Thomas Whitecloud, an educated Native American, finds himself distant from his people while he and his people are forced to be "imitation white men" (Whitecloud, 3). However, Whitecloud remarkably draws himself closer to his native people, unlike Rodriguez who in order to be a "scholarship boy" had to isolate himself with his native Hispanic roots. As Whitecloud makes his journey home back from college, he is widely welcomed back by not only his family, but the entire Native American community, "Be happy! You are home now--you are free. You are among friends--we are your friends; we, the trees, and the snow, and the lights" (Whitecloud, 3). However, as Rodriguez returns home from college, the reunion with his family his quite different, with his family not nearly being as open, while his conversation with them playing out more closely like an interview than a family discussion, "We tried to make our conversation seem like more than an interview" (Rodriguez, 606). His family tries to amend, and have a family discussion, but struggles with it, unlike Whitecloud whom enters back into the Native American community quite easily. Whitecloud also finds himself assimilating with the common American, straying away from Native American culture, in a way similar to Macedo, who had to fully learn English to be able to succeed in college. .
Macedo himself was discriminated against - both he and his parents were treated as second class citizens, "I also recalled the stoicism with which my parents had confronted the loss of their human dignity as we walked from apartment to apartment in search of a home, only to be told that the apartment had been rented, even though it had not" (Macedo, 2). Just as Macedo had to deal with being treated as inferior, Whitecloud also mentions how Native Americans are continuously treated as inferior to the white man, and that they try, to no avail, to imitate and rise to the white man's standards.