Appreciate don’t appropriate

Cultural appropriation should not be tolerated

Appreciate+dont+appropriate

For years and many more to come, immigrants have crossed the border to enter the U.S., many of which come from Mexico. According to Pew Research, between 1965 and 2015 more than 16 million Mexican immigrants would leave the country for the U.S.

But even before that, native Mexicans would leave their home for a better life for themselves and future generations. Unfortunately, coming from a different country and descending from those who do, many people face ethnic and racial issues. With many problems arising towards the community, one of the biggest problems is the way they’re viewed.

Mexicans are often associated with the usual “drug dealer,” “thug,” gardener and maid stereotypes. Another example is the treatment of many Mexican, and in general, Latina, women. Even now in present day, there is a pattern of viewing the women as sexual and desperate objects. As a whole, many Mexicans are seen as less than the average citizen. These stereotypes have made it on to media such as shows, books, movies and even songs. As bad as it is that Latin people have not had the right representation, sometimes there’s no actual representation.

A lot of these ideas come from the belief that because Mexicans are from a different country, those who are born in the U.S. follow the same customs as those from Mexico. All in all, sometimes doesn’t really matter where the person comes from. To understand where many of these racial ideas towards the group come from, it has to be known why they are present and continue to be portrayed in the media.

One of the earliest remembered characterizations of Mexicans is a song by the rock band Genesis. A song released in 1983, titled “Illegal Alien.” Although the song is about a man who leaves his life in one country to better it in another, the melody of the song can be considered disrespectful. The song and video which checks off every Mexican stereotype in the book, also has the singer singing in Spanish gibberish. It does not fail to forget the accent.

That is only one of the many examples of Latin stereotypes throughout American media. It is not hard to decipher where many of these views come from and what they mean.
One of the most recent stereotypes that has caused an uproar in the Latin community is the “tóxica” stereotype. The “tóxica” stereotype, translated to toxic in English, is backhanded. The point of it is to classify Latina women as possessive, jealous or even crazy. The term is only helpful in sexualizing the many women of Hispanic heritage. As shown in many movies, Mexicans are seen as gang members. In early silent films, Mexicans are already portrayed as evil, committing hard crimes. The term “Greaser” would be given to them and work as a synonym to the word “Mexican” to classify the violence shown. Back in the early 19th century, the term “Greaser” had become a derogatory term towards Mexicans and was likely a nudge towards one of their jobs, greasing. The word had become popular amongst U.S. troops during the Mexican-American war.

It is hard to tell the future of the characterization of Mexicans when a lot of media is still showing the group as horrible people. One thing is for sure, Mexicans and Latinos in general are more than what they are shown as. They are more than an object, gardener, gang member, possessive or maid and so much more.