The Stereotyping of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans Essay Example for Free

The Stereotyping of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans Essay Stereotypes have existed in different forms throughout history. Although they are prevalent in all areas of the world, most countries have overcome name calling various ethnic groups to a degree better than the past. However, people in America still place several racist connotations on minorities. This is ironic because the United States is considered to be a giant melting pot of different cultures, and Americans still are racist toward diverse ethnic groups. Hispanics are one minority Americans constantly categorize and even degrade with derogatory names. Hispanics are consider to be from large families, dirty, not born in the US, unable to speak English, uneducated, eat too much beans and tacos, good dancers, and that they are gangsters who like to get tattoos and ride on low riders. Many people have bad images of the Mexican race because they see one Mexican person who dress a certain way or even acts a certain way and they assume they are all bad people. For example if you see a Hispanic man that is baldheaded and has on baggie clothes people assume that he is a gangster by the way he looks. On the other hand most Mexicans perceive Anglo Americans to be arrogant, over-bearing, aggressive, conniving, rude, unreliable and dishonest because of the unscrupulous actions of some. They worked hard to get were they are today in society. Today, Hispanic-Mexican people face challenges living between two cultures, and one of these is in employment. Hispanic-Mexican people receive reduced wages and are forced into stereotypical fields because of stereotypes and discrimination, and from their education. First, a challenge Hispanic-Mexican people face is discrimination and stereotypes which lowers their wages and keeps them in certain job areas, but for an adequate education to allow them to compete in an increasingly challenging job market condemns too many of them to unemployment, underemployment, or work in professions with little promise for upward mobility and jobs with decent salaries. Congressman John Box called for restrictions on Mexican immigration because the Mexican was a product of mixing by the Spaniard and low-grade Indians. This mixture, according to Boxer, was an obstacle to participation in American democracy. There are many incidents where Hispanic-Mexican women are viewed, stereotypically, as a woman only capable of being a housewife, and as a sexual object. They also argue that cross-cultural conflict Hispanic-Mexican people have to deal with on an everyday basis, in this, purely dominated by Caucasians. In Hispanic-Mexican culture the wife might perform work outside the household; this was usually an acceptable alternative only in cases of extreme economic duress. In such cases, her efforts were limited to a restricted number of options, almost always of a part-time nature, and contributed nothing to improve her subservient status within the house. This division of authority established between man and wife was perpetuated by their offspring. Girls were taught distinct behavior patterns and were encouraged to adopt specifically defined aspirations quite different from their brothers, beginning at an early age. Motherhood was the ideal objective of all young girls and the primary virtue of all those who achieved it. Throughout the course of my life I have lived in different areas and have been subject to different viewpoints about race and ethnicity. In each of the areas I have lived, I have experienced differences and things in common in how people are treated. When I was very young I was the minority and other times I have been a majority. I currently live in a majority Hispanic-Mexican community. The Westside of Phoenix, AZ has a much less diversified population, yet racism, media, and the government still contributes to the discrimination of many of the residents, which has caused uncertainty and grave disadvantages. Right now Arizona is going through the 1920’s, and 30’s with the treatment of Hispanic-Mexican people. The governor, sheriff and the rich have come to the conclusion that all Mexicans are criminals and should be deported just like the U. S. government did in the 1920’s with the mandatory deportation of all Mexican people whether they were legal or not. Nativist scholars and politicians feared mongrelization as a by-product of contact with Mexicans, and in 1925 a Princeton economics professor even spoke of the future elimination of Anglo Americans by interbreeding with Mexicans. They were considered at that time by Congressman John Box called for restrictions on Mexican immigration because the Mexican was a product of mixing by the Spaniard and low-grade Indians. And as late as 1969, a California judge ruling in an incest case reiterated similar racist beliefs. He stated in court: Mexican people think it is perfectly all right to act like an animal. We ought to send you out of this country. You are lower than animals maybe Hitler was right. The animals in our society probably ought to be destroyed†. This mixture, according to Boxer, was an obstacle to participation in American democracy. They also did increasing violence perpetrated by Anglo Americans made Mexicans and Mexican Americans intensely aware of their subordinate status within the American Southwest. They did not have equal protection under the law, despite the guarantees of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the U. S. Constitution, and several laws were passed to specifically control their way of life. According to Griswold del Castillo: A Sunday Law imposed fines ranging from ten to 500 dollars for engaging in `barbarous or noisy amusements which were listed as bullfights, horse races, cockfights, and other tradition California amusements. At the same time, a vagrancy law called `the Greaser Law was passed. This law imposed fines and jail sentences on unemployed Mexican-Americans who, at the discretion of local authorities, could be called vagrants They are doing these things again here in Arizona. They have done it with SB1070 and have put fear in a lot of Mexican-Americans and Mexicans because this law is Racial Profiling or Stereotyping against all the Hispanic people here. They have ripped so many families apart by deporting one of the parents or even both leaving the children alone or with a parent missing. This law is like having Hitler here going after the Jewish people the only difference is that Arizona is not exterminating them. I have these people for many years and have learned, lived and raised children with them. They are not what my government sees them as. They are a proud people with strong family values and culture. They are not stealing the jobs from white people, but are doing the jobs that the white people refuse to do. Now because of how Arizona wants to act the cost of dairy, fruits and veggies has gone very high. The farmers can’t afford to pay what the prisons want nor the regular white guy who is willing to work in the field. References: del Castillo, Richard Griswold, and Arnoldo de Leon. North to Aztlan: A History of Mexican Americans in the United States. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996. McWilliams, Carey. North from Mexico: The Spanish-Speaking People of the United States, updated by Matt S. Meier. New York: Praeger, 1990. Between Two Worlds: Mexican Immigrants in the United States, edited by David G. Gutierrez. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1996. Samora, Julian, and Patricia Vandel Simon. A History of the Mexican-American People. South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993.

