ICW 3-12

In his essay, “Immigrant Misappropriations: The Importance of Ichiro”, author Jay Caspian Kang attempts to make the point that baseball links people into social categories based on broad similarities such as background or skin color. This lends to lingering racism; he explains how fans match themselves to their idols based on misguided social stereotypes that they begin to mold to. The author realizes that he identified with Ichiro because he was also in a minority, but also because he himself had begun to view himself how many old generation Americans view him- as an Asian, not a Korean.

The title "Immigrant Misappropriations: The Importance of Ichiro" is misleading because it gives the impression of being a statistical based essay, but instead, it leans heavily on the author's personal experience and opinions.  In Kang's essay, he briefly talks about growing up in America as a first generation immigrant loving baseball, just like all of his peers. This reflects how Kang began to find his place in American society by relating to others in America through the shared love of "the American Sport." Later, as he matured, he realized that through baseball, he had begun he view himself with the stereotypes Americans viewed him with.

If I were to write about The View on Baseball as the American Sport, I would talk about how the author, Kang, alludes to baseball as being an American sport. I would talk about how it is often called "the great American pastime." With that in mind, Americans view themselves as most gifted in and familiar with baseball. It is considered a patriotic, family-friendly sport. The sport is still unpopular in most of the world, whereas it has been huge in American for decades. An American listing typical words dealing with America would likely include "baseball" just as sure as it would include "apple pie."

Even for Americans, like me, who are not sports fanatics, baseball sparks thoughts of patriotism and unity as a culture.  Because I am not a sports fanatic, I had no idea who Ichiro Suzuki was.  This made the essay less appealing and more difficult to understand for me.  After doing some research however, I had a greater appreciation for him as an athlete and for the essay.  By watching some highlights of Ichiro in play, I got to see his great level of athleticism.  The video also made me realize that I would quickly stereotype about Ichiro based on his appearance just as much as any American would.  To me, he just looks Asian.  Seeing this made me better understand Kang's argument in his essay.