Vorschlag B1

Being different

Outline the attitude the author and her boys have towards being ethnically different.

(30 BE)

Relate the text to other experiences of being different, also including the film version of
“To Kill a Mockingbird”.

(45 BE)

Choose one of the following tasks:

3.1

“He, too, acknowledged that this exoticism could be an asset, but it was not one he had ever wanted and the price he’d had to pay for it was steep.”
Taking the quotation as a starting point, comment on whether exoticism is rather an asset or a price you have to pay.

(25 BE)

3.2

“If you believe you’re a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere.”
Theresa May, former prime minister of the UK, 2016
Taking the situation in the text as a starting point, discuss Theresa May’s statement.

(25 BE)

Material

Christina Thompson: On being an outsider (2019)

Before I had any children of my own, I spent a decade and a half living in places where I

was an outsider. While I never lost the feeling of estrangement that comes from missing

basic cultural cues, for me this was a period of great liberation. I loved the freedom that

being a stranger gave me. I loved the fact that people were unable to “place” me and that

I was also largely free of preconceptions about them.

This experience was only amplified when I met and married my husband. I had grown

up in Boston in a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant family. He was a Maori from New Zealand,

and when we married we both became members of communities we knew little about.

This, too, had its challenges, but we both experienced it primarily as an opportunity to

learn – and be – something new.

When we began having children – three boys in seven years – I was excited by the idea

that our kids were going to have a complex identity. It would begin simply with the way

they looked. My husband is dark, I am fair, our children are a range of in-between. They

all have dark eyes, dark hair, neither curly nor straight, and skin that is light in winter and

goes brown quickly in the sun. Ethnically speaking, they are quite difficult to place; over

the years they have been mistaken for Latino, Iranian, Turkish, Pakistani, half-Korean,

half-Japanese.

I loved the idea that our children were ethnically ambiguous. I saw this as their passport

to freedom and viewed our boys as citizens of the world. I wasn’t sure how long it would

take them to understand it, but I was confident that the rich complexity of their ancestry

would become apparent to them in time. It never crossed my mind that it could be anything

other than a bonus.

It helped that early in our married life we lived for a time in Honolulu. Hawaii is an

unusual place, demographically speaking. The population is European, Japanese,

Hawaiian, Filipino – there is no ethnic majority, and nearly a quarter of the people who live there

identify as “hapa,” meaning that they belong to two or more different groups. Hawaii was

a comfortable place for us as a family. Our friends were Indonesian, half-Chinese, Pakeha

New Zealander; it seemed as though everyone we knew was either some kind of mixture

or came from someplace else.

Our three sons are now grown, and it recently occurred to me to ask about their experience

of being hapa. Some of what they told me came as a surprise.

One of my sons described his childhood in terms of being “culturally unmoored.”

“We were like expats,” he said, which, in fact, we were for much of his early life.

But it was a feeling that stuck, even after we moved back to live with my family in

Boston. He always felt that we were different from the people around us, an experience he

likened to being “not quite a native speaker.”

He conceded that being different was in some ways an asset, in that people were interested

in him, but also that “it makes the game harder.” When you’re different, he said, you

stand out, regardless of whether you want to or not. “Not everyone is suited to it,” he

observed.

This was certainly the case for another of my sons. “From the first day of school,” he

told me, “I felt different from my classmates.” He described this as a “slightly bad feeling”

and said he’d been bullied, something he’d never told me before. For him, difference was

not an advantage, it was a burden, and his looks, which are somewhat exotic, were “a card

you could play but don’t really want to.” He, too, acknowledged that this exoticism could

be an asset, but it was not one he had ever wanted and the price he’d had to pay for it was

steep.

My third son had an entirely different take. By the time he was in middle school, he

told me, he had recognized that being unusual gave him a social advantage. “I knew it was

something that was cool,” he said. He told me that he got a kick out of the fact that people

couldn’t pronounce his surname (something that caused his brother endless misery) and

observed that the social cred effect had only increased with age.

Despite having grown up in the same family and sharing almost everything in their

lives, my sons had very different accounts of what growing up hapa had been like.

