history

A Different Miror
AHistory af Multicultural America

RONALD TAKAKI

Ronald rakaki, professor of ethnic studies at the university of Cali
fornia, Berkeley,is the author of numerous books, including sf rangers
from a Different shore; Pau Hana: plantation Life and Labor in fiawaii;iran
?S!t, ! Pro-Slaaery Crusade; and Violence in the Black lmagination.In
his book ADifferent Mirror: AHistory of Multicurturar Ameiica, Thkaki
writes that he has chosen in this book to look closely at America,s
“racial and cultural diversity-Native Americans as well as peoples
from different ‘points of departure, such as England, Africa, irelind,
Mexico, Asia, and Russia.” In this selection, tiken from A Different
Mirror, Takaki reflects on the history of race relations inAmerici, and
urges us to considerAmerican multiculfuralism through a ‘,different
mirror,” a mirror that reflects all of the many races and peoples who
make up the American identity.

i

I had flown from san Francisco to Norfolk and was riding in a taxi to my
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hotel to attend a conference on murticulturalism. Hundreds of””dr”rtors f.orirl
across the country were meeting to discuss the need for greater cultural di-
versity in the curriculum. My driver and I chatted about tf,e weather and the,
tourists. The sky was cloudy, and_ virginia Beach was twenty minutes away. i
The rearview mirror reflected a white man in his forties. ,,How long huve yol i
beerr in_this counhy?’he-asked. ‘All my life,’ rreplied, wincing. ,{ was btrn r
in the United states.” with a strong southern drawi, he remarkej, ,,I was won-
deringbecause your English is excellent!” Then, as I had *rny ii*u, before,
I explained: ‘My grandfather came here from Japan in the 1gg0s. My family
has been here, in America, for over a hundred years.” He glanced it me in l
the mirror. somehow I did not look “Ameri”uni’ to him; m”y eyes and com-
plexion looked foreign.

Suddenly, we both became uncomfortably conscious of a racial divide
separating us. An awkward silence turned my gaze from the mirror to the
passing landscape, the shore where the Engliih and the powhatan Indians
first encountered each other. our highway wis on land that sir walter Raleigh .
had renamed “Yirginia” in honor of ghributh I, the virgin eueen. In the Enlg-,
lish cultural appropriation of America, the indigenou”s peoples themselv6s
would become outsiders in their native land. Heie, at the eastern edge of the
continent, I mused, was the site of the beginning of multicultural ,{merica.
]amestown, the English settlement founded in16oz, was nearby: the first

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