Cultural issues free essay sample

Plays from African American, Latino-American, Asian American and European American cultures often deal with important and relevant issues pertinent to that culture but they also connect to all cultures in a universal way. Throughout history in America people of all races have been discriminated against. Immigrants have dealt with experiencing new ways of life and struggled with the tough decision of holding on to their culture or adapting to change. A Raisin in the Sun is a play about an African American family living in Chicago in the sixties. The Youngers are a family ade up of a mother, her daughter and her son with his wife and son. The home they are renting is a small two bedroom apartment, the bathroom is across the hall and they share it with the other tenants in the building. Chicago is still opposed to integration regardless of the laws. Violence against African American families was common when they would move into white neighborhoods. The play demonstrates issues with housing discrimination, but more importantly the reader watches an African American family pursue the American dream. Their dream is only to be reated as equals in a time when segregation and discrimination was still a big part of the culture in their city. Walter complains that he has nothing to leave for his son Travis. l have been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live p. 34 In the play The Colored Museum readers a taken on a voyage with shackled slaves being transported to America. The setting seems to be an airplane and there is a Flight Attendant, Ms. Pat. The plane is actually revealed as the Celebrity Slaveship. Ms. Pat is not actually a Flight Attendant, she is a member of the slave ship crew that is taking the slaves to their destination. While she narrates the play she encourages all slaves to be like her. She is very upbeat and energetic; as if to mask the fact that they are all captive and have no chance of escaping without facing harm. She tells the slaves there will be no singing or playing drums, these actions will lead to rebellion. Rebellion will not be tolerated. She tells the slaves of their future and how they will work in scorching heat. She gives them hope by telling them that it will take civil right leaders to give them any hope of ever being treated equally to their fellow man. The play ends with an example of a stereotype when Ms. Pat displays all right, so your gonna have to suffer for a few hundred years, but from your pain will come a culture so complex. And with this item here (she removes a basketball from the overhead compartment) youll become millionaires! She reveals basketball to point out the stereotype that all black play basketball. African Americans werent the only ace to experience racism and cultural difficulties. Mexican Americans and Asians also experienced their own struggles. Most of those who migrated to America wanted to hold on to their cultural values and heritage. When their children who were born in the United States grew up, they grew up in an American community. They were exposed to American traditions and ways of life. Their parents felt that their children had lost touch with their roots. The parents tried to keep their cultural alive by keeping traditional homes, but their children were attracted to the society they lived n. The play Zoot Suit Riots is a good example of the struggles with racism and loss of young Latino males distinguished themselves with distinctive hairdos (duck tails) and apparel (drape shapes or zoot suits hats with wide brims, long coats with broad shoulders, peg-leg trousers with high waist bands and long dangling chains). The war had caused Los Angeles to swell with servicemen, most of the servicemen had no prior experience with Latinos and Latino culture. Because they were different from the servicemen their look was resented. Yet this was not what bored, restless oung white servicemen saw when rubbing shoulders with strutting, brown-skinned zoot suiters in downtown Los Angeles. The following evening, around two hundred sailors in cabs headed into East Los Angeles. Their goal was to beat up and strip the clothing off any young Latino male they could find. For the next several nights, the sailors were Joined by other military personnel from as far away as Las Vegas and local civilians. They took to the streets and invaded the barrio, bars and movie houses. Young Latino males were assaulted, humiliated and stripped of their lothing. Many of the young men were dressed in plain clothing. Although local police were present their orders were to not interfere. Shore patrol and military police would deal with military men. Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron down played the racial character of the incidents and blamed local Mexican youth gangs for inciting the riot. Mi Familia is a movie about a Mexican-American family in East Los Angeles. In the 1920s, Jose Sanchez Oacob Vargas) made his migration from Mexico to Los Angeles, California. In Los Angeles he met Mexican-born Maria Oennifer Lopez). They got married and began their families roots in America. The beginning of the movie takes place in the 1920s. The story begins with a storytelling and feeling of what life was like for early immigrants. The movie takes you on a long walk along a dusty landscape giving an experience of such hard lives. While Maria was pregnant with their third child she was picked up by immigration officials. Maria, a citizen of the United States was forced into a crowded livestock railcar. She was transported deep into Mexico along with other Mexican Americans and illegal aliens.