Critical Thinking By Gary Colombo: A Summary

Have you ever been labeled as a stereotype or labeled anyone as a certain stereotype? Where do these stereotypes come from? The real answer lies in cultural myths and how they are formed from within ourselves and from within many groups creating many cultural myths that are seen everywhere. Gary Colombo the author of “Cultural myth” and “Critical thinking”, gives us a definition of cultural myth as, “[Holding] people together by providing us with a shared set of customs, values, ideas, and beliefs, as well as a common language.” Colombo is a professor emeritus of English and ESL at Los Angeles City College. Colombo provides a way of seeing cultural myths through explanations of some of the cultural myths in great detail. Colombo talks about

how parents are “unequipped” to help students. This can be seen in Mike Roses narrative where his parents were “unequipped” to know what college life was going to be like for him. Mike Rose is a professor at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Rose is an American education scholar, he studied literacy and the struggles of working-class America. Rose wrote “I just wanna be Average” to show how certain aspects affected him through college. We how these aspects can be connected to cultural myths and at a deeper level, stereotypes. Stereotypes are everywhere and some people can escape them, if they tried hard enough. Stereotypes are widely held but fixed and oversimplified image that comes from cultural myths. There are many stereotypes that are applied to many races, furthermore, those races break from the stereotypes, but will still be labeled those stereotypes. Stereotypes are very powerful cultural myths that have existed for a very long time. Stereotypes should not define anyone or stop them from doing what are they currently doing. Stereotypes become who we are as part of our identity that we can mold into the person we would like to be.
Moreover, stereotypes are pressed upon us and become a natural identity that we live with on a day to day basis. A stereotype can be seen as a form of an identity or it can be the identity. It only depends on which side you are on, creating the stereotype or living the sterotype. Stereotypes from the point of view of someone who has lived with a bigger group can place others in a different stereotype. While the other side views the bigger group as a stereotype of a different manner. Colombo states, “Before long, the culturally determined roles we see for women and men appear to us as “self-evident”” (pg. 3). These roles are placed upon us and we see them to completely true and when we do not comply to the roles given to us, then it is seen as “unnatural”. That is because they have proven that they are not the person they seem to be but someone completely different. It is unnatural to them because they have never seen a person do something completely different from the group that they belong to. Society believes that a white boy should not rap, but should go to school and possibly follow in the footsteps of his father. At Mercy school, we can see that to be true when Tyrrell does not apply to the determined roles given as a white boy. Rose states,” He ran dozens like a metric halfback, laid down a rap that out rhymed and outpointed Cobb whose rap was good but not great – the curse of a moderately soulful kid trapped in white skin” (pg. 124) This shows how society has determined roles for their children and others. So, when they decide to break those stereotypes it is seen as retaliation or as a sickness. Sometimes this can impose them from reaching their full potential. Stereotypes can also create the very identity that is pressed upon them. It becomes a part of who they are, but in their view, it is not who they should be. So, they continue the path they set for themselves and create their own identity.
An identity can be formed and molded into whatever the individual wants to be as a person or it can completely be formed for you by others.

They help us to connect to others or help us find a better us. An identity helps other connect to you by creating a bond. This bond can be anything that is in common and in some cases not in common. The bonds help you as person to feel like you belong to a group or can be a way to help you on the journey of life. As stated by Colombo, “Our identities – who we are and how we relate to others – are deeply entangled with the cultural values we have internalized since infancy” (pg. 7). Ever since we are born we are “entangled” to theses identities. When you are born your identity is a piece of paper that states who you are as a person. For example, if you are born into a family of a Mexican ethnicity then you are considered Mexican but if you born in the United States of America. Then you are an American with Mexican being your race. That is only part of your identity because your identity can grow and expand to include anything about you. Rose states, “You’ll see a handful of student far excel you in courses that sound exotic and that are only in the curriculum of the elite: French, physics, trigonometry. And all this is happening while you’re trying to shape an identity, your body is changing, and your emotions are running wild. If you’re a working-class kid in the vocational track, the options you’ll have to deal with this will be constrained in certain ways: you’re defined by your school as “slow”; you’re placed into a curriculum that isn’t designed to liberate you but to occupy you” (pg. 128). Your identity has a lot to do with every aspect of your life. In school, he was seen as “slow” because his test scores were accidentally switched with another person with the same last name. While in school we felt as he was slow because that is the way they treated him. The curriculum did not liberate him but occupied him, meaning

instead of teaching him and having him reach a higher level, they only gave him material that he could easily do. It was meant to keep him busy. That is why we should form our own identity because it can cause you problems if you allow someone else to do it for you. In some cases, others can form your identity and it may actually work for you. Forming your own identity can define you and you will be a unique person that no one else can be.
Identities are who we are as a person, stereotypes can be who we are as a person, and cultural myths are a way of seeing the aspects of our own lives and how they touch, or connect to others. Stereotypes, identities, and cultural myths are all part of us and who we are. Each one cannot exist without the other. They are what all the people in the world use to connect to one another. Colombo and Rose can connect through the same manner and still have different views on different subjects. This type connection creates the unique bonds, life styles, identities, stereotypes, and so on to other people who you might have never met.