Mexican American Essay

This week we learned how Mexicans are stereotyped negatively in the media, they are Stereotyped as being only portrayed as having very low paying jobs and as criminals. Furthermore even in the Latin media in telenovelas the actresses are mainly white with blonde hair. Seeing Mexicans portrayed as heroes is a rarity because according to the society Mexicans are minorities. Another stereotype is that almost all Mexicans are illegal’s. Discrimination was also a big issue in the 20th century, Mexicans-Americans were lynched in the years of 1848 and 1928. Furthermore, even in restaurants Mexicans were discriminated against in the same manner as African Americans before they had their civil rights. The debate that we were discussing was how wrong it was for Mexicans to be discriminated against in this way. In addition, statistics show that only 7 percent of Mexican-Americans graduate from college, meaning that an education isn’t really a top priority for Mexican Americans. In children’s cartoons it is rare to find a latino or latina character with a positive Influence, for example speedy Gonzalez was invented because of an affair that the wife of the creator of the cartoon had with a Mexican, in my opinion this is simply ridiculous and it simply made Mexicans look bad morally. Another example that as a class we looked at were Disney princesses, the first Disney princess to be made in face does not look â€Å"latina†. Typical Latinas have tan skin and brown eyes yet the new princess is fair skinned with green eyes. This only shows that according to American creators a princess cannot be brown or she is considered â€Å"ugly†. In my opinion this is simply racist and it only makes latina girls who have brown skin feel inferior to fair skinned girls. According to statistics a small amount of Americans view Mexicans as violent, dirty and as drunkards simply because of how the media has portrayed them In the media. These media portrayals and in my opinion they should show how Mexicans really are by that i mean the honest hardworking men and women that have helped this country become such a great country.