When you think of Hispanics, the first thing that comes to mind is, obviously a group of men mowing your lawn or an uneducated single mom with five young kids. Most people think that we, Hispanics, do not know how to speak English at all or are illegally in the United States. All Hispanics have been put into the category of the stereotypical Hispanic by Americans. We are all viewed falsely the same way uneducated, illegal, and all Mexican. Throughout the years I have been asked many questions about my status in the United States just because I’m Hispanic. Most of the people who ask questions over the status of someone in the United States are trying to make jokes about them (Hispanics) “jumping the border” or “swimming across the border.” To Americans we are all grouped in the same category and don’t realize that we’re not all from Mexico and we’re not all uneducated. There are two different sides to the Hispanic race just like there are two different sides to African Americans as shown in “Who Shot Johnny?” by Debra Dickerson. The essay of Debra Dickerson’s “Who Shot Johnny?” she explains how Americans only see the gangster, uneducated, homeless, careless black community and doesn’t …show more content…
History where my best friend, at the time, looked at me and asked me if I had a green card. I knew what she was trying to really ask, but I just sat there in disbelief because I thought she knew better than to ask such an offensive question. I knew what she was trying to ask me because it was a common question asked. She was trying to ask if I was legally in the United States or an “illegal alien.” That’s probably one of the most asked questions I get which upsets me because I have been put into a category of the stereotypical “illegal immigrant.” It is even more offensive when they use the phrase “illegal alien.” I wouldn’t find it as offensive if the word “alien” wasn’t used to also describe what you would see in movies like “Alien Abduction
In “Who Shot Johnny” by Debra Dickerson, Dickerson recounts the shooting of her 17 year old nephew, Johnny. She traces the outline of her life, while establishing a creditable perception upon herself. In first person point of view, Dickerson describes the events that took place after the shooting, and how those events connected to her way of living. In the essay, she uses the shooting of her nephew to omit the relationship between the African American society, and the stereotypic African American society.
Originally published in 1999, Mary Pattillo’s Black Picket Fences explores the circumstances and conventions of the Black middle class, a group that has experienced both scholarly and popular neglect. In the Acknowledgments section of this work, Pattillo details the mentorship she received as a graduate student from William Julius Wilson at the University of Chicago. She recounts that Wilson often encouraged his students to extend, and even challenge his scholarly works, and that this urging provided the impetus for her research on the Black middle class (xiv). The challenge Pattillo (2013) refers to, becomes quite apparent when comparing her work to Wilson’s 1980 piece, The Declining Significance of Race. In this work, Wilson (1980) contends that in the industrial/modern era of the United States, class has surpassed race to be a salient factor of social stratification. He supplements his argument by referencing the progress and achievements of the Black middle class, relative to the “economic stagnation” of the Black underclass (p. 2). Pattillo (2013) offers a
Wilson created the atmosphere of not only binding black race with economical and social issues when there are other contributing factors as well. The plight of low-skilled inner city black males explains the other variables. He argues “Americans may not fully understand the dreadful social and economic circumstances that have moved these bla...
People on the street do not know him except those caricatured black racial stereotype. People “snap” their books, “clutch” their bags, sees him as a carjacker, mugger, shoplifter, and drug dealer, revealing a common sense that a black man’s life is marked by prejudice and ostracism. By using metaphors, the words “score,” and “green” indicate an incorrect stereotype of black men’s relation with drugs and money. From Young’s standpoint, black men experience some degree of prejudice of being black skin men. Because as he points out, “Plainclothes/ cops follow me in stores/ asking me to holler/ if I need any help.”
After having viewed a few films in Chicano History class like A Class Apart, A Struggle for Educational Equality, and Latin and African Americans: Friends or foes, one cannot help but wonder how it is possible that you might be learning about the intense racism towards Latinos in the United States for the very first time after having devoted your life to the American country. I, myself, was born and raised in Arizona, a state south of the United States, in the city of Tucson that lies only about an hour away, or around 68 miles away from the Nogales, Sonora, Mexican border. One would assume to know a sufficient amount of history of the neighboring land or at least be aware of some fundamental facts about America and Mexico’s relationship throughout time.
