“Adelita continues that being from an immigrant family makes her ‘proud of being different from everybody else,’ but that she needs people from her school and community to support her in being different and to appreciate the strengths and contributions her family makes to the schools and town in which they now live.”
“Elisabeta powerfully ends her poster with the idea that ‘I love when people tell me I am a good person.'”
As I read this article and contemplated the students’ responses, I noticed a trend: there seems to be a need for outside validation. The students repeatedly demonstrate that they know they are good people and that they come from good families, even if they are frequently misunderstood or discriminated against. But even though they have a certain degree of self-validation, it’s just not enough. When faced with people making negative assumptions about them and their families, these immigrant students are forced to justify their presence in the community, instead of just being able to live and learn in peace.
There are many people outside of these students’ families that have voiced negative feelings towards them, even though these students haven’t actually done anything wrong. They are simply existing within that community, but they are being judged based on unfair and untrue preconceptions. So, when a student receives outside validation (for example, being told she is a “good person”), she finally receives something positive and affirming from an outside perspective. She finally receives the support she needs. Even though these students know they are worthy and that they are not the negative stereotypes that some people believe they are, the outside validation is still meaningful. It’s nice to hear that someone besides their family appreciates them as members of the community, especially amidst the discrimination they encounter.
Believing in something is much easier when that additional support is present. I was happy to see that these students seemed to firmly believe that they and their families were good people and respectable members of society, but I understand their desire for others to see it that way as well.
I think the big issue for such prejudice happen in the community where Adelita living is the stereotype of the minority. Because the one of Adelita’s compatriot did bad thing to the community, that doesn’t mean all of the group of people of Adelita are “delinquent”, “thieves”, and “bad people”. Such discrimination impact negatively to the people in that community, including the children. My question is what are the solutions that you think will help to adjust such misunderstanding?