Do physical differences make people targets for discrimination?

It is true that physical appearances influence how someone is treated. Especially in today’s society that judges people for the way they look. Well back in the 1900s, this was the case in America for many Mexican immigrants.





What happened in the past that made Mexicans want to come to America?

In 1910, many Mexicans started to migrate North by train because it was their only means of escape from the terrors of the Mexican Revolution at home. At the time, Porfirio Diaz was dictating over them for thirty-five years and with his rule came poverty and the destruction of homes. Mexicans thought going to the United States would give them a fulfilling life, but when they arrived they had to go through many struggles because they were not welcome. Mexican immigrants were targets for oppression during the 1900s in America, so many of them felt like they had to assimilate into the white culture.


What were the struggles they had to go through?

They had to adapt to the new environment with different demographics and physical variations, to which they were not welcome. The disadvantages that came with being an immigrant led to the discrimination and exploitation that contributed to their decisions to assimilate into the mainstream culture. Some Mexicans just found it easier to blend in by assimilating and reaped the financial and social benefits that came with it. The assimilation theory was centered on how immigrants move into mainstream society by altering practices and behaviors to become like the native-born. Another reason that pushed Mexicans into assimilation was the expansion of immigration enforcement from the border into the U.S. interior and the local police departments and I.C.E increased collaboration. Starting in the 1930s, between 300,000 to 500,000 families were being deported back to Mexico, along with their children that were born in the United States. The government was offering them a one way ticket back to Mexico by train, many already struggling in America, thought it was best to go back to their state of origin. At the same time, cities and states are forming their own laws to reduce the rights and benefits available to undocumented immigrants or pushing them out. Undocumented immigrants lived with the fear of getting deported, which produced anxiety among them. During the 1990s in Montana, it was impossible for Mexicans not to call attention to themselves. In one of the whitest, most English-dominant states in the country, most feel marked by skin color and language, and they experience particular challenges connected to this impossibility of anonymity. One man talked about the struggles Mexicans faced in Montana. He says, “here we are more vulnerable… we are in danger, so when there’s more people it’s easier to be anonymous. Here you stand out from white quite a bit.” Events like these set the stage for assimilation because many Mexicans felt as if they were carrying a target on their back due to the way they looked. In a way their obvious differences in appearance served as a precursor to their choice to assimilate. These are only some of the many struggles Mexican immigrants had to go through when they moved to the United States.


Why were they struggling to get along in America?

Mexican immigrants were lacking the socioeconomic benefits that many native whites had in America are lack of education, being the minority group, and the language barrier. In part because of less education, Mexican immigrants have lower earnings, experience higher unemployment rates, and are twice as likely to be working in the crafts and laborers categories than other immigrants and natives are. Mexican immigrants had to learn how to adapt to their new lives in America, starting from going to school, finding new jobs, and learning English.


Has it always been like this?

But throughout the years, there was a shift from Mexicans being segregated to being counted as the white majority for whenever necessary. Such as political reasons in which Mexicans were marked as white, so the population could be majority “white”. As more Hispanics reached voting age and more immigrants started to become citizens, their voting strength increased. Also, Mexican immigrants started to have children in America, automatically making them U.S citizens. The government no longer had the right to deport their children since they were born in the United States. Some even started to marry with whites and have biracial children. Those who were of lighter skin tone could pass as white and therefore would live their lives as whites. With this, they adapted to the American culture and slowly began to lose part of their Mexican culture.


Why is this important?

History shows how drastically the way Mexicans were being treated has changed. When they first arrived in America, they were treated unfairly for being immigrants. Now Mexicans and other minorities are being accepted. During this migration, immigrants brought with them experiences and sensory memories of smells, sounds, sights, and feelings that structured and flavored daily life in their places of origin. This changed the United States into a more diverse country that allowed people to embrace their cultures and traditions. People no longer feel the need to assimilate into the dominant culture since America has become more accepting of these differences. On the other hand, this is slightly not true as seen in today's political climate. There is another noticeable shift in the way immigrants are being treated. The current event in which U.S agents used tear gas on hundreds of migrants trying to breach the U.S-Mexico border, proves this point. For a time, the relationship between immigrants and the United States improved but there have been moments like these that convey the opposite.

Car Commercials targeting specific people

Car commercials are a big thing in the whole world. Almost every manufacturer has made a commercial except for of course the high end brands. Everybody has seen a car commercial at least once per day. However, people have not really been paying attention to who they are trying to sell their cars to. An example of this is Ford. We have seen the commercials about the F-150 and how they are the best towing capacity and have a lot of room for stuff in the bed. They are trying to appeal to people who have a hard working job and this is not the only car company that appeals to certain people. Car companies have been doing this for a long time right in front of us. They try to get a certain type of person to buy their car from them. Not only that, they even go as far as including gender into like the type of car that “fits” that gender. Lastly, there seems to be a certain way that they target their audience whether by the location they are in and different billboards.

