Latino's Behind The Reel Documentary Analysis

There are two different dimensions of our identities: ethnicity and race. Ethnicity refers to one’s belonging to a specific cultural, or racial group that makes up culture, race language, and/or place of origin. For example, one can be African-American but have different ethnicities, one African-American and the other African-Caribbean decent. Race is a social construct that can be changed over time. Historically, referring to its specific characteristics one possesses based on: ethnicity, religion, or language; today's its classified solely based upon the color of one’s skin. Nevertheless, ethnic and racial identities are important and instill a sense of belonging and identifying with that specific group through attitude, behaviors. Moreover,

I always identified myself as Mexican because technically I was mostly Mexican, but I didn’t speak Spanish and was never really accepted by my Spanish speaking peers. I also remember not wanting to be identified as White, I was an American but I didn’t want to be called White. I idolized Martin Luther King Jr. as a young child, and I remember feeling deeply moved and fundamentally changed after seeing the first images of the civil rights movement during Black history month. Then I remember starting to wonder why I always saw the same videos and learned the same lessons each year during February and I began to question things. I remember getting so angry at my own ignorance of the history of racism in this country during my first multi-cultural history class at Cal State Long Beach. I realized how much I wasn’t learning in school and that I never got an authentic version of history from any group other than the dominant White culture. It was an eye opening experience and it had a profound impact on me. I learned to embrace being an American as long as I was willing to commit to continuously questioning and challenging the current power structures in place and work to expose the institutionalized racism that continues to plague our public

I became aware of these dominant perceptions and discourses through the media and majority through my peers. In terms of my ethnicity, I do not “fit” into most qualities and do not have certain interests my culture has. Thus I am looked down upon for these reasons. A study by Wendy Hoglund and Naheed Hosan found that victimization of one's ethnicity correlated to depression, anxiety as well as physical aggression. While I have not been physically aggressive, my first year of University was filled with a lot of discouragement and low self – esteem. This was influenced not only by my academic endeavors but also because of my social situation. Regarding my gender and age, I have become aware of these intersections mainly through the media and daily life. The perceptions have created numerous problems for me as they have lowered my self-esteem and constantly made me question who I am. Intersectionality has aided me in understanding the ways in which my discourses have worked together to form my identity. Further, it allows for one to comprehend the different areas of identity when understanding the aspects in how the social world is built (Hochreiter, 2014, pg. 51).Intersectionality has played a role in both the way I have experienced 
others’ perceptions and constructed my own sense of an identity. By using both my own perceptions and others, I have constructed my identity in the way I know

Prior to taking this course, I was taught, and therefore was under the impression, that prejudice is a preconceived notion about a group and that racism is essentially the same thing, except that racism also encompasses the idea that the group is lesser. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva states that “for most whites, racism is prejudice; for most people of color, racism is systemic or institutionalized” (Bonilla-Silva, 2010). Quotes like this force me to reflect, both on how I see myself and how others see me. Reading that quote, I felt like I related more to ‘most whites’ because I believed that racism was essentially prejudice for so long. I remember once while doing a cross the line activity, I hesitated before moving when the facilitator said “step forward if you are a person on color.” Technically, yes, my skin is pigmented in a way that would qualify me as a person of color but there is a connotation with that phrase that I felt didn’t relate to me. My first reaction to that phrase is the thought of someone who has struggled, someone who faces racism on a regular basis, someone who is treated differently because of the color of their skin. In my opinion, the more others acknowledge a part of your identity, the more apparent that part of your identity is to you, and I don’t often feel that people acknowledge my identity as an Asian American. I’ve been called a coconut more times than I can count. Brown on the outside but white on the inside. Sure I look brown, but I don’t ‘act

However, many people are not aware of the difficulties that Latinos went through to strive for

My racial identity shaped who I was when I lived in Iowa. My sister and I were the only black children within a 50 mile radius. It did not help that we lived in poor conditions. That only solidified the stereotypes that were tied to me as a black person. I was called “n****r” girl and looked at weird. The teachers gave me looks of pity. I felt alone. My mother was in her own world of picking up the pieces of our broken life that landed us in that foreign town to begin with. I was seen as a charity case. People wanted to house me, befriend me, and aid me because it would be doing society a service. My mother’s friend who I lived with for 2 months treated my sister and I as though we were her personal babysitters, her tax write-offs. She talked about possibly making us her foster children. Not because she wanted a good home for us, but because she could get paid to do it. I was seen as property. She came from a background of prejudice and the insensitive Aunt Jemima figurines and racial remarks only solidified her intentions. Even though she would say, “I can’t be racist. I’m taking care of two black kids”, her actions were driven by race. These instances of

