David Ibata`s April 26 article on Asian-Americans begins, ”They are Americans, yet not fully acknowledged as American.”
One reason for this is suggested by the photograph immediately to the right of that sentence: A Korean herb purveyor grinning through the front-window sign of his North Side shop-a sign that will be totally
incomprehensible to the great majority of Americans, since it is in Korean with no English translation in sight. That most of the grinning purveyor`s customers are Asian, as the caption indicates, is therefore hardly surprising. Immigrants, whatever their origin, can help themselves to be ”fully acknowledged as American” if the non-English signs on their businesses, churches, etc., bear English translations in letters of equal or greater size. Indeed, I think this should be required by law!
Being ”fully acknowledged as American” is a two-way street-but, culturally speaking, Lawrence Avenue and many similar thoroughfares in our metropolis are looking more and more ominously like one-way streets!
