English", American Academic of Color. Urban, Il: NCTE. 34-50.