The Gangster We Are All Looking For

June 5, 2013 by llei13 1 Comment

In The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Le Thi Diem Thuy, Thuy writes a story about a Vietnamese immigrant experience from a coming of age girl perspective in San Diego. As a San Diego raised and born, I found some similarities between the two of us. Although, I can not relate to her refugee experience, I sense the poverty, the othering and the exclusivity of the larger community. On page 90, the girl describes how others look into her community, “some people think it’s dirty but they don’t know much about us… They haven’t seen our gardens full of lemongrass, mint, cilantro, and basil.” Often time immigrants are viewed as poor, dirty or lazy and in this paragraph she illustrates how her community is lively and full. I found this section very relatable because it is a realistic image of an asian american immigrant living. In San Diego, my family was always watched by neighbors because we had a large garden surrounding in out home too. In fact, our garden was ridiculed as something savagery or barbaric and inconsiderate of the neighborhood. Though they argue that we are being inconsiderate to their livelihoods, they are alienating immigrant and singling the immigrant community. Because, immigrants today do not resemble the white european immigrants from the other waves, immigrants can be easily ostracized and othered therefore justifying the politicking of the communities. In the novel, we can find many other sections that reiterates this immigrant experience and the feeling of someone watching from the outside. The constant outsider observation and criminalization is a response to the racist stereotypes controlled by the larger society. It is the idea that Vietnamese, Asian and non-white immigrants do not look like the right kind of immigrant therefore they will be treated differently in the United States and this section illustrates how the outside looks into the communities.