Discrimination Within Race and Society “Disgust.” “Alienated.” “Victim.” Since I have been working on the turnpike, I have witnessed many types of discrimination, where one or a few human beings are being targeted and singled out from the group just because of the way they look or speak. I have witnessed Muslim people casually walking into the lobby and EVERY other human in the building quickly walking in the opposite direction, sending nervous glances over their shoulders, or a white young American woman clutching her young five year old daughter to her hip just because a large black man walked up in line patiently waiting to order a sandwich. Both the Muslim and the black man left there standing alone wondering, “Why me?” After reading …show more content…
Both authors will tell about their own accounts or classmate’s accounts if discrimination or stereotyping and how they are similar. Hsiang states in her article, “The problems start when those who have made one choice discriminate against those who have made the other. I've heard ethnocentric Asians speak with disgust about Asians who wear Abercrombie and Fitch (which is viewed as the ultimate “white” brand), or make fun of those who don't know their parents’ language” (343). This is a great example of how intraracial racism is related to Hsiang’s article. The author explains racism in the quote by saying that Asians will discriminate, stereotype, and punish one another because their target “does not fit in,” or “does not act or think like the others.” An example of this is from using the quote from the text is, how some Asians are being attacked for looking and acting “too American” or on the other hand, “too Asian.” Furthermore, from Staples, “She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngest black man- a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket…” (Staples 346). Staples is explaining that he also, had been stereotyped, just because he was a larger black man, with a large coat and his hands in his pockets. These two quotes show that both have experienced stereotyping or …show more content…
In Hsiang’s article, she uses the occasion differently. She is talking about a account that her classmate had experienced. “‘People act disappointed that I can't speak Japanese fluently,’” a student of Mexican and Japanese ancestry in my sociology class complained this morning” (343 Hsiang). Hsiang is stating that her friend was being discriminated against by Japanese because he/she did not know how to speak the Japanese language. Even though she/he had a mixed heritage and was an American, old Japanese people stereotyped him/her and were angry that this person could not speak the language. Staples, uses the occasion differently in his writing; he uses first person accounts. He states, “In that first year, my first away from hometown, I was to become thoroughly familiar with the language of fear. At dark, shadowy intersections, I could cross in front of a car stopped at a traffic light and elicit the thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, of the driver- black, white, male, or female- hammering down the door locks” (Staples 347). In the quote from his account, he states that he himself experienced the stereotype of being a large black man in the dark, and people locking the doors of their cars just because of his skin color and