How Does Sherman Alexie Use Racial Stereotypes In Flight Patterns

It is a part of human nature to make judgments of others based on appearances and stereotype people into different categories. In the short story “Flight Patterns,” Sherman Alexie uses fiction elements such as characters and plot to develop the idea of how humanity always uses the same brush to paint all the people in a particular group the way they want them to be. On an obvious level, throughout the journey of the main character, William, the story develops an ironic theme of the racial stereotypes.
Everything started after a year of the shocking incident of 9/11. Everyone was terrified and scared to death from airplanes, and they didn’t want to fly to anyplace anymore. In William’s case, he has to travel a lot for his job. According to

When William caught a taxi to the United Airline, he presumed that Fekadu is a thin-black miserable taxi driver living on welfare. Meanwhile, the taxi driver assumed William was a rich businessman from the good suit he wore and a house that is big and beautiful. In addition, William could not believe a single word of Fekadu’s story, since a graduate of Oxford should not be driving a taxi (62). So the stereotype of a taxi driver is poor person who is required to carry the luggage for the clients. William is a very racist person who often profiles other people into many different stereotypes. When William got into the taxi and had a conversation with Fekadu, William saw a thick scar on Fekadu’s neck, and immediately he racially profiled Fekadu as a black man with a violent history (61). Even though William has no problem profiling people, he gets offended easily. Fekadu asked William a couple of times “What are you? Are you Jewish” (61). William didn’t give him a clear answer, but he answered him with questions such as “what do you mean?” (61), and “why do you want to know” (61). Then William said “I’m Indian, not jewel-on-the-forehead Indian” (62) which is another racial stereotype. This also concludes that the occupation, the shape/look, and the color of a person can also become a