“How to Date a Blackgirl, Whitegirl, Browngirl, or Halfie” written by Junot Diaz follows the superficial advice of the narrator (Yunior) as he walks the reader through how to date different ethnicities of women. Also, the title implies how to date difference ethnicities and people’s reaction on different races and social class. Daniel Bautista stated that “Despite the baldly provocative title, Diaz subversively reveals the limits of stereotypes by treating race and ethnicity as performative, provisional, and even strategic roles that individuals assume or take off according to the demands of the moment” (83). In the short story, “How to Date Blackgirl, Whitegirl, Browngirl, or Halfie,” the narrator mainly highlights and describes stereotypes …show more content…
One major reason behind this is by masking one’s background it makes it hard for the participants to get to know each other because of manipulation of appearances. Moreover, hiding one’s background may be beneficial for a short period of time, however; it isn’t sustainable for a long term relationship. In the short story, it is mentioned that those of black ethnicity should “hide the pictures of yourself with an afro” (Diaz 200). Moreover, he continues to argue that the male also needs to keep a false identity while dealing with the opposite sex who is from another ethnic group. Yunior states that one should “ take down any embarrassing photos of your family in the camp, especially the one with the half-naked kids dragging a goat on a rope leash” (Diaz 200). The narrator argues that manipulation of subjective impression must be carefully crafted in order for the date to be successful. The story tries to make the reader consider the method of manipulating behavior to gain physical intimacy viable. For instance, the narrator instructs “put down your hamburger and say, it must have been hard. She will appreciate your interest. She will tell you more. Black people, she will say, treat me real bad. That’s why I don’t like them. You’ll wonder how she feels about Dominicans” (Diaz 201-202). Those manipulated behaviors may benefit a person for short time but it isn’t sustainable …show more content…
This is because the narrator believes that racial characteristics can determine the behaviors seen in an individual. Yunior instructs one to hide racial characteristics in order to become closer in achieving physical intimacy. Yunior states that, “ a halfie will tell you that her parents met in the movement, will say, back then people through it a radical thing to do” (Diaz 201) and “ a local girl may have hips and a thick ass but she won’t be quick about letting you touch” (Diaz 203). Yunior continues to discuss how the accuracy of a stereotype might be or can be used to determine a person’s behavior. Since this assumption is based on the author’s experience, the chance of someone having the same experience is low percent. In my experience, hiding one’s racial characteristics is a contradiction of one’s personality. It is not worth hiding one’s racial characteristics if a person wants emotional intimacy rather than physical intimacy because it may cause a conflict between the
The detail given in the passage helps the reader see and understand the character. To describe her appearance, she says, “the way I knew my skin was the color of a nut rubbed repeatedly with a soft cloth”(32-33). The audience now knows she is an African American. Race plays a big role in identity, giving people culture, history, and pride. Due to the fact she has just moved, her new environment holds a different culture that she must find where she fits in. While dressing, she puts on “a gay dress made out of madras cloth”(24) the same
Janie’s first discovery about herself comes when she is a child. She is around the age of six when she realizes that she is colored. Janie’s confusion about her race is based on the reasoning that all her peers and the kids she grows up with are white. Janie and her Nanny live in the backyard of the white people that her Nanny works for. When Janie does not recognize herself on the picture that is taken by a photographer, the others find it funny and laughs, leaving Janie feeling humiliated. This racial discovery is not “social prejudice or personal meanness but affection” (Cooke 140). Janie is often teased at school because she lives with the white people and dresses better than the other colored kids. Even though the kids that tease her were all colored, this begins Janie’s experience to racial discrimination.