    Car advertisements nowadays can of course be seen on television and social media. I have seen a commercial for ford that is in Spanish. Although this may seem very obvious, it still appeals towards a Spanish speaking person and they want them to buy  their cars. There are many ways that car companies appeal towards certain people. In the article “Playing hard to get: metaphor and representation in the discourse of car advertisements” by Joanna Thornborrow,  it talks about how there are car companies tend to have a certain way to appeal if you are a man or a woman. It also gives many examples of some ways that they have appealed to gender. An example of this is when the author talks about how car companies can attract a male if they use women in their car advertisements: “The pun here is of course created by the homonym “model” which refers to both cars and to the profession, and by the use of the “made”, in the sense that fashion models can be “mass-produced” in the same way as cars”(Thornborrow,1). From this, we can see a way that car companies have appealed to somebody in particular. They used by the sound of it pretty attractive females and they advertised some cars for a car company. Although some people will just see a woman with a car, a guy who probably loves cars, will see a hot woman next to this certain car. Someone can interpret this as if I get this car then I will get woman that look like this lady. This is a smart tactic by the car company since they know that generally men like to buy cars and by doing this, they can sale more cars and that is one way out of thousands.

Another tactic that they use is that they try to appeal to a certain race. There are of course car companies that like to appeal to a certain race. Ford and Chevy for example have made some commercials in Spanish. They know that they will do really well here so they do it. In the article “Metaphors in Car Advertisements”, it talks about how there can be cultural involved in the type of person they want: “ A lot of cultural knowledge is involved in deciphering the meaning of the ad...This is also a cultural specific element: in Romanian the correlation is not so striking”. From this quote, we can interpret that car commercials can be cultural too. There can be a commercial that has to do with a certain culture and how they can possibly sell their car to that culture. We have seen companies like Ford and Chevrolet do it but we have yet to see everybody start something like this with their brands.

  Lastly, they tend to advertise using either the location you are in whether its billboards or anything that can advertise something having to do with cars. This can be seen in the type of area you live in. I live in an area where the most expensive car ad that I have seen was an ad for infiniti. There are some ads where you get ads for like jaguar and Range Rover. In the article “Openness in Metaphorical and Straightforward Advertisements: Appreciation Effects” by Luuk Lagerwerf and Anoe Meijers, it tells us about how there are some areas where the billboard can be different depending in the area you live in: “ A very small classic car, a Fiat 500, is depicted on a road alongside a field. The headline reads "WALK, don't run." The logo makes it clear that the product being advertised is shoes rather than the car. The implication is that these shoes are classic and Italian, just like the car(Lagerwef 1). From this quote, we can see how an ad in a nice area such as Italy can be different. This ad is shown to people that have an interest in cars. Ads like these are not shown in an area where I live. Nobody in my area cares about how a fiat is like a pair of shoes. This is shown in an area where people can actually care about what this billboard is saying.

Car commercials have been targeting people all the time for a very long time. We have seen it happen but just didn’t really pay close attention to what they are actually trying to do. This will continue happening for a very long time as long as cars are still around. Of course not everybody will actually do this but it can be expected to keep on going. As long as there are cars to sale, there will always be ads that target a specific pers

Minority representation in the video game community

Minority representation is something that has been missing for the longest time. Only recently are minority people getting representation in things like TV shows and movies and other things. Video games is a place where minority people see the lack of representation. There are many articles that talk about how race and gender representation is important. I feel like video games need more race and gender representation in them because white people should not be the only ones who are glorified as the hero’s while the rest of other minorities are left out but also how minorities are always depicted as the bad guys.

Race representation is already really important but its also important that we get represented in the correct way and not be portrayed as bad people. In the article, “Representing race and Disability”, Rachel Hutchinson talks about a really famous video game called, “Grand Theft Auto San Andreas”. She talks about how race representation is often based on stereotypes and is seen all throughout the games in things such as speech or text. She says, “Analysis of racial representation in games is often based on stereotypical imagery found in short segments of game text, isolated from narrative context and divorced from cultural meaning” (Hutchinson). She says that in games people are not represented correctly instead they are unfairly represented with stereotypes or with only bad things that they are known for. Video games should not falsely represent or negatively represent a race because that just causes more problems with other races. Hutchinson also says, “ Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) is a useful case study, as a game that has attracted much scholarly and media criticism for its depictions of racialized violence”(Hutchinson). She talks about how this games has many negative depictions of black people in it with things such as but not limited to: violent crimes, drug dealing, gang violence etc. She states how even though black minorities are being represented, they are being depicted to be gang members, drug dealers. The fact that really famous and well known video games such as this one is depicting minority races as only being gang members and violent people is really unacceptable.

