Insider/Outsider Debate

These articles were extremely informative and also provided great insight and opinions. Prior to reading these articles I had placed myself among the outsiders. Agreeing with Shannon, I am all of the characteristics that define the majority or mainstream culture within America. With my lack of knowledge and experience about other cultures and diverse groups, I could never imagine myself attempting to take on the label insider. However, I found it very intriguing how these authors "battled" with their speech this issue and defended their pieces of work with dignity and class. It was not until further in my readings of the articles that I realized the possibility of calling myself an insider. Within Cai's article he mentions that the mainstream, who often consider themselves outsiders, are in fact just as much of an insider as anyone else. Because I meet all qualifications for a standard majority individual, this places me at the forefront of multiculturalism.

Not only did the articles help clarify where I stand on the insider/outsider debate, they also allowed me to learn more about multiculturalism in general. Shannon makes a great point when he states, "We should not have a separate category of literature called multicultural literature, because the separation would make general literature appear as the norm and multicultural literature as alien." (Cai 316) It was not until reading this sentence that I really thought about how multiculturalism as a group of literature could work against itself. This is an idea and suggestion I wish to further discuss in class.