Exporting dominant culture

When I was traveling overseas, I was inevitably asked, “Where are you from?” I would respond by asking them to conjecture: “Where do you think I am from?” They would look at my features and skin color or listen to the accent in my speech. But only twice did the inquirers ever guess correctly. I would later clarify that not all people from the US have blonde hair and blue eyes; “Americans” look like many different cultures and ethnicities.

I am preparing my trip to Korea where I will teach a two-week Summer writing camp to a group of young Korean students. Part of my task is to determine which “mentor texts” I will take—they are trade books that demonstrate writing features I want my young writers to notice and emulate in their own writing. I went through my several boxes of books in my basement to screen possible books I would like to take.

It is difficult because I am preparing lessons for students I yet do not know who live in a culture I am unfamiliar. But I do know that they are English-Language learners and as such am looking for books that would lend themselves to helping them grasp the language. But as I began to gather books, I noticed myself editing out any “ethnic” books since the might not understand the cultural referents in the books. Then I noticed that many of the books I did select had White protagonists or were written by white authors. They are excellent books but where were the books with African-Americans, Native Americans, Latinos or Asians? Other cultures have had a great impact on “American” culture—in fact, the African-American culture has and continues to have most impact on US culture as evidenced in the language and music.

So I went back an selected poetry from Honey I Love by Eloise Greenfield, Carmen Lomas Garza’s Family Pictures and my Hippopotamus book. These students will know that Americans are not all blonde haired and blue eyed.