Source: Christina Thompson, On being an outsider, 29.03.2019, in: The New York Times, 29.03.2019

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Note:
Our solutions are listed in bullet points. In the examination, full marks can only be achieved by writing a continuous text.

Christina Thompson, in her article "On being an outsider" published in the New York Times in 2019, describes how she enjoyed a life as an outsider before her marriage.
Her otherness, her impartiality to others, and people's lack of ability to categorize her always gave her a sense of freedom, which she loved.

Introduction:
Life as an outsider

after her marriage to a Maori from New Zealand, they both faced great challenges in entering new ethnic communities
a fact they saw as an opportunity to broaden their horizons and reshape their identities
the entire family - which at that time included three sons - was characterized by skin colors of different shades of ethnic ambiguity, as a result of which they were repeatedly associated with different cultures
a factor that she herself saw as the ultimate freedom

Liberty through otherness

however, it surprised her when she learned that her sons experienced their otherness differently than she did
one son felt culturally marginalized and found it difficult to stand out
another son suffered greatly from being different and got bullied
in fact, he was aware that his exotic appearance could be an advantage, but one that he did not want and made his life more difficult
the third son, however, enjoyed social privileges because of his difference
he enjoyed the fact that people could not pronounce his last name and became more and more authentic with age

Effects due to otherness

otherness can be a very positive experience for some and a curse for others
Christina Thompson describes in her article how being different was liberating, cool and identity-enhancing for her
for many people, however, it is dangerous and life-threatening $\rightarrow$ they often become victims of hate crimes and agitation
To Kill a Mockingbird is also the setting for several concepts of otherness

Introduction

the scenes take place in the, at the time, very racist South, where Tom Robinson, a young African-American, is falsely accused of raping a white girl
it is striking that he does not come into the line of fire because of his skin color or social status, but because of his very considerate and helpful nature
innocent Robinson is convicted by an all-white jury, despite a lack of evidence
his imprisonment ends fatally when he is shot by a prison guard while trying to escape
Tom Robinson not only experienced danger because of his otherness, but even paid for it with death

Otherness in To Kill a Mockingbird: Tom Robinson

Atticus Finch is Robinson's legal counsel and is highly respected in Maycomb, the location of the film
he is a single father with two children, this fact and his liberal attitude distinguish him very much from the rest of his social environment
Finch strongly opposes injustice and racism, which leads him to defend Robinson, despite his knowledge that he will probably be convicted
his modern, liberal and open-minded views are heavily criticized
Finch's uniqueness is also evident in his educational style, as he teaches his children to always look at two sides of an argument
his children will probably continue to swim against the tide and stand out from the rest of society because of their broader world view
nevertheless, they will never have to fight and overcome racist barriers as e.g. Tom Robinson did

Atticus Finch

Christina Thompson had also hoped that her children would experience otherness as something positive
she, as a white woman with an Anglo-Saxon Protestant background, underestimated the extent of racism that had prevailed in America up to that time
she assumed that her children's exotic appearance and "complex identity" (l. 12) would also give them a sense of freedom (cf. l. 18/19) and make them "citizens of the world" (l. 19)
since Thompson experienced being an outsider and being different as advantage, she thought her sons would too
however, one son had mixed feelings about standing out, which was inevitable, and the other was bullied because of his skin color
only her third son took his unusual appearance, ethnic background, and identity as an advantage

Author: Christina Thompson

every person experiences otherness in a different way
some even manage to use this as an advantage and thus show themselves more broad-minded towards the world
many, however, suffer greatly from their otherness, are disadvantaged, threatened, or live even in fear for their lives

Conclusion

3.1

the quote underlines the fact that otherness (exoticism) can have two sides
it can be an advantage, but according to Thompson's son it also comes at a very high price
on the one hand, he benefits from his exoticism, on the other hand, he is exposed to a lot of negative things that it brings with it, like racism

