Making Connections Across Texts

After reading American Born Chinese and The Bluest Eye I came to the realization that people always want to be something that they are not. Many of the characters in these books wanted to be white because they thought that to be white was to be better. In American Born Chinese Jin Wang wanted to become a white person because he thought that they had the better life and that he would fit in better if he were just white. For example on page 28 Jin wang says that when he gets older he wants to be a transformer because we wanted to change his apperance. And while reading The Bluest Eye all of the girls in the story wanted to have blue eyes and to be white. They learned that when you are white you are considered pretty, smart and you are treated with kindness. This is shown in the clip Black Doll, White Doll as well. Fifteen out of twent one black children choose the white doll to play with over the black doll. When they were asked which doll was better or "good" they said that the white doll was good because it was white. And when asked what doll was "bad" they choose the black doll and said that it was bad because it was black. They all identidied with the black doll when they were asked which one was more like them.

I think it is really sad that people cant be happy with what they have. They all want to be something that they are not and a lot of the times it is becuase of what they have learned from tehir parents or socitey. They are told that in order to be pretty or to be the best you need to be white. In all three (American Born Chinese, The Bluest Eye, and Black Doll, White Doll) they all thought the perfect normal thing to be was white.

After reading and watching all of them the doll one (Black Doll, White Doll) really seemed to affect me the most. It was very moving to see young black girls and boys all choosing the white doll as the better "good" one. Since I want to be a teacher I was thinking about my future students and all the stereotypes that they will already walk into my classroom with. I think it is very sad that even in today's society people still think that being white is the best thing that you can be. And in order to be successful or good in life you need to be white. I hope to try to teach my students to break thoes stereotypes and be proud of themselves for what they are and who tehy are. I hope that in the future years all of these stereotypes can be broken and children can be proud of themselves for who they are and not be judged by how they look!