Breaking Out Of The Boxes

Do me a favor: take a deep breath. Look around you. Everything seems peaceful, right? Now, look at the news. You will now suddenly realize you are in hell. The world around us is falling apart, and everyone is afraid. Afraid of the future, afraid of the present, afraid of what will happen. We are scared of the change between the present to the future. We are a scared race, living a fearful life, in fear of everything and everyone. In our world of fear, we believe that knowledge is power. Knowing everything-giving everything a name-helps to alleviate our fear. But what happens when we use this ‘power’ over real people? Specifically, the immigrants to America. In our fearful adventures, we have named these people. We have classified them and set them into boxes. We don’t care if these new people fit into the boxes or not, because making them become what we say allows us to live in comfort. We force the immigrants to become what we want. We force the immigrants to lose what makes them unique in order to fit in and make everyone else comfortable, not unlike the first wave of immigrants did to the Native American peoples. These are not the ideals that America was built on. Each and every immigrant brings something special and unique with them, but we destroy that trait in order to make ourselves comfortable in the chaotic world. Eventually, we cut out the beauty of the individual in order to eliminate our own fear.

In a country that has a deep fear of the future, some brave few souls (the immigrants) have found the beauty of immigration. Immigration is not about who you were. Immigration is about who you want to be, and who you can become. Richard Rodriguez wrote a beautiful piece, entitled Blaxicans, about the misconceptions of culture. Although many people think culture is about what you look like, culture is really about who you are, what you believe, how you feel, and the experiences that make you be you. Culture is a personal thing that cannot be defined by a set of boxes to mark who you are. While Rodriguez is arguing about the presence and individuality of culture, his argument applies beautifully to immigration. Immigration is a personal thing. It cannot be defined by a fearful people in a fearful time. In a story of an Apostolic church in East Palo Alto, Rodriguez writes, “The minister read out the various letters and pronounces the names…I thought to myself: it’s over. The border is over. These people were not being asked whether they had green cards. They were not being asked whether they arrived here legally or illegally. They were being welcomed within a new community for reasons of culture” (Rodriguez 4). This story shows Rodriguez going to a congregation on a day when they were welcoming new members. These members were immigrants, but that was not how they were defined. They were introduced, and the congregation welcomed them without any question. It didn’t matter how they got there, or why they were there. Their individuality was allowed to be shown since they weren’t bogged down with a title they didn’t ask for. In a country that has a deep fear of the future, this community was brave and willing to open their arms and see the newcomers as they were, not as society wanted to define them.

The new wave of brave people are not the first to be boxed up by fearful Americans. Before we sectioned off these new Americans, the first immigrants and their children sectioned off the Native Americans. We took their land, forced them into fenced-in areas, taught them what we wanted them to know, and re-created them into what we wanted. We changed their culture into a culture of our own and made them a completely new people. Although we eventually realized what we had done was wrong, we realized it too late. We had completely changed their histories, their stories, their names, and everything else about them. Instead of telling of joyful past adventures and warm, happy nights around a campfire, the Native Americans tell of a painful and torturous past. They tell stories of long, cold, winter walks to living areas. They tell of the dead they left behind. They tell of what was taken and can never be returned. They sing sad songs instead of making joyful noises. Sherman Alexie, author of Indian Boy Love Song, shared the pain of his ignorance. Growing up in a post-European society, he never learned the stories of his people, never learned the traditions of his tribe, never learned what made him unique. He shared all of the things he missed in a span of 13 lines. While it may seem like reaching to say that there is an audible pain, the following lines show the angst and pain to a perceptive reader:

“I never spoke

the language

of the old women

…..

Indian women, forgive me.

I grew up distant

and always afraid.”

Americans destroyed the history and culture of the Natives, and then the children never learned. Alexie never spoke the language of the old women, never learned the beauty of his past, never heard the stories of his ancestors. As a result, he grew up far away from his culture. The beauty and uniqueness that made him who he was became unreachable because our fear shut down that part. The fear of the European immigrants caused a need for control. This control cut off the beauty of the Native Americans. We boxed up an innocent people because we were afraid of the unknown, afraid of the possible change. We cut off the beauty of their individuality in order to satiate our own fear, in order to shut down our own angst. We rationalized the destruction of a culture, then realized how far we had gone. Slowly, we are fixing our mistakes, and trying to bring back the beauty of the Native American, but our fear has forever damaged the hope of a people.

In the American pursuit of inner peace, we have caused pain and destruction with every step. We have rationalized ourselves into unthinkable acts of intolerance, and any argument that we somehow have the right to treat the immigrants and Native Americans in this way is completely incoherent. They have the same right as us to exist in peace in the “Land of the Free.” They have the same right as us to creativity and individuality in the “Land of Opportunity.” Sectioning off human beings is completely unacceptable, no matter how comfortable it makes us feel, no matter our reasons. Fear is an acceptable emotion, and it’s alright to be afraid of the future, but it shouldn’t make us intolerant. Fear should not make us shut others out. The most beautiful characteristic of humanity is the need for community. Humans were created with the intention of living in community. We are meant to be living surrounded by people, and those people are supposed to give us hope. Our communities shouldn’t tear us down and shove us in boxes. Our communities should allow the individuals to shine and allow everyone to be unique. The Land of the Free and Land of Opportunity cannot remain if we separate everyone and make them be someone they’re not, right?