I picked latinos as one social group because I believe there has been a single story about them. I wasn't even familiar with the word, latino, before I came to the United States three years ago. Somehow I became roommates with a Mexican girl in my first semester at college. Since I never met a latino before, and I was only familiar with latinos represented in media, I assumed she would be the same as the ones that I indirectly experienced on TV. It was the character, Gloria, which stereotyped my perception on latinos. Gloria is a character from Colombia in Modern Family, who is proud of her family and country, and often talks fiercely with a thick accent whenever she gets upset. I knew every latino wasn't like that on the one hand. But, I immediately thought my roommate would be like her when there wasn't much in common between them. The quote that says "I am Latino I cannot keep calm" shows how stereotypical latinos are seen.
Also, I realized that a lot of times the media illustrated latinos as drug dealers, janitors, gardeners, and housekeepers. As we find the female animated character below has brown skin color wearing a housekeeper uniform, we think that she is a latina. Not only in the animated shows but also in film, latinos have been depicted as domestics. When there are doctors, scientists, professors, athletics from Central and South America, why do media in America stereotype latinos? I think this single story affects all of us because this will make us no longer see them as people like us. These artifacts all provo that we separated them from our boundaries. We differentiated between latinos and the rest. This is bad because it creates limitations on understanding the people and accepting them as individual human beings.
To conclude, I discovered that media in America frequently depicts latinos as a stereotypical group of people. Usually they are loud, unintelligent, and criminal. TV producers may portray them this way only to make their shows funny, but it is not right to depict them based on a single story. This will lead us to stop seeing them as they are, but people that we already stereotyped.
I served my mission in Mexico and I love my latino friends. As you mentioned, the media often portrays them to only be loud and unintelligent. I met some incredibly smart and wise people while in Mexico. I also met the funny and crazy ones, but they are just as diverse as any culture.
ReplyDeleteAs a Latina woman, I find it so interesting (and sometimes even comical) to look at the different stereotypes for my culture. When I came to BYU it was very hard to break through that stigma. I had a roommate admit to me that she was very afraid of me when she first met me because of the color of my skin.
ReplyDeleteI did my post on Latina women, and we came to similar conclusions. Some of the calmest, most intelligent people I know are my Latino friends here in the U.S. and my friends I met in Brazil. With all the immigration controversies in the U.S., it is common to see people misdirect their anger towards blameless social groups and not the individuals who cause problems.
ReplyDeleteGreat analysis! I recall in my high school Spanish class watching films on Spanish women smuggling drugs into the US. There needs to be better content in America on what a true Latina woman is.
ReplyDeleteThis is always a great single story to analyze. Like you said, the media doesn't help the situation either. It would have been really powerful to see some of those news articles you mentioned to support your cause.
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