Living in an environment where the crime rate is relatively low Dreamers do not worry about the daily protection of their bodies leaving room for their minds to be open to explore all life has to offer. Albert Einstein once wrote, “Education is not the learning of facts but the mind to think.” Being an educated black person is not always connected to background, many of the most success people living today have rags to riches story, yet what sets the black dreamers apart is their talk, their address and even at times their looks. Black dreamers’s protection lies in their voice, “You speak very eloquently to be black.” Or in plainer terms, “You talk like a white person.” A black dreamers’ protection lies in their state of dress, for who is going to gun down a man in a suit? When Coates describes his wife’s upbringing he says, “Perhaps it was because she was raised in the physical borders of such a place, because she lived in proximity with the Dreamers. Perhaps it was because the people who thought they were white told her she was smart and followed this up by telling her she was not really black, meaning it as a compliment.” (p.116) These are the people who become caught up in being black but not black enough to be subjected to police brutality. Bell Hooks writes in her essay Gangsta Culture, “On mass media screens today, whether
Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...
Are you tired of the stereotypical lies about Hispanics? Well I’m here to clear that up. Not all Hispanics are Mexican or Immigrants like society has told you. Not every Hispanic is a poor, Spanish speaking Immigrant. Society does not know who you are, unless they know recognize your language, origin, and culture accurately!
When someone say’s “hispanic,” what definition comes to mind? Hispanics are not one nationality, nor one culture. Instead, Hispanics are greatly diverse people. Our language and cultural origins are Spanish and Latin American, regardless of race and color. Hispanics can be European, Indian, or of African descent, or any combination of the three. The culture could be linked to Mexico, the Caribbean countries, Central America, South America and Spain. Hispanics were once considered a rarity in the United States, now we are found throughout the country.
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
Stereotypes are a reality that we all must face in today's society. Regardless of what your ethnic background or culture may be. You have been probably been discriminated against, or treated differently, at some point in your life because of a stereotype that was long ago applied to your culture. For some, I perceive it may be worse than others. For example, all Hispanics are in this country illegally or all African Americans are criminals that cannot keep a job. We know these things are not true, but it doesn't keep some people from calling a Mexican a wetback or stop them from calling the police when they see a black man out walking at nigh,t now does it? So why do people think like this? The answer, in short, is stereotypes. In "The Myth of the Latin Woman," Judith Ortiz Cofer states that her personal goal in her public life is to "try to replace the old pervasive stereotypes and myths about Latinas with a much more interesting set of realities" (Cofer 812). By using the rhetoric appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos she causes us all to stop and think before we make assumptions based on stereotypes.
What would it be like to wake up everyday knowing you would get bullied, mistreated, and/or abused just because of where you were born? Discrimination still exists! “Discrimination remains and there is an increase in hate crimes against Hispanics, Latinos and Mexican-Americans, as one of the perceived symbols of that discrimination, the U.S.-Mexico Border Fence, nears completion. Instead of pulling together in these difficult times, we may see a greater polarization of attitudes” (Gibson). But why are hate crimes increasing towards Latin and Hispanic aliens and what types of discrimination are occurring against them? Understanding violence towards the Hispanic and Latin alien is divided into three main classes; the difference between legal and illegal aliens, the attacks and effects, and the point of view of different people towards aliens.
Being Mexican or hispanic does not mean everyone migrated here, or even less is “illegal”. Even though we're in a country where a racist man just became president, where one of his main claims were that all Mexicans are illegal and all Mexicans are rapist and criminals, it is not true. I am not a daughter of a rapist or criminal, i am a daughter to a man that loves his family very much and all he wishes for is our happiness and for us to be successful in life. My father wants us to do better and get better than what him and my mom had. I don't know what my father wouldn't do for his 6 most important women in his
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
As an actor, African American’s have to interpret in nearly every situation, including those involving police, whether or not they are being perceived as a threat. Many African American’s imaginatively rehearse how they will react to police when stopped in their cars, when walking in a “nice” neighborhood at night, and even in their own homes. At times these rehearsals and improvisations do not out way the conventional wisdom for some that African American’s are dangerous. Furthermore, it adds to the “the culture of fear” Barry Glassner argues in his book of the same name. He points out that “serious problems remain widely ignored even though they give rise to precisely the dangers that the populace most abhors” (Glassner 109). Assuming that African Americans are a threat once again disregards violence and public issues about the