Something to Sing About in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Essay -- Buffy the

  Ã‚  Ã‚   Throughout much of recorded human history, people have written tales of the dead returning to life, usually to trouble the living in some way. These traditional myths have progressed from ancient superstitions, to campfire ghost stories, to television shows such as Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the series, vampires are created from the dead victims of other vampires (as long as a certain rite is performed during the victim's death). After a time they rise from their graves and immediately seek to kill and drink the blood of the living. Creatures such as these are, as Lacan [give first name when you first mention someone] describes them, "between the two deaths" and live again only to fulfill insistent, mechanical drive. This drive, often centered on killing, vengeance, or some other quest for closure, is distinct from desire in that it is not "caught up in dialectical trickery" (Zizek 21). According to Zizek [ditto], normal desires are not alway s what they seem, for when we desire something, we may be seeking something else entirely (21). Most of the vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer fit Lacan's profile of between the two deaths, and, as one might expect, they are antagonists to the protector of the living, Buffy. However, in the musical episode "Once More, with Feeling," Whedon explores two protagonists who are also between the two deaths, each struggling to revert back to their prior state of being, but both in a different situation. One of these characters, Spike, once fit the archetype of the vampire, but now faces difficulty as he is forced to cope with normal dialectical desire in order to exist in the civilized, symbolic world. The other, Buffy, fulfilled the death drive when she sa... ... her to be the Slayer. Her only chance to find motivation in the world is to find a new desire. Both characters approach the same center, but from different ends of the drive-symbol spectrum. Thus, Whedon not only makes use of the Lacanian "between the two deaths" concept, but he also plays with making it dynamic (Spike) and with inverting it (Buffy). Then, at the very end of the episode, the two experiments are united in an elegant closure.    Sources Cited or Consulted Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "Once More, with Feeling." Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Lacan: On Desire." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Date March 11, 2003. Purdue U. March 23, 2003. <http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/lacandesire.html>. Zizek, Slavoj. Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture. Cambridge: MIT P, 1991.

Film Report Essay

Children of a lesser God is a love story about a speech teacher who falls for a beautiful yet distant deaf girl in a small New England school for the deaf, and the obstacles that they face due to their differences. William Hurt plays James Leeds, a renegade teacher with an unconventional approach to education and a resume that includes stints as a bartender and a disk jockey. Upon his arrival, he is warned by school administrator Dr. Franklin (Philip Bosco)not to get creative with his instruction. Naturally, Leeds already has his mind set on his teaching plan and proceeds to play loud rock music in class in order to teach the students to feel the vibrations of the music and get them to try to speak phonetically. But a new element enters his life when he meets the attractive custodian, Sarah Marlee martin. An exceptionally intelligent yet extremely bitter young woman, Sarah is a graduate of the school who has decided to remain there, in the confines of her world of silence; it’s safer for her to be with her own â€Å"people† than to face what she perceives as a cruel and uncaring world. She hardly seems interested in James and will only communicate with him through signing, although she can read lips and even speak a little. James learns from Sarah’s mother ( Piper Laurie) that Sarah was sexually molested as a teenager; this explains why she is so wary of his attempts to form a relationship with her and why she is so full of fear. Eventually, James does get through to Sarah and the two fall in love, although both have to learn new ways to communicate their feelings. Though it seldom resembles the Mark medoff play on which it was based, this directing debut from Randa Haines won an Best Actress Oscar for Matlin, for her first screen performance. In this movie a special education teacher named John goes to work at a school for the deaf. Throughout the movie John acts more as an Audiologist and tries to get all of the deaf students to start speaking. To help the students learn to speak John teaches them to count the beats of music using the feeling of vibrations. With the help of John almost every student learns to articulate at least some words. The relevance in communication disorder in this movie is speaking greatly improves the students’ social life and communication ability which improves the quality of their life. Giving them patience and chance to speak in their own language even their deaf.

Symbolism Of Ernest Hemingway s Young Goodman Brown

The story is concluded with the train arriving in five minutes, and with no resolution concerning the abortion or the couple’s relationship. Ernest Hemingway does not waste a word or line in this short story, giving everything a deeper meaning or importance. Hemingway uses various images and objects that project emotions and feelings that are not explained in words. They are left for the reader to infere for themselves. By looking at the symbolism of the title, the scenery, and drinks, we are able to analyze the truth in the couple’s relationship. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown†, is a suspenseful story in which we see various forms of symbolism. This story presents us with the protaganist, a young and innocent man named Goodman Brown, which by his name is actually a good religious man. He departs away from his wife faith, to embark on a journey into the woods, he will return by morning. His wife faith begs him not go. On his journey, he finds himself on a dark path and it swallows him up as he advances along the path. Goodman Brown shows us that his faith is not as strong as he thought himself to be. Symbolism in this story, is used to illustrate the uncertainity of Brown’s faith, and the evil that tries to pull him in. The largest symbols existing in this story are Goodman Brown and his wife Faith. Both characters have a symbolic name that reflect their personalities. Hawthorne uses Brown’s wife’s name Faith, as a symbol of Brown’s own faith throughout theShow MoreRelatedANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pageshimself, or internal, in which case the issue to be resolved is one within the protagonist’s psyche or personality. External conflict may reflect a basic opposition between man and nature (such as in Jack London’s famous short story â€Å"To Build a Fire† or Ernest Hemingway’s â€Å"The Old Man and the Sea†) or between man and society (as in Richard Wright’s â€Å"The Man Who Was Almost a Man†). It may also take the form of an opposition between man and man (between the protagonist and a human adversary, the antagonist)