For author Julissa Arce, 'sounding white' isn't a compliment

<a href="https://twitter.com/julissaarce">Julissa Arce</a> used to think that the secret to fitting in was to "sound white" — to speak English perfectly, with no accent. And for years after her family came to the U.S. from Mexico, she did all the things immigrants are "supposed" to do to assimilate: she went to college, got a job at Goldman Sachs and became an American citizen. <br/><br/>It wasn't enough. So Arce decided that the solution was to stop trying to fit in, and instead embrace her whole identity. Her ideas come to life in her book, <em>You Sound Like a White Girl:</em> <em>The Case for Rejecting Assimilation.</em><br/><br/>In this encore episode from this past March, guest host <a href="https://www.npr.org/people/144449221/elise-hu">Elise Hu</a> revisits her conversation with Arce about the book, and what it means to celebrate your own culture and history. <br/><br/><em>You can follow us on Twitter </em><a href="https://twitter.com/npritsbeenamin"><em>@NPRItsBeenaMin</em></a><em> and email us </em><a href="mailto:ibam@npr.org"><em>ibam@npr.org</em></a><em>.</em>