In his work, "My Father can beat Muhammad Ali- the author Hisaye Yamamoto describes the presumed life of Henry Kusumoto. His life essentially consisted of: " Two cans of beer with dinner, his favorite chiles rellenos. Usually he had only one can, but he had had more than the usual hassles at Crenshaw supermarket where he was in charge of produce, so he felt entitled-(231). In general, the entire work depicts a day or so with the Kusumoto family. On the whole, I deem that this piece presents a rather casual view of diversity. This impression can be inferred from the following: "We had fighters in our time "Joe Louis, Gene Turrey, Rocky Marciano -(232). Here, Henry Kusumoto thoughtlessly names three boxers of different ethnicity's and nationalities, with such apathy that it borders on the illogical. The nonchalant attitude of diversity that Hisaye Yamamoto portrays in "My Father Can Beat Muhammad Ali- most resembles my own perception of diversity in Southern California. .
From the onset of my life in California, I can firmly recall that there has been, at best, an acute indifference toward diversity. For example, when I was going to watch a local tennis match, I was quite amazed to see the degree of nonchalance that permeated between the two players. Either they seemed to completely omit their apparently dissimilar ethnic backgrounds, or they had a somewhat listless attitude toward their diverse ethnic origins. They played a solid match without the slightest regard to any racial enmity, which might have been unseen. This incident parallels the range of apathy in the Kusumoto family of Yamamoto: " Hey, you know Carlos, he says he's gonna go in for javelin next year-(232). Here, one of Henry Kusmuto's sons is talking about a friend of his. Being a Japanese-American, I think, it is noteworthy to descry how listlessly he talks about his friend Carlos, who evidently is a Hispanic. Again, this is another clear example of when the notion of ethnicity is completely overlooked.