Junot Diaz wrote “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie in 1996” (Diaz 97), but before we go more into the story lets know more information about Junot Diaz. Junot Diaz was born in “Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on December 31, 1968” (Gradesaver). He lived in the Dominican Republic area until the age of seven, then was later sent to America with his mother and siblings to be closer to their father due to working in the states. Junot and his family were not wealthy, they “Lived in a poor part of New Jersey populated primarily by Dominicans” (Gradesaver). For being in a poor immigrant that did not stop him from attending college. He received his Bachelor’s degree from “Rutgers University in 1995” (MacArthur Fellow Program), and majored in “History and Literature” (Gradesaver). Junot became a writer because he had a passion to write from the “Lives lived between cultures” (MacArthur Fellow Program) and he wanted people to see how difficult it was for him to adjust living in the United States. Not only that, but the “Many challenges of the immigrant life” (MacArthur Fellow Program). Diaz writings are known to as a “Mix of Spanish and English” (MacArthur Fellow Program) in his texts. In “How to date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” (Diaz 97), the major theme that Diaz is trying to point out is figuring out relationships. Exploring a new world with variety of
In her essay “The Myth of the Latin Woman”, Judith Ortiz Cofer states that she thinks the media and society in general promotes the stereotype of Hispanic women as “‘sizzling’ and ‘smoldering’”. I agree with her claim, and I also believe that society does this to other groups as well, particularly African American men. African American men are usually portrayed by the film industry and mainstream media as either very rich, fashionable, and athletic, or they’re portrayed as poor and oftentimes dangerous.
In the poem “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” Junot Diaz uses allusion and visual imagery in a very vivid way to explain the difficulties of being both male and a minority in America. He shows how often we accept as young men that bending the truth about ourselves has become almost necessary to get a date with a girl, then he engages it what appears to be a preparation of a young guy on how to organize and clean his house in accordance to with the economical status of the girl that he will be bringing home and to make himself appealing to the type of girl he is with.
In the story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” by Junot Diaz, the main character pretends that he is experienced with all kinds of girls, but it is easy to see that he is instead an insecure teenage boy trying to find himself. In this story the teenage boy named Yunior walks the reader through exactly how to successfully go on a date and handle a girl of any race. The teenage boy telling the story speaks as though he is a player, a young man who is good at manipulating women, while in reality he is really a young boy trying to fit in and figure himself out. Although Yunior acts like he is a player, it is easy to tell from his actions that this is not who Yunior truly is.
Perhaps because he wants to impresses the girls whom he wants to date, nevertheless, he is hiding his own identity for the sake of others. He obscures any artifacts that related to where he was from. He also dresses up and comb his hair as a white boy would when he meets a white girl’s mother. Everything that he does is as if he had been instructed or following the society’s indirect rules. For an example, before a date, he waits at home for the girl’s parent to bring her over if she is an outsider. Then while on the date he thinks it is fine to take her to Wendy’s since she is not from around the area. After the date, if she is a halfie, he reckons that when her father picks her up there is no need to say good bye. His actions reveal to the readers that he has insecurities revolving around his culture and his true self, by hiding all of the monuments that will unveil his Dominican culture. Not only that, but if he is on a date, his actions and gestures would not reflect who he is, but rather who he thinks he should be. This shows that he is conflicting within himself to find his own true self. He wants to fit in, to belong to, yet he is altering himself to pacify others. He hides his identification and tries to be some one that he is not to find a place that he can connects and be a part
The story "How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl, or halfie)" by Junot Diaz explains the thoughts of the narrator based on generalization when it comes to dating females from different racial backgrounds. The author illustrates that stereotyping in our society is very much accepted and why. The details that were told for every girl of different race and social status were being referred to as a whole, generalizing girls based on what neighborhood they live in and what race background they come from.
