How Does Sherman Alexie Use Racial Stereotypes In Flight Patterns

It is a part of human nature to make judgments of others based on appearances and stereotype people into different categories. In the short story “Flight Patterns,” Sherman Alexie uses fiction elements such as characters and plot to develop the idea of how humanity always uses the same brush to paint all the people in a particular group the way they want them to be. On an obvious level, throughout the journey of the main character, William, the story develops an ironic theme of the racial stereotypes.
Everything started after a year of the shocking incident of 9/11. Everyone was terrified and scared to death from airplanes, and they didn’t want to fly to anyplace anymore. In William’s case, he has to travel a lot for his job. According to

Sax and Lewis:
In “Flight Patterns,” William wants to be able to access all elements of American culture; he disdains having to choose “between Mia Hamm and Crazy Horse” (Ten Little Indians 102)—that is, between a mass-marketed Caucasian American female athlete and perhaps the premier example of American Indian male agency and possibility. William wants the right to access all culture heroes, regardless of their—or his—racial or ethnic identity (148).
Yet people still misjudge him. William is a “bows-and-arrows Indian” (Alexie 62) and a salesman who “travelled so often, the Seattle-based flight attendants knew him by first name” (58). Every time William goes to the United Airline Airport, “[he] always scanned the airports and airplanes for little brown guys who reeked of fundamentalism” (57). This is because everyone is considering brown people as terrorists, and here comes the double-standard irony stereotype situation. William is looking for the little brown guys, while the American people are looking at William as he is one of the dangerous brown guys. However, William is a Native American that he said he has “ten thousand more reasons to terrorize the U.S. than any of those Taliban jerk-offs, but I have chosen instead to become a civic American citizen, so all of you white folks should be celebrating my kindness and moral decency and awesome ability to forgive” (60). However, other people still see/profile him into the same category as a dangerous brown terrorist. Therefore, William is pulled over for searches about 75 percent of the time (60). This shows how some people not only judge books on its covers, but also mistake reading the titles.
Social expectations and standards are also playing a big role as racial stereotypes in the short story “Flight Patterns” in many ways.

When William caught a taxi to the United Airline, he presumed that Fekadu is a thin-black miserable taxi driver living on welfare. Meanwhile, the taxi driver assumed William was a rich businessman from the good suit he wore and a house that is big and beautiful. In addition, William could not believe a single word of Fekadu’s story, since a graduate of Oxford should not be driving a taxi (62). So the stereotype of a taxi driver is poor person who is required to carry the luggage for the clients. William is a very racist person who often profiles other people into many different stereotypes. When William got into the taxi and had a conversation with Fekadu, William saw a thick scar on Fekadu’s neck, and immediately he racially profiled Fekadu as a black man with a violent history (61). Even though William has no problem profiling people, he gets offended easily. Fekadu asked William a couple of times “What are you? Are you Jewish” (61). William didn’t give him a clear answer, but he answered him with questions such as “what do you mean?” (61), and “why do you want to know” (61). Then William said “I’m Indian, not jewel-on-the-forehead Indian” (62) which is another racial stereotype. This also concludes that the occupation, the shape/look, and the color of a person can also become a

stereotype.
Therefore, the main theme of the story is the ironic racial stereotypes: Black people are poor uneducated, criminals, white people are intelligent and filthy rich, and brown people are dangerous terrorists. It is unfortunate that our society is corrupted with filters of different stereotypes and discriminations. But what would happen if we all wear the same mask? Would humanity still judge people base on their shape/color or base on each individual’s behaviors?