This essay holds a lot of cultural and social significance, as it dissects how something in Puerto Rican culture means something completely different in American culture. And this is what leads to a lot of misunderstandings and misguided attempts to interact. One of the stories that Cofer tells to the reader, is recalling the career day at her Catholic high school. The nuns instructed the girls to not wear their typical school uniform that day, but instead to come dressed in an outfit that would have been appropriate to wear to work at an office. Cofer admitted that she did not know what would be appropriate office attire, and that there were not a lot of role models for her to look up to. What ended up happening was she, and the other Puerto Rican girls that attended the school, were used as examples of how not to dress for a work place environment. Cofer recalled: “The way our teachers and classmates looked at us that day in school was just a taste of …show more content…
The ongoing conversation that takes place in this essay effects how the reader thinks about racial bias, gender bias, and sexual harassment. Judith Ortiz Cofer appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos in her essay “The Myth of the Latin Woman”. She establishes ethos by creating trust and credibility with the reader by opening up about who she is, and making herself vulnerable by sharing embarrassing details about how she has been harassed. In addition to this, the reader gets a glimpse of Cofer’s ethics and moral values to how she handles harassment. In the instances that she shares, she does not
The Earth is one big ball that is full of mistakes and flaws. Many people take initiative and send out a message through their writings. The article In Praise of the F word, by Mary Sherry, reflects on the school system. Sherry utilizes her passionate tone, pathos, and personal experience to sway the reader to follow along in her beliefs. In Affirmative Action: The Price of Preference, by Shelby Steele, Steele preys on readers by using ethos, pathos, and a sturdy tone to appeal to her readers. Though both writers present valid arguments and interest, as a reader, I believe that Steele’s argument was stronger within her essay.
#1.The thesis in “A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood” by Judith Ortiz Cofer is that because of the stories her grandmother told every afternoon when she was a child, her writing was heavily influenced and she learned what it was like to be a ‘Puerto Rican woman’. The thesis of the selection is stated in the first and last sentence of the second paragraph: “It was on these rockers that my mother, her sisters, and my grandmother sat on these afternoons of my childhood to tell their stories, teaching each other, and my cousin and me, what it was like to be a woman, more specifically, a Puerto Rican woman . . . And they told cuentos, the morality and cautionary tales told by the women in our family for generations: stories that became
Initially, understanding an individual's point of view is essential to a discussion or argument. In the essay, ''The Myth of The Latin Women: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria" Cofer attempts to illustrate the effect stereotypes have in a Latina's life. Throughout the piece, she writes of her personal experience and how the positive side of being Latina is being downgraded by stereotypes, she writes, "We cannot change this by legislating the way people look at us. The Transformation, as I see it, has to occur at a much
In her childhood, Cofer traveled back and forth from Puerto Rico to the United States due to her father’s active military career. This caused her to be entrenched in both worlds, literally and figuratively. She also expresses the issues she faced and experiences due to her dual cultural heritages through her works. In her short story: Not for Sale, Cofer divulges the identity conflict she experiences in having to merge her father’s deeply rooted Puerto Rican traditions with the customs of the new world she was immersed in. She writes “I was being denied everything by my father: no dating like other sixteen-year-olds (I was a decent Puerto Rican senorita, not a wild American teenager); no driver 's license (the streets of Paterson were too dangerous for an inexperienced driver -- he would take me where I needed to go); no end-of-the-school-year weekend trip with my junior class to Seaside Heights (even though three teachers would be chaperoning us). No, no, no, with a short Spanish "o."” (Cofer, 1992. P.1). She points out the challenges of been torn between on culture and the
Peggy McIntosh wrote this article to identify how her white privilege effects her life. Each statement is written as a privilege that Ms. McIntosh does not need to consider or fear as a white woman. From financial credibility to national heritage, this article makes a valid point regarding the way white people can be arrogant and naïve when the same treatment is not being given to their neighbors, coworkers, and peers. There can be two responses when reading this. The first would be a person of color. They will appreciate the attempt at realization of what white people take for granted. The second would be the reality that smacks the white people in the face when they realize how true all 50 statements are. Once this begins to sink in, many will start to broaden their competence realizing the unfair treatment of the people in this world. Moving down the timeline, we can see how the acknowledgement can mend broken relationships. Owning the reality and doing something to change it can give the people of different races the treatment they deserve (McIntosh,
