Betwixt the Lines
Theme: The struggle of assimilating into new communities: How differences both separate and bring us together.
CH3
“Fletz began to fear she might be suffering a psychotic breakdown… “I thought Oh my God- I’m living in the twilight zone!” (37) This comment was in response to seeing a woman, a refugee, walking down the street with a basket on her head talking to herself. This is a great example of the way people tend to view differences: we tend to think just because something is not the way we normally see it that it must be wrong or crazy. If we look at it from their perspective though it would be almost impossible if not crazy to assimilate to a completely new life and culture immediately with no retention of your roots.
Another point the author brought up about being different is that although the refugees are different in many ways, the supposed “crime” they bring into neighborhoods is not necessarily any more or less. “There were already gangs, addicts, and a rougher element living in those apartments when the agencies began sending refugees to the landlords” (45). The locals not only in Clarkston but in all communities always attribute the crime as new due to the influx of refugees, but it has always existed.
CH4
I really enjoyed reading the parts of the book that included Luma’s story. In ch. 4 this is where the idea that the refugees especially the kids just want a place to be where they don’t feel like outcasts. A place where they belong and can relate to others around them. Of course there are many differences between the kids who will eventually come to be on Luma’s soccer team such as race, language, journeys etc, but they all share displacement and extreme strife. Something I found to be rather metaphorical in Luma’s story is that she first was on the refugee’s team and they taught her the beauty of differences among people and how trusting these differences can bring us together, which is what then eventually led them to be on Luma’s team.
CH.7 just further exemplifies this idea of accepting each other’s differences: Luma forces the children to speak english, tries to avoid cliques forming between kids from similar countries etc. I think this is very important because this begins to form a sense of community which will hopefully continue off the field as well.
CH.8
Ch. 8 was a classic example of police brutality to a sector of the community that is seen as “less” and of course because they are different from the “average white working class american”. “I have a dark skinned pigmenta nd I lease new cars” chime said, “You can’t have dark skin and a new car in Clarkston without harassment” (83). The U.S, in the press at least, always talks of wanting the immigrants to succeed and that we are here to help (anti-intellectualism) but the second we see a person of color or minority succeeding we beat them down back into the ground, both physically and metaphorically. Racism is said to have died with the civil rights movement but it is our differences in race that continue to divide us.
CH.19
“Brenda white said, “But I don’t think it’s fair that we had to cater to the foreign people rather then them trying to change to our way of doing things” (177). Unfortunately Brenda’s mentality is that of many other Americans as well. In order to have such a mentality I think one must also lack empathy. If they were able to put themselves in the shoes of someone else they would realise that my assimilating to “their” way of doing things they are also leaving behind themselves. Everything has been taken from them already, if they leave their way of doing things they lose what makes them unique, they become just another materialistic consumer to fill a space in another aisle of a store.
Another person in the book who stood out to me as wanted to work to unite us through are differences was Scipio the chief who replaced the old one. Scipio implemented new rules (CPR) that forced police officers to respect all people, including “them”. He even began writing up officers for racial slurs, and comments such as, “You, people”. I believe the implementation of initially forced respect is the first step in being able to accept the immigrants for their differences. Until we can respect someone we can not accept them.
CH.24
Much of this book is focused on the frustration felt from the initial residents of Clarkston but also from the refugees flooding in. But as the initial residents can supply the refugees with a new home, food, safety, etc the refugees also have many lessons to teach them: “Because the refugees give you something in return- an understanding of international cultures, of generosity” (221).
“Liminality, the state in which a person becomes ambiguous, neither here nor there, betwixt and between all fixed points of classification, he passes through a symbolic domain that has few or none of the attributes of his past or coming state” (221).
Liminality is in a sense what I have been describing throughout: A loss of self based on the failure to accept and recognize the differences between one another. If we are able to unite communities with refugees and immigrants with the surrounding communities while recognizing the attributes of his past cultures, then maybe they won’t feel so lost, just a different kind of different: Unique.
When connecting this to NGS I see NGS as the soccer team that Luma created. NGS is a place to learn, prosper, and feel safe. All of these kids come from different backgrounds and are at NGS for different reasons but all with the same purpose, to succeed and that is what unites them. Similar to the soccer team the kids although most speak spanish as their first language are encouraged to speak english. Not only that but they learn of all the different struggles different ethnic groups have faced throughout history, which is similar to the kids on the soccer team. Although the kids on the soccer team are not learning in a classroom setting they learn these things from their own personal experiences. Finally just like the kids of Luma’s team the children of NGS also are continually told they are the underdogs and feel this pressure from society, which brings them all even closer.
