Misleading Racist Stereotypes
Every race has different types of stereotypes. From little
things like physical features to socio-economic characteristics, the world has
labels on races. One particular race, Latinos, go through the classic
stereotype of being called “illegal.” I find this difficult to understand since
more than half of Latinos that live in the United States are actual citizens,
yet the entirety of Latinos have been placed under the label of being
“illegal.” The effects of being called after a stereotype can cause mental
repercussions not only on the victim, but to the bystanders as well.
One example of where the “illegal” stereotype is played well
is when a 13 year old Mexican-American sang the national anthem at a NBA finals game. Some spectators saw this as a disgrace and said vile things, like “Who
let this illegal alien sing our national anthem” and “Why is a foreigner
singing the national anthem… I realize that’s San Antonio but that still ain’t
Mexico” in response to a Mexican-American boy singing the national anthem (Cindy
Rodriguez Mexican-American boy’s national
anthem sparks racist comments). The people who reacted like this clearly
cannot accept the diversity that this nation is becoming. United States is a
very diverse country seeing that 13.1% is African-American, 5.1% is Asian
American, and 16.9 % is Mexican American.
Another example that shows the racism is a tv show called “What
Would You Do?” In this show, the producers give a scenario to see how the
bystanders do in response. One episode that relates to the racism to
Mexican-Americans is when an actor that plays a cashier tells two Mexican-American
customers to “Get back in your pickup truck with the rest of your family”(Eric
Hanan & Yardena Schwartz Confronting
Racism in America). The cashier tries to show another stereotype that all
Mexican-Americans live together and go from place to place in a pickup truck. The results from the
experiment went from a lot of no reactions to some reactions supporting the
cashier. The data collected from this research can show how racism against
Mexican-Americans affects lives of the victims in the United States. This
experiment exposed the stereotypes to the bystanders, and now people can start
to believe that Mexicans live together in a pickup truck.
These are just examples. There are many cases to show how
badly Mexican-Americans can get treated just based on typical stereotypes. Not
all Mexican-Americans come to the United States illegally, yet all get labeled
as illegal. Not all Mexican-Americans have the same education status, nor all
go into the same occupation, when everyone hears the stereotypes that Mexicans
mow lawns and just have a high school diploma. In today’s world, we see
Mexican-Americans graduating with bachelor degrees from great, prestigious
universities, and become doctors, police officials, judges, and many
more respected with high paying salaries.
It’s wrong to presume that Mexican-Americans are the
stereotypes that people make. Many Mexican-Americans are successful and
shouldn’t be labeled as the typical stereotype of “illegal.” The picture I
chose explains what the stereotypical Mexican looks like. I feel like this is
what the majority of people think when they hear Mexican-American citizen. It
is wrong to demoralize and characterize the entirety of a specific race,
because reality shows that many Mexican-Americans are successful in life.
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