Minority status

"Looking Out"

It must be odd

to be a minority

he was saying. I

looked around

and didn't see any.

So I said

Yeah

it must be.

- Mitsuye Yamada

I was doing my weekend should-I-work-shouldn't-I dilly-dallying and part of this ritual is reading that last piece of poetry before paying respects to Outlook 2007. Today, this act led me to an interesting poem by Mitsuye Yamada that took me back a few years in time. It was 2003 and I was travelling on a train between Sweden and Denmark. Across me sat a Malaysian girl who looked well put-together and like someone who had spent a considerable amount of time in Scandinavia. We got friendly during the ride and I found out that she was adopted, as an infant, by her Swedish parents. The landscape that passed us, as we chatted, was breathtaking and the girl pointed out to some sites occasionally and named them. "They must really feel lucky living here." I exulted after witnessing the most glorious sunset of my life. Something flashed in her eyes and she replied, a fraction too soon - "Yes, we do."

A similar statement is made here, by this poem. Yamada shakes her head at people who cannot look beyond her minority status. I cannot say I feel like I do not belong in the United States and this may be a function of where I live (liberal Massachusetts) or because I am not so assimilated into the mainstream as to notice the subtleties. Perhaps it is a bit of both. S may feel differently as he grows up in this country and goes to school here. He may consider himself an American first and may have his conception questioned, ever so often, like Yamada's was. If he does feel challenged thus, I'm glad I can point him to the considerable body of literature that exists on the topic of being neither here nor there.

I like espresso shots of poetry, I do.

Find more on Mitsuye Yamada here.