Referring to the quote

particularly in Hollywood, there are of course personalities with diverse ethnic backgrounds who have taken advantage of their exotic looks
models such as Naomi Campbell, Shaun Ross, and Chantelle Brown-Young have gained worldwide recognition and capitalized on their exoticism
this also counts for various actors such as Keanu Reeves, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Michael B. Jordan
however, it should not be mistakenly assumed that these personalities became successful solely because of their appearances
they are very ambitious, beautiful models, and outstanding actors
the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, which was peddled in 2016, came about because only white people were nominated for the Oscars two years in a row and empathized the fact that even in Hollywood there is an underlying racism that makes it difficult for personalities of color to succeed

Exoticism as an asset and among celebrities

especially members of the colored community probably have mixed feelings about being different $\rightarrow$ because they in particular are made to feel that they do not belong
as soon as one has a different skin color than white, only an exotic origin is "accepted" by many people
unfortunately it is for the masses still unacceptable if someone who looks more exotic says he is from Wisconsin or Munich
for personalities who feel a strong desire to belong, this kind of otherness is particularly stressful
they are reduced exclusively to appearances, although they want nothing more than to be able to identify with a culture, such as Thompson's first two sons
the level of aggression and hostile behavior towards non-white people varies greatly, some are excluded
others, especially the community of color in the U.S., but also elsewhere, suffer greatly from disadvantage, prejudice, and are statistically more often victims of violent crime (for example, George Floyd - who was killed by police violence)
in response to this violent crime committed by the police, demonstrations were formed around the world demanding justice and equal treatment

Exclusion through otherness

all in all, it can be summarized that racism is still very prevalent in many facets
how people of diverse ethnicities experience their exoticism depends very much on how they are treated by their environment
for some people, otherness is an asset which they use for their success
unfortunately, many cultures are narrow-minded, punishing otherness rather than seeing it as an opportunity to broaden one's horizons
but I also think that most of society sees racial differences as a burden they don't want to pay the price for, so I agree with the quote from Christina Thompson's son

Conclusion

3.2

Theresa May's statement that as a citizen of the world, one is a citizen of nowhere, stands in extreme contrast to Christina Thompson's attitude
in her text, Thompson emphasizes that it was her experience as an outsider, as a nomad who inhabited different countries and continents, that broadened her consciousness and horizons in such a way that she now has a completely open-minded attitude towards other cultures
she goes on to say that, in her opinion, it is the ethnic ambiguity (cf. line 15) of her children that will eventually make them citizens of the world
May, on the other hand, is of the opinion, made clear by her rather nationalistic and backward-looking statement, that people must conform to the mainstream and give up any ethnic and cultural ambiguity
in my opinion, these statements are dangerous, especially from high political positions, because it promotes not only certain one-sidedness but also the way towards racist positioning

Introduction and referring to quote

May, the former prime minister of the UK, turns her back on global, international and cultural diversity with this statement and rather goes in the direction of nationalism
that the path of nationalism can quickly lead to the extreme and thus to international conflicts, history has already shown us, which is marked by two world wars
the main question this statement raises is therefore why it denies the value of open global citizenship, the acceptance of international values such as human rights, equality and peace
especially in the face of current intercontinental crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, environmental issues or economic injustice, there is a need for unity and global action, not nationalistic thinking
when Theresa May said these words, she was not only attacking but also devaluating the people who have adapted to our interconnected world and who have a burning concern for global justice, for the environment, for the suffering and carnage that goes on beyond our borders

Danger of nationalism and requirements for global unity

Theresa May also turned a blind eye to the fact that British culture is also a great mix of ethnicities and cultures from around the world
multiculturalism was given to the UK because of its colonial past and is characteristic of British culture, as Robin Cook explained in his famous Chicken Tikka Massala speech in 2001
Cook, the former British Foreign Secretary, thus positions himself on the contrary side to May and even declares that ethnic diversity is the cornerstone of British culture and the broadening of horizons through it

Ethnic and cultural diversity as the cornerstones of British culture

in conclusion, for me, multiculturalism is more likely to broaden the horizons of many and to promote an awareness and responsibility for peace, the environment and economic equality on a global level
for me, May's nationalistic attitude is incomprehensible and I cannot agree with it
ethnic and cultural diversity connects nations and individuals and makes people beyond national borders take responsibility for global issues
they, therefore, see themselves not as part of a particular nation but as part of humanity as a whole, as also described by Thompson in her text

Conclusion

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