Racial Stereotypes

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The concept of stereotypes is what we have been created in our presumptions of a person without even having an idea of how they are. It is a common thing in our society on which sometimes it can create tolerance or intolerance toward other groups because of different ideas or traditions. The film by Gregory Nava My Family and the book by Victor Martinez Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida are clear examples of the concept of stereotypes. In addition, the film Real Women Have Curves by Patricia Cardoso demonstrates some of the ways stereotypes can affect one’s own ethnic group. Racial stereotypes can be good or bad creating influences toward a group. In this case, stereotypes can create bad influences causing misperceptions, confusion within the same …show more content…

Whenever we see a person of a certain group, we automatically have an idea of how that person can be. Stereotypes influence on the delusion on how some people see others without even knowing the person. For example, in the film My Family, when Isabel is pregnant, Gloria’s friend mentions “As soon as you get one trained, teach her some English, she can answer the phone, then, boom, she’s pregnant” (Nava My Family). Gloria’s friend’s comment gives the understanding that because Isabel is working she shouldn’t be doing something else. Likewise, the quote gives the understanding that only white people should find happiness and no other groups. The reason for this misunderstanding it is that who else is going to help the upper class such as the Anglo-American class do the hard work. In addition to the hard working class, in Parrot in the Oven: …show more content…

Without acknowledging or taking into consideration, the Anglo-American culture still influences someone’s way of acting. For example, when Memo brings his fiancée to meet his family and says “They call me Memo. My family calls me that. It 's diminutive for Guillermo. That 's William in Spanish, so Memo is like Bill” (Nava My Family). Eventually, Memo changes his name to William Sanchez as it is seen on his office door (Nava My Family). Memo didn’t want to let others criticize him by his name and actually see him as the lawyer he became. Moreover, later Memo demonstrates an uncomfortable moment with his family when they started to talk about Californio’s corpse affirming “There’s nobody buried in the backyard, right, Dad?” (Nava My Family). Since Memo’s fiancée and her family are white, he changes some of the facts of his family such as his brothers’ education, and what his family does. This demonstrates that in some occasions, racial tension can change someone 's culture and influence to think differently with some sort of ashamed of its own

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