Double Consciousness, first introduced by W.E.B Dubois, was coined to describe the identities of slaves in America; their dual identities: self and slave. These people felt an allegiance to their own cultures, be that black culture or African culture (if they were lucky, or unlucky enough to be fresh off the boat) as well as their roles in society as slaves. This duality was quite unique back then when discrimination was directed mainly towards blacks (the dominant minority). Today, most of us feel this duality... especially Asian Americans trying, so hard, to push our ways up corporate ladders among other previously unattempted hierarchies.
What is an Asian American? And if we're expecting to be treated equally, why keep the "Asian" category at all?
The human mind is an efficient sorting machine; it takes the most distinguishing attributes of objects and groups them together. That's why it's so easy to automatically categorize people as Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, obese, skinny, short, tall, ugly, beautiful... but that's from the outsider's perspective. Why we choose to be recognized as something more than just American is clear, at least to me. As the global village further extends its arms, cultures and traditions of native lands decay; they become obsolete, mere silly superstitions. But if it truly is globalization, why then, do we mock the traditions, cuisines, languages of other nations?
If a German, Dutch, Swiss, and Irishman conversed in a pub 100 years ago, they would have been speaking French. Today, the common language is English. Lucky for us.
But there are far, FAR too many people who speak English and only English. The importance of bilingualism is overlooked in this country. Too many people here think that English is the only important language. Now, for those of you who don't know, English is a b*****d language. That's right, a b*****d: it's a melding of Latin, German, French, the list goes on. One of the youngest languages on the face of the earth, it could not have possibly evolved to the extent that ancient languages still in use today have. I know for a fact that there are Chinese idioms, artistic and graceful, that are utterly lost in translation when converted into English. "The Frog at the Bottom of the Well" certainly doesn't flow in any other language as it would in Chinese.
The OED2, the largest English-language dictionary, contains some 290,000 entries with some 616,500 word forms. Of course, there are lots of slang and regional words that are not included and the big dictionary omits many proper names, scientific and technical terms, and jargon as a matter of editorial policy (e.g., there are some 1.4 million named species of insect alone). All told, estimates of the total vocabulary of English start at around three million words and go up from there. Of these, about 200,000 words are in common use today. An educated person has a vocabulary of about 20,000 words and uses about 2,000 in a week's conversation. (These estimates vary widely depending on who is doing the counting, so don't take them as absolute.) The Chinese language, on the other hand, consists of approximately 56,000 characters; only a few thousand are used in common interaction. And if you compared the poetry written in these two languages, you would undoubtedly see fewer characters used in the Chinese poetry, mostly because traditional prose was sets of 4 character phrases in which each character had an individual meaning yet when pieced together, formed a profoundly new thought. English poems tend to be more verbose in some cases or succinct but vague (Which is why rappers like Rakim are so acclaimed). But this is just my personal opinion.
English may be the universal language today, but that's because America is on top of the world. However, that's no reason to stop going out and learning the tongues of the world. Those who cannot appreciate the importance linguistics are equally ignorant as those who refuse to accept that an American citizen is an American regardless of origin. Globalization is supposed to be a global effort, while the rest of the world is learning our language, few in America are attempting to learn Sanskrit, Arabic, Hebrew, Swahili... so who's being left behind?
But I end my tangent there. Why I consider myself Asian American... that's simple: I have thus far remained intact with my parents' culture and traditions. Chinese New Year, Autumn Moon Festival, I speak Chinese almost fluently at home (and out, if given the chance); I even plan to eventually have a Chinese marriage ceremony. Does this make me any less American? I'm still western-schooled, I still speak English as a primary language, and I listen to hip-hop and R&B (nearly unheard of in Asia)...
But I've been told by someone that I've gotten more "white" since attending University of Rochester, whatever that means. If using "bigger" words and refusing to dress/talk/act like Flushing, NY heads makes me some sort of defector from my culture, then brand me a traitor. Last I checked, the type of language used by most "AZNs" is borrowed from hip-hop culture. Most these kids don't know their heads from their asses about hip-hop or their own roots, the only thing remotely Asian about their attitudes is pride, which is excessive to say the least. But I'm still Asian, and I'm still American... very much so...
I know I'm not the only individual plagued with this sort of double consciousness on a daily basis. Having to live up to my Asian as well as my Western identities is something that has become very taxing when faced with an extremist of either side. Is it really so hard to believe that one can maintain a dual identity? My allegiance isn't based on where I grew up, where my parents grew up, where I go to school; it's all of those rolled in one. And it's simply unjust to block out any aspect of my life for the sake of convenience.
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