Tuesday, October 1, 2013
I-Quest
As I was reading Dr. Crafton's Book Chapter, I could not help but to feel familiarized with some of the things Dr. Crafton shared with us. One of the things that really touched my heart was her Cultural Biography. I feel like Dr. Crafton could be a role model for a lot of us. When describing her childhood, I was thinking that she is a very strong woman. Going through a rough childhood and not let that affect your education decisions is not a easy thing. A lot of individuals use rough childhoods as an excuse to not succeed in life. Luckily, this is not Dr. Crafton's case.
I also felt very familiar with "The Danger of a Single Story". As I was reading, I kept catching myself thinking of personal experiences with this certain topic. When I was reading about the Nigerian author that felt ashamed when she went to Mexico because of the "stories" or I must say Stereotypes she heard of Mexicans I began to think the things us immigrants go through in this country. Being Mexican in this country is not easy, I was born in Mexico, therefore, I am 100% Mexican. Even though, I have lived here almost all my life, and are a US Citizen I sometimes still feel "out of place". One time my family an I were at a restaurant, Spanish being our first language, we speak in Spanish most of the time. We were laughing and talking about our family vacation, but then some other guest said out loud how much he was bothered by us "Illegal Immigrants" speaking Spanish. I felt extremely offended and I felt bad for my family and the bad experience, I think my family and I and any other immigrants should not leave our roots behind or forget our own language just because I am in the US. All my family speak fluent English, however, when we are together we speak our language without the intentions of offending those around us. It is sad how we automatically Stereotype other people, for example at that restaurant, "They are illegal and they should learn English", that certain individual was just stereotyping us, not even knowing my family and I do speak English and are US Citizens. This specific example leaves me with a couple of questions. Why do we stereotype? At some point, is it possible to believe our own stereotypes and loose our own identity? Stereotyping has to do with social class most of the time? I do believe that by repeating the "same story" over and over again, can leads us to confuse stereotypes with reality and become what others say we are.
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Itzel,
ReplyDeleteI found your last sentence to be especially important: "I do believe that by repeating the "same story" over and over again, can leads us to confuse stereotypes with reality and become what others say we are." Stereotypes group unique individuals into a category of sameness -- we can totally lose the individual when we imbue one person with the characteristics of an entire group -- women are this way, men are another, Asians are like this, but Latinas/os are not. I think you would enjoy Troy's post on learning a second language. It is wonderful to learn a little of your cultural background -- I hope to get to know more as the semester goes along.
Be sure to look at the Guidelines for posts and include an outside reference to expand the ideas you are exploring -- a videoclip, image, a brief reading, etc.
Itzel, as a U.S. Citizen that is 100% White, this makes me ashamed that you and your family met with this form of treatment. It does not surprise me, but it does make me ashamed. I found it interesting that even though you have lived here all of your life, you say you "sometimes still feel out of place". Do you think this is because of something that is internal inside of you OR do you think your feelings are as a direct result of the labeling that has been put on immigrants in this country? Although, if you had been speaking French or Italian, do you think you would have received the same treatment from the restaurant patrons? There was a very good film that hit the screens in 2009, Crossing Over, an American independent drama film about illegal immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. What stood out about this docudrama is that as Americans we think about immigrants, and especially illegal immigrants, as being Hispanic from Mexico - yet, the movie depicts they come from all countries, including Australia! Yet as long as we have graphic pictures of soldiers at the Mexican border with the fence, from major publications like the NY Times, the perpetuity of this belief regarding ONLY Hispanic immigrants are illegal will continue.
ReplyDeleteWe are all programmed to stereotype – this was actually a survival mechanism historically – did we belong with that group and was it safe? But when negative attributions come, then stereotyping leads to prejudice which in turn leads to ignorance and at times, violence. And this does not have to do with just ethnicity or social class, but it can be found anywhere where overgeneralizing the attributes of a certain group occur – educated vs. uneducated, male vs. female, young vs. old, jocks vs. nerds, etc… I do not understand what it feels like to be a U.S. citizen with a Mexican heritage in this country, nor will I ever, but I do know what it feels like to be stereotyped and to “feel out of place” and I also know that in order to not let these unrealistic viewpoints become reality is hard.
What if you had turned to the restaurant patron and introduced yourself – “Hello, my name is Itzel Castro and I am a U.S. Citizen who happens to be be bilingual.” Do you think he might have walked out with a new thought placed in his mind