I question that viewpoint. I see Asian Wisconzine as an eye-opener for the readers, stretching our horizon from our narrow ethnic identity. For example, a Nisei friend (Japanese American second-generation) told me that the magazine was very interesting. She had little knowledge of all the Asian groups in Wisconsin and enjoyed reading the articles.
In my case, my husband's involvement with the Wisconsin Organization for Asian Americans (WOAA) led me to make friends outside of my Japanese ethnic group. I have always been a loyal member of the Japanese American Citizens League, a civil rights and social group, and read its newspaper, Pacific Citizen, to keep in touch with people and events nationwide. But WOAA has made me aware of problems and issues of other Asian groups, notably the Hmong refugees, and the values of U.S. citizenship.
The other point I would like to make is that assimilation is occurring, despite the possible dismay of many first-generation immigrants. The Chinese in America developed Chinatowns because of economic discrimination and in defense of their own society. We have Little Tokyos, Barrios, and other comparable ghettoes for minority groups. Generally, immigrant parents want to retain their old country values, but their children want to become Americans.
I used Asian Wisconzine when our nephew in California married a young Vietnamese woman whose family came as refugees 30 years ago. She is a legislative assistant to a California state senator. They had two weddings: a private Vietnamese wedding, and, the next day, a huge California-style Protestant wedding. It happened that the current issue of the magazine featured a Laotian wedding in Wisconsin. It seemed there were many similarities, so I was happy to give copies to both families. That issue expanded my horizon in a satisfactory way.
Amy Ling, the first director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Asian American Studies Program, had told her parents that she did not want to study Chinese; she wanted to be American. Two Chinese American friends, one active in the Organization of Chinese Americans and the other with WOAA, have White American wives.
I believe that each of us has our own private family values and customs, our religious values, economic values, but we share in the political value system of American democracy. This is taught in our public schools. We salute the flag "with liberty and justice for all." We learn of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution and the responsibilities of citizenship. We are taught common democratic values. I also value the ability to speak English well.
The Kusuda Issei parents who immigrated from Japan were of the Samurai social class. They saw their son marry a commoner, a farmer's daughter. We Nisei (which means second-generation) have three children. They all chose to marry outside their ethnic group. They all have children, so we have five grandchildren who are fourth generation, each of whom is 50 percent of Japanese descent.
From the point of view of the first generation, it might look as if everything has gone to the (melting) pot! But this is America! We love our grandchildren, and we "go with the flow."
