Analysis Of The Two Articles Concerning The Issues Of Racial Stereotyping And Prejudice In America
Imagine your name being mispronounced by other, how would that makes you feel? I personally felt that it wasn’t a big deal if other mispronounced my name. But it would be different if the person was corrected afterward, and he kept mispronouncing my names later on. I believe that such action can be considered as being disrespectful to the person and to its identity. Not to mention that other people used to call different names to discriminate against me. Such topics of names and discrimination are discussed in the article “Leave Your Name at the Border” by Manuel Muñoz. Muñoz talks about how names are being seen as their identities and that mispronouncing names can be considered as being disrespectful to the person’s identity and culture. Similarly, an article wrote by Brent Staples, “Just Walk on By: Black Man and Public Space” also discuss the topics of discrimination but in this case, focus heavily on races. Staples discuss his personal stories of experiencing racism as a black man in American society. As I was reading both articles, I discovered many similar arguments brought by the two articles. Thereby, I came to a conclusion that both articles promotes awareness of issues of racial stereotyping and prejudice and call for a change in the way Americans treat other ethnicities in America.
“Leave Your Name at the Border”, an article wrote by Manuel Muñoz, a Mexican American. In this article, he addresses the issue of how people with foreign names are not getting the respect they deserve in an American society. Muñoz also argues that the Anglicization of their names in American society is an erasure of their cultural background and identity. Some Americans anglicize the names of others for their own convenience, making those with foreign names being discriminated against. Similarly, the article “Just Walk on By: Black Man and Public Space” by Brent Staples also talks about the issue of being discriminated against and having prejudice over their races in American society. Staples tells a story of how he experienced racism, of judged solely based on his appearance as a black man in public spaces and how his appearance has an effect on his environment.
Victims of prejudice alter their behavior in order to preserve the comforts of others in society. In order to gain respect or positive views of others, one method they use is to change the way they behave. One example in Muñoz’s article is when his stepfather, Antonio Anglicized his name, from Antonio to Tony. “For him, the erasure of his name was about deference and subservience. ” Muñoz uses the word “deference” to suggest the significance of being respectful. In Antonio’s circumstance, the anglicization of his names provides him the opportunity of more respect others gives to him. In addition, the word “subservience” is used by Muñoz to suggest that the anglicization of their names is more like ingratiating the American society. A similar situation occurs to Staples, where he uses methods of whistling classical music to make his surrounding people feel comfortable of his existence. “I whistle melodies from Beethoven and Vivaldi and the more popular classical composers. Even steely New Yorkers hunching toward nighttime destinations seem to relax, and occasionally they even join in the tune. ” Both of the experience demonstrates changes in their behaviors to ease other's prejudice against them. Such changes in behaviors are seen as coerced by the prejudice of the society against them and result in changes as the solution. People in American society are making prejudice against other ethnicities but the one who changes at the end is the one who was biased against.
Other ethnicities besides white Americans in the United States often confront racial stereotyping. Many examples are demonstrated in the two articles showing how the ignorant Americans are more likely to judge a person based on their race without considering other aspects. One example in Muñoz’s article is when Muñoz states, “Spanish was and still is viewed with suspicion: always the language of the vilified illegal immigrant, it segregated schoolchildren into English-only and bilingual programs; it defined you, above all else, as part of a lower class. ” The word choice of Muñoz suggests that people with Mexican ancestry are always looked down and prejudice against by others. The use of words such as “suspicious” and “vilified” implies that they are seen as untrusted and not respected by others based on their origin. Correspondingly, Staples also talks about his experience when he confronts racial stereotyping in his article. It was the time when he was a college student and took a walk late at night and frightens a white woman who believed he was following her. Later he wrote, “It was clear that she thought the quarry of a mugger, a rapist, or worse. ” The white women got scared simply because of Staples’ appearance as a black man and start making judgments based on his race. Another two examples Staples brought to express the racial stereotype he acquires are times when people unreasonably mistook him for a burglar and a colleague of his as a killer. Those examples strongly suggest the racial prejudice they cannot escape from as other ethnicities in an American society. Not to mention that those circumstances happen frequently, as Staples stated, “Such episodes are not uncommon. Black men trade tales like this all the time. ” It is frustrating that despite all those progress made against racism over the years, racism and prejudice are still prevalent. The reason for such demonstration of many examples is that the author wanted to reveal the fact that those issues are still prevalent in American society and wanted the reader to be aware of that and to think of solutions towards the issue.
To conclude, more and more people started to confront issues of racism and discrimination and suffered from them. The experience of the two authors is just a microcosm of the many experiences of victims. Through the two articles, the two authors hoped Americans can pay more attention to those issues and to understand the significance of them, while at the same time, to propose solutions to those issues so that changes can be made to minimize the occurrence of such issues.
