The New Americans

In the reading, the “New Americans” are the Dominican people. The New Americans are coming from the Dominican Republic and other countries outside the United States. They are coming to the United States mainly for a better life but in the report the main characters Jose Garcia and Ricardo Rodriguez are coming to America so that they can realize their dream: to play baseball in the Major Leagues. Their fears and challenges are based on the fact that they believe that they won’t be accepted by everyone in American. They think they will fail because of poor work habits, language problems, and poor table manners. Jose and Ricardo’s challenge is to mainly learn everything about American such as learn American customs and expectations about relations with women. They do “understand” American because they know that not everyone in American will accept them based on how they speak, where they’re from, and based on their skin color. Not everyone is like that in American but they know that some people will be like that and they are ready to be treated bad for no good reason. They also know that they will be treated badly if anyone else like them does something stupid. Like in the article, one of Jose and Ricardo’s teammates, Ramon Martinez is arrested and trialed for sexual assault by a local woman and even thought he was found not guilty he was kicked off the Dodgers and then people believe in a stereotype about Latino men. In my opinion, I think that they are young men that are looking for a better life for them and for their family. I think that they are honest, brave, and determined young men that help their friends such as Ramon by letting him stay with Jose after he gets kicked off the Dodgers. They are great men and know that not everyone will like them because of who they really are and that they can accept that and not care because they have a dream to follow that’s important to them and they are not only doing this for themselves but sometimes even for their families.

"Five Faces of Oppression"

     In the article, "Five Faces of Oppression" by Iris Marion Young, she summarizes the five faces of oppression which are exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Exploitation means to take advantage of, marginalization means to relegate to the fringes, out of the mainstream; make seem unimportant, and powerlessness means without power or authority. Cultural imperialism means the imposition of a foreign viewpoint or civilization on people and violence means the exercise or an instance of physical force, usually effecting or intended to affect injuries or destruction. I don’t hold any of the five faces of oppression but I know what it feels like, exploitation and powerlessness mainly. For example, I sometimes feel exploitation or being taken advantage of by people that I know in my school and sometimes even by friends. Sometimes when I decide to go out with my friends they always ask me for money and I feel like they’re taking advantage of the fact that I let them borrow money and I feel like they think of me as a token instead of as a friend. Also, in school sometimes people in my class ask me to help them with an assignment or doing a project together. But, those people think that I’ll always do everything for them and that I can’t stand up for myself and I feel like I’m not important unless it’s for doing something for someone else. Sometimes I feel like I’m powerlessness compared to others because they may have a higher label and that they think that they’re better than me. Like for a project in my school we sometimes get labels based on are jobs such as the facilitator and the recorder. Just because I may be the recorder doesn’t me that I can’t give some ideas for the project, they only see me as the recorder someone that can only write down their thoughts when I have my own thoughts but I can’t share them because they have a higher label. I can overcome these oppressions by defensing myself and standing up for myself as a person who has feelings that shouldn’t be taking advantage of for any reason.