American Perspective on Different Cultures

This week's readings demonstrated how different cultures may have been "stereotyped," or have been given  a "white" perspective in the United States. These stereotypes/perspectives usually have a negative connotation or are demeaning in some way. This is usually because they want to give other cultures a bad image in the eyes of their young. The misrepresentation of the minorities in America will not be permitted.

Our Native American reading, Dressing in Feathers, begins with the popular Disney movie Pocahontas.  This movie had many contradictory Native American critics. Some felt that the movie did a great job of demonstrating the relationship between Native Americans and nature. Many criticized the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas. They say that the movie was given a "white" perspective because John Smith's journals indicate that he was a middle-aged man and Pocahontas was a teenager. In all reality, we don't really know what actually happened. Also, the Native American is depicted poorly in mass media. They are always known to have feathers and have a "grunt" that portrays them as very unintelligent.

Hispanics are criticized simply because of their language. The Spanish language is seen as ignorant and uneducated. Even though there is no official language of the United States, many Mexican Americans realize they must learn English in order to have success. Many Mexican Americans are poorly represented in popular culture. They always seem to have some antagonist role or are inferior to the main characters. Movies and television shows also show them speaking Spanish and it being portrayed as ignorant.

Black culture is very similar to Mexican American culture. Blacks seem to have a different dialect that is similar to English. Again, this is viewed as very ignorant. However, those who study black culture can trace a lot of their language back to Africa. Blacks are also portrayed as very inferior to other races. They are given roles of characters very contradictory to the average African American.


Works Cited


"Stuart Hall -- What Is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture?"Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://youjustgotslapped.blogspot.com/2009/02/stuart-hall-what-is-this-black-in-black.html>.

Studies, Indian. "Dressing in Feathers: The Construction of the Indian in American Popular Culture Online Book at Questia Online Library." Questia. Web. 27 Jan. 2012. <http://www.questia.com/library/book/dressing-in-feathers-the-construction-of-the-indian-in-american-popular-culture-by-s-elizabeth-bird.jsp>.