The "Unlikely" Homeowner
Submitted by Angela on Tue, 01/19/2010 - 13:29
I’ll never forget the first time I witnessed a stereotype in action. I was about 10 years old, playing in the backyard of our old house. It was a sunny fall day and I was blissfully enjoying my last few weeks of freedom before school started up again.
My father, who takes pride in making sure our house always looks beautiful inside and out, was cutting the grass. I remember seeing a tall white man approaching our house with something in his hand. He seemed nice enough—clean cut with a nice shirt and slacks on. My dad stopped mowing and walked toward the man. They exchanged a few words and then the man walked away, seemingly confused, while my dad stormed in the house. Not knowing what was wrong, I followed my father inside to listen in as he told my mother what had happened.
“He’s running for office,” my dad said as he tore up the brochure the man had given him. “He asked me to give-this-to-the-guy-who-owns-the-house,” he said as he mimicked the slow way the man spoke.
I didn’t understand why my father was so upset. It wasn’t until a few years later that I realized, that man had stereotyped my father. My father, a Hispanic male, was mowing the lawn of his own house, the house he worked hard for so his family could have a nice place to live. The man who was running for office assumed that because a Hispanic male was doing yard work, he must have been with a lawn service company. Oh, and of course he must not speak English either, so he had to be sure to speak slowly. Sure our neighborhood was a predominately white suburb, but was it so preposterous to think that perhaps a Hispanic family could live there too?
Sure, there are many Hispanic and Latino Americans that make their living in the landscaping industry. But guess what? There are also many who find success in other industries too! And don’t assume that all Hispanics are here illegally either. Unfortunately, stereotyping and racial profiling are becoming increasingly common in our society.
Some could argue the man made an honest mistake. You can believe what you want, but take a moment to think of this story the next time you’re about to make an assumption about someone because of the way they look.
Have you ever been stereotyped? How did you deal with it? How can we work to decrease stereotyping?
-Angela is a blogger for The Sorbate. Check out her bio to see where her view comes from.
- Angela's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Comments
institutionalized
I agree. Stereotyping and racial profiling is so common in our society in large part due to being taught and surrounded by these thoughts and ideas by people and institutions. We all need to try and break down these stereotypes and as Rae demonstrated, sharing a different perspective or encouraging people to research/find more accurate information is definitely a step in the right direction. There is usually more to a story than that which is hand-fed to us on one-sided news/media platforms. Thanks for sharing your stories both of you!
Recently, someone I know (and
Recently, someone I know (and respect) made a comment about how they were against the public option (when it was on the table) because all the hard working taxpayers would pay for the lazy people who didn't want to get a job.
My jaw dropped.
I went on to provide example after example of hard working tax paying citizens who couldn't afford health care and eventually got sick/hurt and had huge medical bills. This person then looked back at me with this confused look and said, 'Oh, I didn't know about that.' I could see the wheels turning in their head. Whether or not I changed their mind is not the point. The point is I gave them more information to make them think that this stereotype that they had been fed through a certain conservative "news" channel could be false.
How can we work to decrease stereotyping? We can work to make sure there are more accurate and representative sides to each story.
Definitely!
Definitely! Good job for speaking your mind in a way that helped to open up that other persons eyes. It's that kind of action that will help to break down stereotypes and show people how to form their own opinions about issues instead of just repeating what they hear on the "news."