Social Racial Identity

     Racial stereotyping has always been a major social issue. Racism is now always overtly present in society. In fact most racism is very implicitly stated, especially in the media. No matter how much we say we aren't racist, every individual has some deep rooted racial or stereotypical views that shape the way we see the world we live in.

      Negative racist stereotypes usually arise from some act of violence that has happen in the past. Once something violent and negative happens and people get affected in a bad way, they start associating that negative violent event with the people that might have caused the violence. Even though we all know that it is rationally impossible for every individual of muslim decent to be a terrorist, we do start generalizing. We assume that every muslim hates America and wants to harm the country and its people. Now days we not only associate terrorism with muslims, but anyone that appears to be of muslim or Arab descent. This usually entails anyone with brown skin.

     We have created a stereotype of a terrorist to be a foreigner of a muslim descent, having tanned or brown skin with a long beard and a turban. We have this stereotyped image of a muslim or arab man after the event of september eleventh 2001. This was the event that lead to the world shaping the way we view muslim culture and practices. This violent event was given the face of Osama Bin-laden since he was the master mind behind plotting this terrible event.
     The media kept flashing images of Osama Bin-laden on all the news channels. They kept saying very bad things about him and unified Americans in despising Bin-laden. This shows how the media shapes our views on different events. If the media says that we all have to hate something we do it and if we dont comply we get accused of either beloning to the "bad" guy's side or that we are very anti-American.
     Most people however, just go with the majority's view and agree with what their neighbors are saying. This is how the stereotype gets formed. All American's together with the influence of the media have created a stereotypical image of a terrorist. That is why today, it would be so much harder for a man of brown skin to get through security check at an airport. They are usually the ones that are being inspected and watched more carefully than how they inspect a white man. Its not just the brown skin, even if a person wears a turban he is not considered as a terrorist even if he may not even be a muslim.
     The turban can be considered as a cultural artifact that has immense value given by the people who do wear it. But its important to remember that its not just muslims that wear a turban. People from indian of Sikh and punjabi descent also wear a turban as a symbol of respect and devotion to their religion and to their almighty God.
     However, since we are all people it is inevitable to stop generalizing and stereotyping people into groups. It is just humanly instincts to categorize people based on our beliefs and our views of the world.  In this case a cultural artifact fact for the islamic culture and the Sikh culture and the Punjabi culture would be the turban.
     One example of this stereotype would be the mass shooting that took place at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The shooter was racist against muslims because of the twin tower terrorist attacks and he associated the turbans they wear and the long beards that they have to terrorists. In this case a whole group of people (sikhs and punjabis) are reffered to as also being terrorists and anti-america just because of the turban they wear on their heads, the dark colored skin they have and the long beards they have.

     Once again, it is also important to remember that not all muslims are terrorists either. Just because their outer appearance resembles one, it doest means their inner beliefs are of terror and anti-america. No one should be judged by the kind of clothing they wear or the way they look. Stereotypes will continue to exist in the years to come, and we need to be aware about the real facts and stop generalizing a set of facts and ignorant beliefs to a larger grop of people.
   

Advertisements and Gender Stereotypes

In the society we live today, there are very obvious gender stereotypes that exists. No matter how much we say that men and women are equal, there is still a very clear distinction between the two. As Aaron Devor talks about in his article, "Gender role behaviors and attitudes", the stereotype is that men need to show more aggression and dominance while women are supposed to be more passive and submissive with neither characteristics of the gender being better than the other. He also says that one gender will not be able to perform well in tasks that are meant for the opposite gender.
This advertisement for example clearly conveys this idea of femininity that Devor was talking about in his article. He stresses upon femininity having an image of submissiveness and passivity. The girl in this advertisement is not making any eye contact with he audience and her hair is covering part of her face which clearly gives her an expression or image of shyness and unassertiveness. The expression of the woman in this advertisement is very crucial in showing the stereotypical idea of femininity.
Secondly the dress of the woman is worth noting. The kind of clothing worn plays a great role in the social definition of masculinity and femininity. Devor in his article states that one of the ways femininity is expressed is "though modes of dress, movement, speech and action which show weakness, dependency, ineffectualness, availability for sexual or emotional service, sensitivity to the needs of others." The expression of the woman in this advertisement clearly shows weakness and submissiveness which is a stereotypical view of women.  He also stresses on the fact that Women need to dress for men in a way that is more appealing and attractive to men. In this advertisement, the woman is wearing an elegant outfit that is very feminine and is also showing a lot of skin. Devor talks about showing skin as being a very important part of conveying femininity. This again gives the advertisement a very feminine charm. According to Devor, body postures that communicate subordinate status and vulnerability appear to be very feminine. Smiling for example sends a very pleasing and calm appearance which sends across a very feminine personality.

Devor also talks about the women being very compact and closed in compared to a men who tend to spread out them selves more and be more adventurous. This advertisement is very compact and tight which conveys the notion of the feminine appeal.
The target audience of this advertisement is other women. It manifests the stereotypical notion of femininity which would appeal to other women who want to also embrace that feminine appeal  and essentially would attract a woman to the product itself.

Cultural artifacts shape social identity

In today's society its hard to avoid getting judged based on one's culture, class, gender and sexual orientation. This is where the idea of social identity comes in. Some might incorrectly assume that the word "social identity" means one's identity of themselves and how they would like to be recognized by society. However, one's social identity is an identity given to an individual by the society based on a certain group (ethnicity, religion etc) that individual might belong to. A person himself does not have control over their social identity.
So this leads us to a broad question, what groups people? Answers to this question might include religion, language, geographical location, cultural practices, sexual preferences and even accents. These are just some superficial factors. When you look deeper; art, music, food and clothing are some of the factors or "cultural artifacts" that differentiates or even stigmatize different groups of people in today's society. However, it should be said that its not these artifacts or items themselves that stigmatize people, but its the way they are perceived and spread (ex: the media) is what creates social myths and stereotypes.
Lopez in his memoir gave great importance to clothing by describing them in detail several times. Wearing "baggy" clothing and dressing like a surfer seemed to get him attention. He also wanted to own the expensive Lenny Muelich surfboard.  He felt that inorder to be a surfer it was very important to look the part. Lopez says that he gave higher importance to surfing than race and therefore it can be said that he was trying to have an identity of a surfer before a Mexican. He felt a need to fit into the group of surfers. But when confronted by a fellow mexican stranger on the street inorder to prevent a hostile situation he says "I'm Mexican". This time he identified himself as a Mexican and by doing so he was protecting himself from getting fought and formed somewhat of a cordial common bond between himself and the stranger.

Being of Mexican decent in East LA and desiring to be a surfer was a far reach for Lopez but non the less by understanding his social identity and embracing it, Lopez did get the "best of both worlds".