Two Worlds Collide: Brown Meets White America

Abstract

Cultural assimilation is when new members of a community begin to mirror the performances of the dominant group within that community. Assimilation for South Asians can be extremely difficult since Western traditions are different than Eastern cultural practices. To carry out this project, I conduct in-depth interviews and explore how American values influence the ways South Asian youth perform their identities in order to fit in with both South Asian and American culture. I argue that they face dual exclusion because they struggle to fit in either culture due to strict gender role expectations from their heritage culture, and discrimination from U.S culture.