An open mindset is required not only in the minds of the minority group, but it is also necessary in the majority group. We have seen this just recently as a country when we voted to allow for marriage equality in all states. This change was onset when as a community, our majority vote recognized that every person held certain moral rights in society; one of these being the right to marry. Pew Research Center published an article called The Global Divide on Homosexuality which displayed information on the true facts behind sexuality acceptance across the globe. In this they suggest “Americans are far more tolerant today than they were in 2007, when 49% said homosexuality should be accepted by society and 41% said it should be rejected.” As we know, homosexual relationships have not always been recognized, but as a culture, we have changed our ‘majority mindset’ and have adapted to moderate the public acceptance and recognition of homosexual relationships.
As new generations become eligible to vote, we are able to see a vivid generation gap that exists throughout all of our historical context. In When the Emperor Was Divine, we learned that there were different categories of Japanese Americans. Eleanor Roosevelt expanded on this in her article To Undo a Mistake is Always Harder Than Not to Create One Originally when she writes “We have about 42,500 native born Japanese who are known as Issei, and about 85,000 native born Japanese American citizens, known to Nisei. Some of these Japanese Americans [...] have never known any other life than the life here in the United states.” Eleanor then moves to speak about the children of the Nisei “The younger ones made friends in school and college and became part of the community life, and prejudices lessened against them” Japanese Americans continually become more familiar and accepted into American society due to separation from ‘old’ culture. This is because younger generations continue to produce new ideals that are passed down to even younger generations.
We also begin to see the generation gap with marriage equality. Older generations in America do not accept marriage equality as easily as younger generations do. We see this in the Pew Research Center’s article when they write “In the U.S., 70% of those ages 18-29 and 64% of those ages 30-49 are accepting of homosexuality, compared with about half of Americans ages 50 and older (52%).” Generation gap exists as we have seen it throughout world history, it plays a major role is assimilation and the acceptance of new ideals in a society.
During the book Poisonwood Bible, we see the struggle of some of the very first ‘generations’ of Americans into the Congo. For each of the characters in the book, it was the first time they have truly lacked the ‘essentials’ for an immaculate life. We see that both Rachel and the father Nathan are struggling to assimilate to African culture; this is because they believe that their previous culture was more dominant and socially correct. This is visible when Barbara Kingsolver writes “We aren’t all that accustomed to the African race to begin with, since back home they keep to their own parts of town. But here, of course, with everyplace being their part of town. Plus, these men in the pageant were just carrying it to the hilt. I didn’t see there was any need for them to be so African about it.” (p. 45) Kingsolver is describing Rachel’s first experiences of a different culture. Rachel recognizes that the culture is completely different from that of America but she has made no point to be accepting or understanding of that difference. Instead, she suggests that ‘there was no need’ for them to display their culture.
Throughout Poisonwood Bible we continue to see examples of poor acceptance of the native culture, especially with Nathan. Being the Reverend of the town, you would think that Nathan would be open to God’s presence and creations but rather, Nathan speaks of them as though the natives are lesser people. Kingsolver emphasizes this during a conversation between Ruth May (the youngest daughter) and Nathan when she writes “I thought they were all fat, but Father said no. They’re hungry as can be, and don’t get their vitamins. And still God makes them look fat. I reckon that’s what they get for being the Tribes of Ham.” (p. 50) Nathan made a point to describe the natives around him as lesser people to his youngest daughter and to his family. His suggestion that the Tribes of Ham were lesser people in God’s eyes was reflected into the beliefs of his family. These reflected beliefs and actions hold a big key component to how the generation gap and poor assimilation begin; Nathan’s decision to describe the natives as the lesser son of Noah, demeaned the importance of different cultures to the rest of the family.
Nathan continued to poorly assimilate into his new culture when he refused help from the natives. When a native offered help in planting a garden, Nathan refused. Kingsolver displayed this when she wrote “Mama Tataba, I’ve been tending the soil ever since I could walk behind my father.” (p. 37) Of course the garden fails and Mama Tataba (the native that offered help) came to assist in replanting the garden, but that is besides the point. Nathan refused to implement a native belief because he thought that ‘he knew better’, he assumed that his knowledge trumped the knowledge of a native African.
Assimilation does not come easily for nearly anybody. In order to assimilate into another culture, it is necessary to put your prior understanding of the world behind you. The same goes for changing your beliefs on something. We have seen that throughout our world history, When the Emperor Was Divine, and Poisonwood Bible that as ideas get passed along from one generation to another, the acceptance or deterrence of the idea becomes more popular.
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