“How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl or Halfie” by Junot Diaz is an example of a story where the author believes that girl’s stereotypes and societal expectations affect the way a man see woman. Women sometimes feel depressed or without self-steam because now a day the majority of men when dating a woman take into account stereotypes in order to have an idea how women would behave. For example, Diaz in his story says “ A local girl may have hips and thick ass but she won’t be quick about letting you touch” and “A white girl might just give it up right then” (Diaz 121) being a way to support the fact that men first think in stereotypes before really knowing the woman. Maybe the woman that has hips and thick ass is the white girl instead of the local girl. Each woman’s actions and reactions are different and those actions have nothing to do with stereotypes. When a man is dating a woman several things should be taken into account and stereotypes should not be one of those things. The purpose of a date is to achieve physical and emotional intimacy and that feeling does not have anything to do with stereotype or with what society would think. The most important thing is to love each other and to try to reach
A social issue Toni Morrison emphasizes in Recitatif is that people should not judge others on their racial basis because life experiences are not limited by race. Morrison makes it vague for readers to identify Twyla’s and Roberta’s races by not revealing information their races. First, Morrison’s use of names that are often used for both races shows ambiguity in their ethnicity. Second, their mother’s feeling of superiority over each other does not disclose their races. Finally, Morison hides their racial differences by showing their friendship regardless of their separate races and how they unite against other older girls. Toni Morrison blurs the race line by using names, mother’s sense of superiority, and friendship regardless of
troublesome. it’s even more threatening; it makes one feel uncomfortable, and scared. Someone has the look of a mugger when they are dangerous or have a lot of anger in them. She also describes his look as vigilant, and suspicious. This makes it even worse because it makes her feel like a prey being watched by its predator. Just another reason why she feels scared. The author’s imagery of a black man is what causes her to feel threatened by him, this is one of the reason why there is such a negative tension. According to her, the look he gives is not a look she would want. This look does not put her at ease because she feels so much anger coming from it. A passionate anger that only wants the worst for her. For that reason, the white woman sees the black man as a mean giant. she does not feel safe, and all that does is bring more negativity to this tension between the two.
In the second paragraph of the short story, we can already conclude that race is a factor. The story is told from first person account and Twyla says, “The minute I walked in and the Big Bozo introduced us, I got sick to my stomach. It was one thing to be taken out of your own bed early in the morning---it was something else to be stuck in a strange place with a girl from a whole other race” (210). Here we already start thinking race is going to play a part in this short story. She continues in the second paragraph by saying, “And Mary, that’s my mother, she was right. Every now and then she would stop dancing long enough to tell me something important and one of the things she said was that they never washed their hair and they smelled funny” (210). We know that the story takes place in 60’s-70’s, where racism was everywhere. But we still do not know if Twyla is White or Black from that statement. We do know, however, that one character is white and one is black because Twyla says “we looked like salt and pepper” (210). Trying to identify whose race is who’s becomes more difficult as the author continuous to prompt clues but these clues can have us judging either
In the fictional story “Desiree’s Baby”, written by Kate Chopin, a man called Armand Aubigny falls for a nameless girl and later decides to make her his wife. Armand is part of one of the oldest and proudest families in Louisiana; therefore, his reputation must be held with high regard. When Desiree and Armand bring a child into the world and the baby is of color it was assumed that Desiree was of mixed blood ;yet, in the end it was Armand all along. The fact that Desiree was an orphaned girl with a race that as unknown foreshadows the theme of self-worth based on skin color, and the drastic measures one takes to convince themselves of a false identity that seems better than reality to develop an engaging plot
In Francisco Jimenez’s novel, Breaking Through, over the course of middle school and high school, Francisco becomes a confident, experienced person, who is more exposed to the world and it’s views due to interaction with his school friends and family members. At the beginning, Francisco portrays a scared and naive young person who is not familiar with the stereotypical views towards his own race. For example, Francisco becomes friends with a Caucasian girl named Peggy, she invites him over. When her parents ask Francisco his race and find he is Mexican, they act uneasy and tense. Peggy’s parents forbid her from remaining friends with Francisco. Resulting in Francisco feeling hurt and confused as to why Peggy will not talk to him. Francisco
When I arrived in Massachusetts and classes finally started, so did my "man mission." Most of the men I met blew the boys back home out of the water, and one lucky day, I peered past my twirling pink pen and found Him. The more I learned about Him, the more enamored I became. Yet I, a usually outgoing and assertive young woman, felt uncomfortable approaching this wonderful person in that more-than-a-friend kind of way. The worst part about the situation was that I knew exactly where my uneasiness was coming from. Unlike the guys at home, where seventy percent of the young male population had black hair and dark brown eyes, this guy was blonde and fair-skinned, a stark contrast not only to the male population back home, but to me. I am not a racist person, but the petty idea that this guy did not share like features with me, hindered me from appreciating what we did share and made me more aware of the differences between us.