Gender and racism are two of the main topics of “The Talk” by Dana Canedy and “What Goes Through Your Mind: On Nice Parties and Casual Racism” by Nicole Chung. Throughout their essays, Canedy and Chung prove whether it is an African-American boy or an Asian American woman, minorities face racism. Also, all types of racism such as casual racism or intended racism all are extremely hurtful, degrading to any minority. Gender has a lot to do with the severity of racism experienced. Police brutality on an African American woman happens, but is not as frequently and sever as it does to an African American man. Nicole Chung, who is Asian American believes that she has control over her own identity. When placed in an uncomfortable racist situation
In this semester we read many essay but many of them had something in common. Every essay might have something like, yet there 's always something each essay make them so unique. In the 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology book has two essays that how felt a discriminated living in the United States for the color of their skin. Yet even though the two essay might seem alike, both essays go problems were treated different. In the essay "The Myth of a Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria" by Judith Ortiz Cofer she talks about how she felt being a Puerto Rican living in a country of judgment for being a Latina. In the second essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" by Zora Neale Hurston , she talks about how being a black female living in the
Over the past few decades, research on women has gained new momentum and a great deal of attention. Susan Socolow’s book, The Women of Colonial Latin America, is a well-organized and clear introduction to the roles and experiences of women in colonial Latin America. Socolow explicitly states that her aim is to examine the roles and social regulations of masculinity and femininity, and study the confines, and variability, of the feminine experience, while maintaining that sex was the determining factor in status. She traces womanly experience from indigenous society up to the enlightenment reforms of the 18th century. Socolow concentrates on the diverse culture created by the Europeans coming into Latin America, the native women, and African slaves that were imported into the area. Her book does not argue that women were victimized or empowered in the culture and time they lived in. Socolow specifies that she does her best to avoid judgment of women’s circumstances using a modern viewpoint, but rather attempts to study and understand colonial Latin American women in their own time.
Deitch, E. A., Barsky, A., Butz, R., Chan, S., Brief, A. P., & Bradley, J. C. (2003). Suble yet significant: The existence and impact of everyday racial discrimination in the workplace. Human Relations, 56(11), 1299-1324.
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and Sue both demonstrate from their research that Whites do not comprehend the impact of their unconscious biases. These biases towards students of colour in a white-based post-secondary school environment can result in stress and weak interracial relationships. This is an issue since the significance of these everyday actions is not fully recognized and acknowledged. I will elaborate on a variety of examples, specifically the influence of the peers, and faculty.
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operate huge corporations today. This type of racism is found in many places which include schools, court of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they may interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt. Because institutionalized racism is a factor that affects how
A Latin-American author, Judith Ortiz Cofer, in her autobiographical essay, The Myth of the Latin Woman, she talks about the way men treat Latinas based on stereotypes and how she lived in America. Cofer’s purpose is to tell others about her experience as a Latina in America. She uses a bold tone to inform her readers on how Latinas and herself are treated by men and what they expect.
The preconceived notions we tend to burden can have a snowball effect, ingraining the same potentially damaging ideas into our children, grandchildren, and so on, especially because there is likely no recognition of an issue present in the first place. The white guy habit we carry in our mind, generally unbeknownst to us, impairs the learning environment and too easily discredits qualified professionals that are women or of color. The bias we have towards white men in the classroom only contributes to the structural gender disparity that is apparent in the world, and particularly in the United States. Messner points out that nonwhite male professors are not only judged by students comparatively worse, but that judgements of white male professors are simultaneously boosted up in the student’s mind without their awareness.
For many year humans have been trying to fight against discrimination in their communities, but it's an uphill battle that doesn’t seem like it’s been fully wiped out yet in our society. Discrimination and Prejudice has been a key issue that has affected many people around the world. In the movie that we saw in class, “My Cousin Vinny” (1992) it focused on these key issues of prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes and even eye witness testimonies. In the movie it focuses on these key issues while bringing a little humor to the viewers. In this paper I will be going into more detail of how this movie really brought to light these key issues.
Being a minority in both categories of gender and culture has never been an easy obstacle to overcome. In “The Myth of the Latin Woman” I was able to relate to some of the things Cofer stated. For instance,