Kristina Ramirez: The Mexican - Race and Ethnicity Interview

C. Jenkins

Sociology

April 1, 2011

Race and Ethnicity Interview

Kristina Ramirez is a teenage girl who goes to Hiram High School. Her race is Hispanic and white. Kristina's ethnicity is Mexican. Her father's side of the family is from Mexico and is strong cultural Hispanics. Her mother's on the other hand is American. Although she was born in America, Kristina has a many charecteristical traits, such as skin color, of a Hispanic.

In my interview of Kristina, I learned a lot of interesting facts that changed my view of a person of another race and ethnicity. When I thought that I knew a lot about ethnicity, I was greatly mistaking, for many of my facts were mistaken and misinterpreted by a lot of people like me. By the end of her interview, it seemed that all I thought I knew that was true, was what someone told me to think was true.

I learned that Kristina strongly believes that she is a hyphenated American, for several reasons. She said that she is more American than Hispanic. The reason why is because she acts more as an American, speaks American as her first language, and somewhat dislikes her Hispanic side.

The most misunderstood aspect of her race she said was the thought that all Mexicans jumped the border, are poor, and either work as construction workers or scrub toilets. Even though, Hispanics are the majority of the people who cross the border illegally, most of them who live in the US are legal residents. Also like any other minority group, they accommodate and blend in with the majority, therefore many Hispanics are indeed successful and some have a higher income than an average American. The reason some Hispanics work at dirty jobs for cheap, is because like any other person they need to make an income, and that is the only available job that there is to them, so they take it.

The most common stereotype is based on the misunderstanding of her ethnicity. The stereotype is that all Mexicans are wetbacks, meaning all swam over the border illegally. Also a secondary stereotype is that all Hispanics are good a soccer. Even though soccer is the most preferred sport in Central and South America, it does not mean that everyone who is prom those places are good at it.

Due to the fact that a lot of people dislike Hispanics, Kristina believes that Hispanics are poorly represented. This is so, because in most movies or shows, the Hispanics are always the bad gays such as thieves or drug dealers. Also actors of her race are usually maids or servants. All of these discriminations represent Hispanics as the inferior group and make it seem as they can never reach equality with the dominant group.

Overall I learned that no matter how successful and better Hispanics become, people will always see them as illegal and discriminate them. Even my