Over the course of this past century, the depictions of assimilated Latino characters has improved a great deal. Early portrayals of Latino assimilation generally proved to be a montage of unrealistic caricatures which seemed to convey the filmmaker's creativity more so than true representations. This formed the manner in which the American people at large viewed not just Latino characters attempting to assimilate, but also those who were not. As Cine-Aztlan puts it, film "manipulates the human psychology, sociology, religion, and morality of the people, in a word the ideological super-structure of modern capitalist society" (pg.275, Chicanos and Film). As the years

How we are viewed to the outside world plays a part in who we we are as individuals, it becomes apart of our identity. No matter how much we try to deny it, how others view us impact how we view ourselves. To the outside world I am just viewed as a Caucasian female, but in reality I am a Mexican American. Throughout the years I have just started to identify as being Caucasian because that is just what everyone assumes, now my case is mild. It has not deeply affected who I am as a person, but for other people they are not so lucky. Being in America we are shoved in stereotypes, there is no uniqueness you are viewed as either ‘good white folk’, hoodlums, or immigrants. Now imagine being viewed as the latter, your ‘race’ forces you into the tight space of discrimination. You are now identified as being a hoodlum, that always seems to

This photo is a representation of the various stereotypes surrounding Latinos, and the way Hollywood exploits them for entertainment. The various Latinos in the spotlight all have different labels on them, all a representation of the ways people judge Latinos, based upon false stereotypes. The gunman or cop, the woman with an attractive accent, even the illegal immigrant, Hollywood has used these stereotypes to their advantage, thus influencing the way Latinos are seen in America. The people in the crowd symbolize all of America; every person who sees, and believes, the lies Hollywood tells them, and the idea that all Latinos can be sorted into a couple of categories, that they are simply people. Americans trust in the media, in what they

As a kid I had never heard a comment that made me really question my racial identity. I always saw others as my friends or family and not by their skin tone. Going for the zoo lights had made me extremely uncomfortable for many reasons. The reason behind that being that I heard racist comments about my cousins and I that made me question my own racial identity for the first time. Having trouble with racial identity will cause us to have varied feelings about fitting in and filling our full potential based on outside influences and treatments from others.

Feature films in the United States influence American viewers' attitudes on a wide variety of topics. Americans attitudes toward politics are shaped by films, and specifically the politics of racial interaction. The history of modern feature films begins with Birth of a Nation (1915), a film that misrepresents the Black race by justifying the existence and role of the Ku Klux Klan in American society. From this racist precedent, producers and directors understood that visual messages, however latent, were a useful means of communicating a political message to a large audience. After this epiphany, a myriad of films were made for different political causes. Most films had multiple messages,

Before this course, I understood racism was out there and I do try to be respectful towards everyone that is around me, however I never really had to think about my own cultural being and upbringing in regards with racism. I do feel I have some resistance or negative feelings about my race from time to time. This is described as a phase in Helms (1995) White Identity Development (Sue & Sue, 2015). I know I am blessed to be a White middle class American and I am privileged because I can choose to not worry about racism, however I occasionally say things such as “ I wish I was not White” or “why do I have to be this White?”. Also, reflecting back I know I would speak with my friends (who were White) about wishing to be dark, tan, and not pale

While reading this week’s reading, I felt a connection with Desiree White. For instance, the first thing she mentions is, “…of course you would notice if someone had different skin color than you did, but to be honest, I didn’t ever think about it. Everyone was the same to me when I was a kid” (White, 2013, pg. 33). I can relate to this because I remember feeling the same way when I was a kid. Even till this day, I still feel this way. I am just more aware of everyone and their unique characteristics. I know for a fact that my identity has a lot to do with my parents and how they shaped me to be. In terms of race/ethnicity, it wasn’t really their choice. I identify as White/Hispanic. Additionally, if we are just talking about me I am currently

Racism is prominent in the United States. Growing up in my small, predominately white town I did not recognize it. I had difficulty comprehending what racism is. As I have grown and developed my understanding of the many identities I hold, I have come to realize racism is the systematic oppression of people of color rooted in discrimination through the historical power, privilege given to the dominate identity. With this definition of racism, I can recall many occurrences in my childhood where I faced both direct and indirect racism.

“Talking about race, biases, and hate is hard and painful”. This statement has crossed my mind during every single class discussion, reading and video that has involved the treatment of minority groups and American history. By far the two hardest conversations/readings that this was present in were when we talked about the Privileged Identity Exploration (PIE) Model and the in class discussion of naming our biases (drawing a picture and the box game). While it’s hard to have conversations about the past, it is even harder to have the conversation when it includes your present biases, even if you don’t know you hold said biases until the conversation starts. This reflection paper will discuss how I am handling this “roller coaster” of emotion, reactions and