Discrimination

The theme of discrimination is an important one in My Name Is Not Easy. The Eskimo and Indian children are discriminated against because their heritage and cultural elements are different from the white people with whom they come in contact. Even before he arrives at the boarding school, Luke knows that his name will be changed because Inupiaq names are too difficult for white people to say. They are even punished for saying Inupiaq words at the school. Instead of the white people embracing these children and their differences, they invalidate them and try to make them fit into a white mold. What a difference it would have made to the education of those Eskimo and Indian children if the teachers and administrators had embraced their cultural and language differences and tried to learn about them. The children would have blossomed instead of spent so much...