Stereotypes and Expectations: A Mexican-American Perspective

We all have stuff we expect from ourselves and others. Some of our expectations are based on stereotypes. We learned stereotypes throughout life by the media and the people around us. The stereotypes we have impact the expectations we have on ourselves and on others. I am Mexican-American. Growing up I would see my parents struggle with finances. I would not ask for much because I knew that they were struggling and I would see it. I could also see other kids with a lot of toys and nice things and wishing I had what they had. I knew that I would not have those things because we did not have enough money for them. I grew up thinking my family was poor because we did not have a lot of nice things or lots of toys. Now that I look back at it I

In the article he wrote about how he was embarrassed by his parents because of the way they spoke. They did not speak English fluently or had much of an education. He did not want to be like them. He worked hard in his studies and blocked out the world. He wanted to be better. I remember a time in my life where I too was embarrassed to be seen with my parents and have them speak English. I am not sure why but I was. I guess I did not want people to associate me with them, my parents, and see me as less. I have always tried hard in school and try to do my best. A lot of the time is because I have the opportunity to, and my parents gave me

I think it is because in order to go into that you need money to go to college and get an education and it is associated that the poor do not go to college. He said that he took schooling for granted and I feel that most people do. My parents would always tell me how fortunate I am to go to school and get an education, where they came from they had to pay to go to school and it was much harder. There was a time when I did take school for granted also. But then I realized that schooling can help me get a career and do something with my life. To not be associated negatively through stereotypes. Bell Hooks Seeing and Making Culture:Representing the Poor she talks about how throughout her life she felt poor and how thinking that can affect the way that you see things. How the poor are looked down on and it lowers self-esteem but I feel like this can relate to working-class also. Being from working class I can see how self-esteem can be lowered by others because you lack certain materialistic things. I went through it but sometimes like she said we try so hard to get those things and make it appear to others that we have money and in doing so we go in