Joane Nagel's Ethnicity And Sexuality

The word ethnicity comes from the Greek word “ethnos” which refers to a type of social stratification that emerges when people form groups based on their common origins. The word “stratification” can have a negative connotation to some since it is seen to be synonymous with the word separation which is oftentimes used negatively in context. Despite its negative connotation, many ethnicities continue to practice social stratification to keep their culture distinct from other people’s cultures. This act is mainly based on maintaining the ethnic community’s status of pride and making sure no previous offensive action done to the group is now seen as permissible––as to not appear lenient and easy to exploit and abuse by others. For example, Chinese
By not being able to breach the ethnosexual frontier, an individual can begin to experience internal conflict, as seen earlier with Ben and his frustration with not being able to act on his desire of being with a white woman. Joane Nagel makes a relevant point in another one of her works titled “Ethnicity and Sexuality”. It sheds light on how being unselfconscious about one’s culture can “breach [an individual] as a threat” (Nagel 112). This means that not being culturally aware of one’s ethnicity can result in a person unknowingly committing behaviors that are not within the ethnosexual frontier. This behavior is undesirable and is a threat to the community. And similarly to Ben, Alice, Ben’s friend, remembers to keep this idea in mind to avoid the possibility of her ethnic community reacting in hostility to her. But unlike Ben, Alice deals not with limiting sexual relations with a certain race in particular but with limiting sexual relations with the female gender. As a lesbian, Alice knows how much her Korean ethnic group extremely dislikes homosexuals. In an effort to blend in and appease her community, she brings Ben to church with her to meet her parents in an effort to trick them into thinking she is straight––an acceptable behavior within her ethnicity’s ethnosexual boundary. However, although she knows her parents will be happy thinking that she is straight, she also worries how her parents will react to her “boyfriend” being Japanese. Ben realizes this issue and asks Alice if her Korean family views Japanese people differently than her collective ethnic community. She responds with “Does the phrase ‘World War II’ ring a bell with you? Your people raped and pillaged my people!” (Tomine 25). Her once-bottled-up worries finally emerge in this moment. Remembering and being reminded of the historical conflicts between Koreans and