Gender norms is something that recently have been challenged dramatically. Video games are not different from society. Video games take gender norms and they reinforce them onto the characters of the games. In the article, “VIDEO GAME PARODIES Appropriating Video Games to Criticize Gender Norms”, Gabrielle trepanier-jobin talks about how gender norms in video games are based on predetermined ideas that have been around for many years and do not really matter anymore. She says, “ Most video games can therefore be considered as “technologies of gender,” which contribute to reproducing, reinforcing, and naturalizing preexisting beliefs about men and women. Like any other media form, video games play an important role in the construction of gender identities, which are not— according to a constructivist approach—bound to biological features, but socially established through the repetition of similar behaviors, bodily practices, and discourses” (Jobin). She shows us how videogames are not only depicting races in wrong ways but are also trying to push ideas of things like gender norms that are not valid anymore. Video games like to put the female character as the one who are submissive or the ones who need a masculine man to save them from trouble. Jobin also says, “ the platform video game Super Mario Bros. revolves around the kidnapping of Princess Peach by a turtle-like monster, Bowser, who wishes to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. A pudgy Italian plumber named Mario has to pass multiple levels connected by enormous pipes and defeat Bowser in order to rescue this non-playable female character and to save the kingdom, this princess rescue plot device perpetuates the old stereotype of a helpless, passive, and gorgeous damsel in distress saved from a perilous situation by a masculine hero”(Jobin). The video game Super Mario Bros, a game that everybody has at least heard of like to play gender norm to the highest degree. The typical female in trouble who need a man to go and help save her. These types of gender norms are not true today at all. But still video games are feeding these old ideas into people and people eat all up and they do not even realise the real meaning behind it.

Another problem we see with gender is the fact that women are not seen that much in things like game developing or game designing. In the article, ““AW FUCK, I GOT A BITCH ON MY TEAM!” Women and the Exclusionary Cultures of the Computer Game Complex”, Jennifer Dewinter and Carly A. Kocurek talk about how women are always given really negative feedback when they try to do things like play video games or be video game programmer or other things of that sort. Dewinter and Kocurek say, “women in gaming culture face more than a little hostility from outspoken male gamers.1 The video game industry currently faces scrutiny from industry professionals, players, and cultural critics who deplore the lack of women and diversity in the production of games”(Dewinter and Kocurek). This shows the problems that women face in the gaming industry with all the negative things that happen to them to the lack of representation of women in these areas of video games.

Video games have a lot of things that they need to fix. The fact they depict people as being something that is not true really is terrible. Also that they would keep pushing ideas of gender norms that are not valid and the fact that gamers in general do not want women to be part of the gaming community which need to change.

How Assimilation in the U.S. Affect People of Color

How does assimilation in the United States affect people of color and their cultural and racial identities? Assimilation is enrolled without notice to non-diversify society by their social norms being very present today while new generations grow up being assimilated. Combating assimilation is much needed to encourage diversity in the states as it creates a safe space for everyone.

Assimilation is encouraged by racial and ethnic inclusion with one assimilation and one ideal. You can find assimilation in schools, the workplace, and many other public spaces. In most public spaces most who don't associate with American assimilation is often looked down upon or discriminated against. The typical American is English speaking, non-diverse, American culture, and a norm that isn't represented by diversity and skin tones. Examples of assimilation could be having to speak English when communicating, pledging allegiance to the flag in government-run settings, and those with light complexions may be encouraged to pass as white in the modern day. Social constructs are the biggest influence on assimilation where dominant cultures or popular cultures are how society runs. Most cultural groups that are growing generations in the U.S. are often more similar to the assimilation where they may be left to question their identity making it harder for most to differentiate themselves.

Assimilation affects people of color to question their heritage of identity and conform to lacking diversity and culturalism. In American culture, most people of color are found themselves as an 'other' if not appropriated as Americans. Most cultures are at a disadvantage where language barriers, appearance, and traditions confuse American culture.

In an interaction of a close family member named Celia Avalos, who identifies as a first-generation Mexican woman, she had explained to me that she travels and notices assimilation influences other people’s interactions with her diverse identity or skin tone. Avalos explained in the state of California diversity is encouraged in safe spaces of a home or those who associate with diversity, but outside of those safe spaces speaking Spanish and expressing Mexican culture is quick to be judged, especially in rural states. Michigan was a rural state Avalos has traveled to often for work, while there she has had interactions where she had proudly explained she was of Mexican heritage, but locals explain to her from her light complexion, “you should tell people you are Italian, you look Italian.” These interactions made her uncomfortable to be diverse and gave her a feeling of not being able to fit in with these communities. Many people of color may be exposed to similar interactions as Avalos’ encountered where embracing your culture may be questioned by dominant groups. In daily interaction, no one should feel uncomfortable from their skin or heritage where actions must be taken place. 

Taking action upon these interactions and combatting assimilation in the USA is by introducing diversity in the classroom. In a studies interdisciplinarity is a key to discovering about race the use of nontraditional materials and extensive directed classroom discussion. In this context, we developed an interdisciplinary course on race. Having open diverse classes for young students make it available for safe spaces welcoming ethnic, racial, cultural fluidity at young ages and not conforming to social constructs. What is especially important in these courses’ students can learn more of their own cultural identity and have exposure to other cultures as well. 

Actions to be taken Assimilation in the United States today to combat non-diversified society can be instructed. What is the greatest importance is keeping cultural diversity alive in society and have the respect of cultures as well. In research of assimilation in the United States creating a safe space for everyone is ideal than assimilating to one type.