Conflict in the Contact Zone (Essay Sample)

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Conflict in the Contact Zone
USA, located in North America, has recognition as the best nation in the world. The nation known not only for its hospitable citizens but also has a number of colleges and universities that rank higher compared to universities in other nations. For this reason, the United States receives a large number of visitors throughout the year who come in with different objectives. Apart from studying, people normally visit the United States as tourists who just want to witness how the greatest nation in the world looks while others come for business purposes. Although the US has recognition for its many good things, the nation also has some negativities, one issue that makes the US lose its good reputation is how the Americans treat individuals from other nation who visit the nation as immigrants, tourists or students. According to the 2010 census, in 2000-2010, “…the Asian population grew faster than any other race group in the United States (Hoeffel et al., 1)”. Although this is good news for the American continent, there have been numerous reports of American discrimination and interpellation to people of other races such as the Chinese. The discrimination is evident in a number of places such as learning institutions, shopping centers, hotels and many other areas frequented by tourists and immigrants. According to research, racial segregation and discrimination normally occur because of difficulties experienced during attempts to integrate that have been in existence for decades. The essay will shed more light on the level of discrimination and interpellation in the United States and actions that ought to be done to minimize the rate of interpellation.
The first time I landed in the United States, where I had come for education purpose, I had the image of a beautiful nation full of loving and caring people as portrayed in the numerous documentaries and movies that I had watched while in China, which is my home country. After a short period of stay, I came to realize that not all showed in the movies is actually true and that some of it is fiction. This is because unlike the movies, documentaries and magazines that i read, not all Americans are friendly. In fact, there is a high rate of discrimination and interpellation on international people, especially those from other continents. The more I tried to fit in the society, the more I felt isolated, and just like Sam I felt “…..what it means to get cheated, taken advantage of, even robbed (Pratt, 2).” When I came to the US for the first time, hardly knew any English, therefore, my expectation was that the Americans will be helpful by assisting in areas that I do not understand such as reading announcements posted on school boards, which were normally in English. Instead of helping me, every time I tried to ask for assistance from American students, all I received were giggles and sign languages.
According to me, the behavior was demoralizing and lead to a lot of stigmatization whereby instead of receiving help from the Americans, I ended up seeking help from other international students from English speaking nations. After staying in the US for some time and receiving some English lessons, my English started to become somehow better because now I could not only read and write but also speak some little English. According to me, this was a huge improvement, but unlike in china where such achievement, though little, would have been appreciated, in the US I received more and more giggles whenever I attempted to speak with the Americans who normally told to go for more English lessons.
Apart from college, there were more interpellations in other sections such as the hostels and cafeteria. Whenever I entered the school canteen or cafeteria, almost everyone would stare at me then start peaking in whispers to one another. According to the reaction I received whenever I entered such places, it was obvious that I was the topic of discussion. Although I never knew what they normally talked about me, I would guess it was about my race and my poor grammar skills. The tribulations never stopped there, they followed me to the hostels. While in the washroom, taking a shower, i would receive more stares and murmurs. The only way I deal with such interpolations is staying away from the peop...