Assignment 4 – Where I Stand and Why

There are different attitudes and opinions to assimilation. In the text “Where I stand and Why” by LaToya Powel, some different attitudes to assimilation are expressed. The text is about LaToya and her family’s assimilation in New York City. She’s interviewing her grandfather who migrated to New York City from Lumberton, North Carolina, in 1957 to get a job and a better life for his family.

Her grandfather, Franklin Powell, and his wife Shirley Ruth Powell assimilated because they were forced to it. All the work was in white America, and if they wanted a job they needed to adapt the culture. The only concern in his life was to work so he could get a better life for his family, and he didn’t think about the forced assimilation. He gave his children everything that the white people had so it would be easier for them to fit in because it meant a lot to him. English was also very important to him, and he got mad when his family didn’t speak correctly because to have a conversation with corporate white people would be the survival in this world.
LaToya has another point of view on assimilation. She is against it, and she doesn’t think that anyone should conform others culture. Everybody has their own identity, and nobody should be forced to change themselves. She wants to retain who she is.

The white society has a huge influence on the way African Americans are living. African Americans don’t have the same rights as the white. By way of example in the school. LaToya has written in the text: “But what is the point of black students being able to attend the university if their needs are still not met? A few classes being given in African studies do not meet my needs.” (page 132, line 28-30). The African studies don’t have the same rights.
The society affects the grandfather in every aspect of public service. For example the