Heritage: To be or not to be In Luiz Valdez’s short drama “Los Vendidos,” the author raises the issue of racism and heritage. Why are Mexican people stereotyped in American? How did they inherit the label of lazy or unintelligent? Why are they perceived as second class citizens? How can we get pass the misconception?
Despite stemming from fairly neutral root words, they were manipulated specifically to provoke and hurt.” (1) This label was also given as a way to dehumanise black Americans as it places them in an inferior category within society and establishes the superiority of white Americans over them. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there are several accounts of different characters in the novel with different examples of the value of human life. In this essay I will explore and closely analyse the value of human life as detailed in the novel. Right at the beginning of the novel we can see how demeaning Tom and Huck are towards the “nigger” Jim. Tom comes up with the plan “… to tie Jim to the tree for fun.” (Twain 6) after he falls asleep during his stake out, after hearing a noise which was Huck and Tom trying to escape the house.
Summary & Response In "Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising", Jack Solomon studies and analyzes advertisements in order to show that advertisers and big companies make use of what they know about the society and culture in order to manipulate us into buying a new product or using a service. According to the text, while we may believe in equality and equal chance, we also find that we desire "rising above the crowd", in which we compete for "privilege and distinction". This is where the American paradox lies. Furthermore in the article, "The contradiction is between the simultaneous desire for social superiority (elitism) and social equality (populism) that lies at the heart of the American Dream". Simply put: the American
A Question of Identity We, no doubt are aware that America is a melting pot of ethnic, persuasion and diversion. Americans often classify people by these measures. However, in certain circumstances these traditional measures do not apply. For example, how would one measure a Puerto Rican of Latino origin who possesses a “black as carbon skin”? (128) In America there exist a parody between skin color and ethnicity: race and ethnicity are often confused and creates questions of identity of the people subjected there under.
Sadly, some individuals believe that another person is less human than them. Some of the most common causes of racism are skin, color, language, customs or place of birth. Racial prejudice deals with terrible and hostile pre-judgments, opinions, and actions towards a race. Moreover, racism has some devastating effects. It can destroy a person’s self esteem, community cohesion and even creates divisions in society.
He views this problem as a threat to America and states that the continued migration of Mexican immigrants “looms as a unique and disturbing challenge” (Huntington). Utilizing a negative tone of voice insinuates a biased point of view that creates a predisposed negative image about all Mexican immigrants both legal and illegal. Furthermore, Huntington disputes that Mexican immigration, nationally and culturally, harms our country’s
Racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and those racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. Prejudice is an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics. Xenophobia is the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. And ethnocentrism is characterized by or based on the attitude that one’s own group is superior. Although each word has their own specific meaning, all four are interconnected creating the same product that is nothing but hate and violence towards mankind.
This is well reflected by the popular "fat American" stereotype. [22] Racism and racialism American people in general are sometimes portrayed as racist or racialist, often discriminating against their minorities. Racism was a significant issue of American history and is still relevant today. Racialized society, racial classification, and the concept of race is a part of the American culture, where it is frequently used in political contexts. Racial segregation, racial animosity, affirmative action and racial quotas are often used in the United States.
As Prof. Pickett observes, Valdez enjoys extremes in this play, contrasting the two brothers as well as the distinctions between the generations represented. On a scale of assimilation from immigrant to “acceptable”, Valdez shows us the spectrum, from the Mexican parents through degrees of assimilated children. While Joaquin relates more as a Chicano and has some consciousness of urban struggle, Lupe does not want to be Mexican, yet she is not as assimilated as Mingo. Prof. Pickett said that this play give out a very contrasting point of view of Mexican-American towards the American society in that time. The youngest son of the family, Joaquin, was very proud of his Mexican lineage.
Travesties in Mexico Definitely Mexico and its culture it’s very conservative in many aspects of the life, and for this reason the life of a Mexican citizens is governed by hard and sometimes extreme social rules. Specially those social rules are extremely enforced in Who are you as a person?, focusing that question in issues related by sex, gender and sexuality. Really all of those issues can segregate a group of people who do not feel indentified at all if only we understood a person in a matter of genre and sexuality. Generally for people, genre and sexuality is only understood as heterosexual man or heterosexual woman. Even so in Mexican culture daily living and coexist different people such as heterosexuals, homosexuals, and also too travesties, transgender and transsexuals.