UPDATED 7.24.2001
"In the Minority"

Thank you to all who took part in our online discussion with Journal staff writer Suzannah Gonzales, about her first-person story on being in the racial minority in the mostly white town of Barrington.

• Read the original story, "In the Minority."

• Review a transcript of the hour-long chat with Gonzales that followed publication of the story, in print and online.

• Three in-depth perspectives from readers

• More readers' reaction

• Still got something to say? Post your thoughts on projo.com's Community News bulletin board.

Thanks for having me. I'm looking forward to an interesting discussion.

Jim Winquist
Waimanalo, Hawaii

Spending 25 years growing up in New England (South of Boston) and then moving to Hawaii, I really appreciated reading your story. With the cultural diverisity of Hawaii, it has been an eye opening experience to be able to learn the special qualities of many different cultures. I have constantly thought back to what it must have been like for some of the minorities in my home town/area. My wife of 3 years is part Filipino and I want to show her your article. Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your eye-opening experience with us, Jim. I'm glad you appreciated the story. Sounds like we ve had similar culture shocks, but from opposite environments!

Cesar Gonzales
Chicago

I enjoyed the article, and can relate to it. I used to live in Sioux City, Iowa, where the only sizeable minority group was Native Americans. I am Filipino, but I have similar features to some of the Native Americans in the Sioux CIty area. I would say that the 85,000 population town was about 85% white, and I did feel some of the same things that were discussed by Suzannah's story subjects. It's the feeling that "I am different, and people are looking at me funny." But I took advantage of my differences and got along well with people in Sioux City. Like Roger, I thought I taught people in Sioux City about my heritage and I learned from theirs. Good job with the article.

Hey, brother. Thanks for weighing in.

Catherine Ho Kwan
Providence, RI

Sorry, I cannot be at the online chat.

I hereby give you my reflection:

Miss Gonzales:
A very written and well researched piece.

My children (19 & 17)(ethnicity--Chinese American) also grew up in Barrington. Thus we know all the characters Suzannah wrote about.

Back in 1997 when our family moved to Singapore our children had the chance to travel to different parts of the world and be exposed to multi-cultures and diversity. They came full circle to fully appreciate their Chinese heritage.

I fully agree with Donna Silva: I myself had a culture shock when I first moved to Barrington about 14 years ago having lived in Hong Kong and New York City all my life. However, after I got involved with the school community (my children went through the Barrington school system till 1st year in high school) I started the assimilation process and made life-long friends with some awesome people in town.

I would like to share my mottos--"Carpe Diem" and "Be Worthy of Your Heritage"--I encourage children to seize the every opportunity to learn as many languages as possible while they're young!

The world has become remarkably global. Consider myself a world citizen, at present I'm struggling to learn a third language. I know my Provencal neighbors will surely appreciate when greet them or ask for help in their native tongue!

"Je ne cherche pas, je trouve." ---Pablo Picasso

Au revoir!
Catherine

Thank you for your reflection, Catherine.

Jeff Francis
Concord, Ma

I grew up in Concord Massachussets, a VERY white town as well. I am white, but that does not mean that I enjoyed my experience growing up in Concord, nor does it mean I enjoyed or am glad about the ignorance I grew up with.

I think the biggest problem for Americans today is isolation. It is comfortable to stay in isolation; insulated from everyone else who is different and scary. As the world becomes smaller, I think Americans are going to be at a major disadvantage because of this. In Europe, the countries and different cultures are in such a cloose proximity, that most students grow up learning three languages. Travel between the different countries is quite easy, and helps to broaden people's understanding and culture.

I think it is important to start teaching that to our children here. We need to start early, but also at an age when they are mature enough to understand the lessons beyond it. I think that it should be a federal requirement for every high school student to spend one year with a family from a town completely unlike theirs. It would be an exchange program. I could go to dorchester, or the Bronx in NY, and their child (or someone from their school) would go to Concord. The growing experience, and the mutual understanding it could help create would be invaluable. It would mean that all of those students growing up would not only better understand each other, but might even make good lasting relationships going forward. As well, it would help fight against people's tendency to stay with what is comfortable, and force them to understand. Obviously, this idea needs to be fleshed out in more detail. However, I believe the basic intent of it is on the right track. (Regardless of whether or not you think this would ever be accepted...) what do you think?

