Response Post for Tuesday Feb. 3rd.

I like in Geeta Kothari's piece how she lives with the failure of parents who do not meet the requirements to help her and her sister "negotiate the world outside". It seems as if her parents are sensitizing them to become American through only the foods they choose to give the girls. I like her description of the American foods as though they aren't foods at all but treasures they desire, but cannot have. It is also very informative of depictions of Indian people like herself as she explains that "Americans still don't know what to call us; their Indians live on reservations, not in Manhattan." (96). Her piece is rather well titled by the way when she goes on about the different outlooks and stereotypes of people and food. It is a moving piece of literature that ultimately asks the question of who am I? But does it with the expectations societies have on what they eat, cook, and buy at stores.

In Toi Derricotte's piece, I find it rather interesting how she feels that her identity sometimes becomes a category to others. A lot of good points are made in her many pieces. Such as racism is not timely, it is ongoing and will never end and also that writing about racism does not make you successful but ignored. Both Derricotte and Kothari's pieces have something in common with knowing ones identity, or at least acknowledging it. They both describe how society sets rules where ever one is. These rules are put on people no matter what race, sex, gender, or religion one is. It seems that both these two authors had trouble identifying themselves because the people around them couldn't or wouldn't look at their own views of people. It seems quite impossible to develop ones own idea of themselves when everything around them is pushing towards a different view.