Book Summary "What Must I Be?" (Book Review Sample)

Summary Analysis
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"What Must I Be?" by Spickard focuses on ethnic identity. Richard Rodriguez states that the minority ethnic groups ought to choose between public and private identities. This is either they retrain the values they have acquired from their families or be ready to adopt the values of the Anglo American group dominating. Rodriguez refers to private to as inferior and limiting while public to the superior and liberating. Rodriguez with Buchanan and Malcolm X state that a person can only have one ethnic identity and that they cannot live in more than one community. However, Bois had a totally different opinion on that and stated that the African American had double consciousness. Cindy Cordes who was raised in Hawaii does not identify with the White culture even though she looks White. She grew in an Asian household and ate Asian food, had Filipino relationships, holidays, family values and always felt comfortable in Hawaii. That changes however when she goes to study in Columbia university. She is seen as White there by the Asians in the school and they even question her when she attends one of their meetings.
In the 60s, the Asian American people were opposed to the idea of intermarriage or children playing together between Asian and the White people. The White people also opposed intermarriage with the Asians but the Asian Americans were only a small number so they managed to easily go unnoticed. They therefore never faced as much discrimination as the Asians. Ideas that were strange and vicious about the multiracial Asian people emerged from the White, the ideas are today important because they made huge differences in people’s lives.
Most of the mixed races are considered weak physically, morally and mentally to an extent that they are tormented by their genetic selves. Eurasians are considered to be weak and small. They appear darker than their Asiatic parents and often employed in jobs that require less labor because of their lack of energy. Amerasians are to many popular cultures considered as sexual enthusiasts.
Japanese Americans were in World War II placed under camps that were concentrated with their ancestry, Amerasians were also placed on those camps. White people were confused about Amerasians and were not sure where to place them. Asians however knew where to place...