Hi, Jeff. I agree that being exposed to cultures different than your own and people different than you can teach you a lot. I learned so much about myself and my cultural identity by working in Barrington, a place unlike any other I've known.

phil
warren

worked in barrington for years,there attitude is what i would expect from this waspish community of old and new money.

Hi, Phil. I sincerely hope that the story did not come across as Barrington-bashing. This was not my intent and a fear that almost kept me from pitching the story to my editors. As the story mentioned, none of the people in the story had anything negative to say about Barrington, and some even made that clear to me before talking about their experiences. While I did hear an offensive comment or two about my ethnicity, I learned from the experiences and am over it. My intent in writing the story was to get people to think about their behavior when dealing with race, while giving the subjects of the story a voice and other minorities something to relate to. I hope I was successful.

Kristen
Pawtucket

My son is bi-racial - I'm caucasion and his father is cape-verdean. I'm not sure what some of the obstacles he may face. Do you know what some of them might be?

I'm not sure that I can answer this question. What your son may experience may be different than others who are bi-racial. What Xaykham, who was featured in the story, experienced may be different than what your son will experience. Does anyone out there have anything helpful to say to Kristen?

Suzanne Luther
Barrington

Suzannah:

I again would like to commend you on the article. However, I am curious. Were you surprised by the stories of any of the subjects of your story? Was there a certain attitude that you anticipated from them toward their community? I was very interested in both your own insights and those of Ms. Silva. Having lived here my entire life, I must admit that I was surprised by the fact that the two of you were so uncomfortable when you arrived. However, I can certainly see how such can be possible. Perhaps that 'feeling' is something to which I have become accustomed. I have to say, that whenever I am in a situation in which I am surrounded by others of non-Caucasian descent (particularly other Asian-Americans), I feel quite amazed. I guess it is the same shock that you feel, but in a 'reverse' situation and in a different way. Congratulations again on your article. I have heard little but positive reactions from people within the community thus far!

Suzanne Eun Ha Luther

Hi, Suzanne! Thanks for weighing in! And thank you for sharing your story with me and Journal readers. Initially, I have to admit, I was surprised by some of the stories. In particular, I remember being surprised by what YOU told me! I just could not relate -- we grew up in such different environments. And I think I went into the interview expecting to hear some things, things you never told me. I expected you -- and Xaykham, too, I think -- to have experienced more cultural conflict. I was surprised that so many of you made a point that you had nothing negative to say about Barrington. While reporting, sometimes I felt that people thought that I wanted all the juicy, Barrington-is-bad stuff. I really didn't. I just wanted to hear what you all have experienced.

Tony
Providence

Suzannah. Excellent story and exploration. I always wondered why the Fleet Bank branch on County Road in Barrington (at least as recently as a couple of months ago) doesn't have a Spanish-language option at its ATM. Now I know.

Tony, excellent observation.

rajeev
washington, dc

Kristen:

Being bi-racial (my mother is caucasian and my father is Indian) and growing up in a small town in upstate, new york, i think that suzannah is right, and that your son will assuredly experience something different from me. I will say that having parents of two different races relay stories of the obstacles that they confronted in order to get married (most of my mother's family disapproved of the wedding) has given me strength in my own dealings with family, love, and relationships as a gay man.

Thanks, Rajeev.

projo.com moderator:

I'm curious, could you tell us how the story came about?

My own culture shock  the biggest one I've had -- and what I experienced in Barrington inspired me to do this story. I shared my experiences with Mallika and Suzanne, who I met while working on other stories, and asked them about their own experiences. Through Suzanne and her family, I met Xaykham and Roger. And I met Donna through another teacher at Barrington High School. I found that the stories they shared with me were so rich, and that a lot could be learned from them.

projo.com moderator:

How long did it take you to pull the story together?

I think I did my first interview (with Mallika) last summer, before I knew for sure that this was a story. I worked on it piece-by-piece and on-and-off since then.

projo.com moderator:

What have you gained by writing this story?

