Throughout history there has been prejudice and racism. Some groups of people will always think that they are better and dominant to another. Europeans have demonstrated throughout history that they think they are dominant. They have demonstrated this from the slave trade to the world wars. The idea of dominance comes from groups who are put into submission and are seen as weaker and less important. These groups are subjected to racism, xenophobia, and harassment. This is especially true when those groups immigrate to a dominant country. This racism and xenophobia can be seen in Mother Tongue through the discrimination of a Chinese immigrant due to her lack of knowledge of the English language.  In order to understand Amy Tan’s Mother Tongue, you must understand prejudice toward Chinese Immigrants in America. 

Prejudice towards Chinese immigrants shaped how others perceived Amy’s mother. This was especially evident in her everyday life as Amy was growing up. “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my Mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English” (Amy 344).  People would not treat her as an equal because they attributed her “broken” English to a lack of mental ability. For most non-immigrant people navigating in a medical facility is difficult. For Amy’s mother, prejudice due to her language played a large part.  Amy Tan explains that in one specific case, Amy’s mother was not treated fairly by a medical professional. She went to the hospital for results of a CAT scan that she had gotten. The hospital claimed that they had lost the scan and refused to give her more information. She demanded that the doctor talk to her daughter. Eventually the doctor talked to Amy, and when he heard that Amy spoke perfect English he was compassionate and apologetic (344-345). Due to prejudice, without Amy’s knowledge of the English language the situation could have been harmful Amy’s mother. They thought since Amy’s mother didn’t speak English well then she wasn’t very smart therefore, they held information from her and didn’t treat her as they would any other person. The prejudice that other people had toward Amy’s mother extended to the professional world. Amy also explains that in a different instance, Amy had to pretend to be her mother to call a stockbroker in New York. He was supposed to send her a check but it was two weeks late. Amy talked to the stockbroker calmly and with perfect English. The next week they went to New York and her mother yelled at the stockbroker (344). Once again Amy’s knowledge of the English language overcame the prejudice shown to her mother. In Mother Tongue, Amy discusses the lack of Asian American authors in American literature and explains that in most cases Asian Americans are pushed toward science and math. She attributes this to the fact that Asian American students do better on math achievement tests than in English. This prompted Amy to wonder if there were Asian Americans whose English was seen as “broken”. She also wondered whether people were pushing them away from English and literature like she was (346). 

Discrimination among Chinese immigrants was not only because of language, but there were also other contributing factors. It started when the first Chinese immigrants came to the US in the 1850’s.  According to Milestones, during the 1850’s there was an influx of Chinese immigrants into the United States. Many began working in the gold mines while others worked on building railroads.  As the Chinese immigrants became more successful, the American workers begun to have resentment toward them. Eventually legislation passed that restricted the immigration of Chinese into the United States.  Many of the American workers were angry with the Chinese workers because they felt like they were taking all the jobs from them. 

Many of the prejudices that arose from the 1850’s presented themselves in the workplace. Many Chinese immigrants ae not treated the same during work. According to Fredrick Leong, there can exist barriers between the Chinese immigrants and their coworkers because of the idea that the immigrants are different. They could possibly be discriminated against or even bullied and harassed if it becomes extreme. Much of the discrimination and harassment is because the Chinese immigrants have different traits and values than their coworkers. There are also barriers because of the belief that Chinese workers are only good at math and science. Their coworkers may stereotype their abilities and have a social expectation because of it. Overall there is a lot of discrimination and negative feelings towards Chinese immigrants in the work place. In the 19th century and even now there is resentment toward immigrants. Americans continue to hold the views of nativism and won’t let them go. We hate anyone who does not look or act like us. 

We resent anyone who is not “American”, even though America is a melting pot of cultures and was built on the idea of many cultures together in one country. We only want people who think and talk like us. This is the condition of America right now. While many might say that people don’t really think like this, people unfortunately do. Many of my Spanish friends have been told to speak English and I’ve heard people talking poorly about Muslims because of the actions of radicals. I hope that in the future these ideas will begin to subside and love and respect will be more prevalent. Everyone is human and we should treat everyone as equal. The only way to do this is to do our part in not carrying on the racism and resentment. 
