Mariana’s Comments (group member since Jan 03, 2014)

Mariana’s comments from the LMU First To Go Community group.

At the end of chapter 10 Professor James says Cedric is “not accomodationist,” which means he is more “culutrally fixed.” By saying this he means Cedric struggles more than other kids to get adapted to his new life as a college student. He is more close-minded and it is harder for him to let go of his ideas and socialize like the other teenagers at Brown University. By the way Cedric acts in his new school I agree with Professor James, because he seems to be lonely and overthinking his situations. Cedric mentions his struggle in relating and trusting other students who are not his ethnicity, and like Professor James mentions, he is still very much in his shoes and is a very passionate kid (260). Given his childhood and relationship with other students during high school I think this is an understandable behavior, where in some cases it may not be problematic, but in college, being culturally fixed is not helping him. I think college is the perfect time to experience new things, open up your mind to new ideas, and meet new people, but him being culturally fixed is preventing him from all these new experiences. I think he did realize this at the end of the book, when he decided to hang out more with people not only from his ethnicity, but other ethnicities. He looks past the appearances and realizes that he has to open up and live new things.