So much -- personally and professionally. I met a great group of people, who helped me get some perspective on my experiences and upbringing. And I learned a lot from working on a long-term project with an excellent editor, the now-embarrassed Mimi Burkhardt, whose sensitivity helped make what the story turned out to be.

Sue
Newport

I can relate to the questions of "where are you from" as I am a chinese american. It is amazing how ignorant people can be -- instead of asking what my cultural background/ethnicity is, I've often been asked that question especially when I lived in Texas, California, Virginia & various towns within RI. Often I know it's just ignorance but typically I'll just say RI but then I get the response, really, where are you from (meaning what's you're ethnicity). No wonder there's a breakdown in communication - people can't even ask a basic question correctly & then get miffed with the response because they feel you're being obnoxious or something along that line.

Hello, Sue. Thanks for your comments.

patrick
Barrington, RI

Can we expect more stories like this from you in the future? I found your insight truly refreshing!

Thanks for reading, Patrick. I'm thinking about doing a Barrington Journal (in the East Bay section on Tuesday) about some of the responses to the story. So stay tuned.

Chris
Barrington

Hello I am a good friend of Suzanne Luther, and I just wanted to say that you did a fantastic job of telling hers and also the X-man's stories. Thank You

Thanks, Chris. I'm a big fan of Suzanne and Xaykham, aka Zackrum, Psycho.

Kristen
Pawtucket

To give a little more info - I don't have him "choose" between both cultures, but he is raised as a "caucasian" child. His father isn't in his life anymore and with my son approaching his teen years, I wasn't sure what sort of obstacles he may face. I embrace both cultures for him, but it's people in society who ask him "what nationality are you, etc." I try to tell him to say that he's American, since he was born in the USA, but sometimes people don't accept that as answer.

This is a tough subject, Kristen. Maybe someone out there can offer some insight?

Melissa Callejo
Glendale Heights

I just wanted to say that your article was great in that it seemed to cover every spectrum most minorities face today in society. I'm going to be a senior at Brown University and I'm concentrating in chemical engineering. My experience at Brown has been more than just manipulating equations; I've learn far more about my background, which is Filipino. Like you, I visited the Philippines once when I was really young and I don't speak the language. I've been involved with the Filipino Alliance and the club definitely opened my mind about who I really am. It's been quite a roller coaster the past three years...attending a somewhat diverse college then back at home during breaks where it seemed like the community was mostly Filipino. Nonetheless, in either environment, I always am interested in learning about who I really am and people learning more about my background.

Yeah, someone from my hometown! Hi, Melissa! Thanks for joining us.

Joe Fernandez

Providence

The article was extremely interesting.

I have e-mailed the piece to the organizers of the Eastern Regional Conference of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA), which will be held in Warwick, Rhode Island from September 14 - 16, 2001. There is a small (2,062 in the 2000 census) but energetic group of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in Rhode Island. Many came to Rhode Island through an association with the Navy; others work in the health care, engineering and academic fields. The Filipino Americans in Rhode Island are proud to host the 250 to 300 attendees of the NaFFAA September conference.

One of the themes we will explore at the conference is young adult leadership. What does it mean for a young Filipino American to be a "leader"? Is one's public identity necessarily tied to one's ethnicity? If a young Filipino American wants to develop an "American" identity, does that person have to choose a career that does not require a public identity? What forms does leadership take? Political? Community? Artistic/cultural? Participants will come from colleges in the Northeast and beyond, as well as those many years removed from college. Perspectives are sure to vary depending in part on where people grew up, and where they currently live. Living in a place like Barrington, or a place like Rhode Island, may mean that public identity is largely tied to ethnic identity.

Thanks for reading, Joe, and letting us know what's coming up!

projo.com moderator:

Thanks for taking part in the chat, Suzannah. We've had some really interesting and spirited comments from folks out there.

It was fun! Sorry to those people whose comments and questions I didn't get to. I can be reached at sgonzale@projo.com Thanks!

Editor's note: Questions and comments submitted for online chats are reviewed by projo.com staff before they are posted to the Web site. Projo.com also reserves the right reject any such questions and comments.