Looks Like A Martinez

Last night in class we watched a videotape (yes, a videotape like in a VCR) that was to highlight how we make conclusions based on first impressions, body language, and so on. Essentially it was getting at how we can and do stereotype and how that can affect our ability to assess and treat clients.

The videotape was about a show episode to guess who the real person was, i.e. there was one truth teller and two posers.  The person they were guessing was a Mr. Martinez who was a bilingual barber bookseller.  First of all I had issues with the show itself stereotyping by having all three people being Latino and "looking" Latino.  As I have already discussed being Latino (according to the US census) is a cultural marker not racial in that facial features and such do not indicate this identity.  Yet, we racialize this identity as the following proves...

So, we have three Latinos who are stereotypically looking Latino (olive skin, dark hair, etc.) and we find out that the last person is the true Martinez.  A side note: It was interesting that the other two men identified their professions as a finance analyst and some other professional field.  Yes, I bet people were surprised to hear that as I'm sure they were expecting to hear "fruit picker" or "construction worker."

As the class discussed who each of us chose, one of my classmates who seemed to me to be a student of color (you know how that goes with racial and ethnic identity) who said that the reason she chose the last person was because he "looked more like a Martinez." And guess what?  He happened to be the one who "looked" most traditionally as Mexican-Latino with a mustache, with the way his hair was styled and darker skin tone.  She clearly was a bit embarrassed to share her thoughts as she knew how it sounded and couldn't explain why she came to that conclusion.  What bothered me a little is that no-one questioned her conclusion.  I didn't want to as I'm always the one who does so I kept silent this go-around.

My question is, "What does it mean to look like a Martinez?"

I think of a former student who was also a Martinez but she easily passed for a stereotypical "All-American" girl with light brown hair, pale skin and light eyes.  Yet, her being a Martinez was as important to her as her Anglo side for which her features displayed.

Yes, she looked like a Martinez too.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Institutional Racism and Higher Education

Image
There's so much happening that it's hard to start, as it has been two years since I've written. From March 2020 to June 2020, much of the US (and the world) was shut down to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's strange to read my past postings and to find myself here - isolated most of the time and hesitant to leave the confines of my home due to this highly contagious virus which to date has killed over 500,000 and has infected over 14 million , and disproportionately impacted BIPOC . Then in May, our nation was roiled once again in racial violence with the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minnesota. As a result, many companies, organizations, and institutions published statements of support and a commitment to change. What's disheartening is that the murders of Black men, women, boys and girls have been happening for time out of mind, and in recent memory have been viewed and heard in social media for at least a decade. Four years ago I walked i
Read more

Split and Stereotyping

Image
***This posting has spoilers for the film "Split"*** Last weekend I went to see the film " Split ", which is about disassociative identity disorder  (DID) or is still commonly known as multiple personality disorder. For many of us, we think of the book " Sybil " back in the 70s then later the film featuring Sally Field as the client, Sybil. However, interestingly, the client admitted years later that she faked her diagnosis .  Although DID as a diagnosis is fairly uncommon although the  phenomena of disassociating  is more common that we think due to stress, trauma or even illness. As I watched the film, it was clear to me that there was a significant amount of stereotyping to depict the different identities such as "Barry" who liked to design clothes and had an affect that would be stereotyped as "gay." Another is that the film was reinforcing the belief that mental illness is over-the-top and beyond repair. Also that mental illn
Read more

Lost & Found

This morning I had an argument with my BF and it did not go well. No surprise. Also no surprise that the argument started at point A and ended up at point Z or what I'd call "planet mars." My poor BF, he had no idea what hit him (metaphorically of course) but neither did I. By the end of the argument, I found myself standing alone in the middle of the living room with tears threatening to stream from my eyes, and eventually they did. The feelings that arose were a powerful potion of regret, anger, sadness and perplexity as to my teaching experience in China in 92-93. As some people know, I was interrogated in China in 1993 and my visa was unexpectedly cancelled because I allegedly broke the law. Later, Chinese officials admitted that they "may have made a mistake" which is pretty much an outright confession for having done something wrong and being sorry for it. For years I always believed that what I set out to do in China came out of a sincere desire to
Read more