Latino Stereotypes In The Media

The media today influences a lot of people’s lives around the world. It mostly influences us in a good way, like facetime, snapchat or instagram, but it sometimes influences us in a bad way. One of the bad things that the media does, is furthered stereotypes that influence our society. These stereotypes have been prolonged by youtube, tv shows, movies, and even presidential candidates. A group that has been specifically affected by the media are Latinos and Hispanics. The article “Five Common Latino Stereotypes in Television and Film” by Nadra Kareem Nittle, explains how Latinos and Hispanics are portrayed in movies and tv shows. Another article, published by Time Magazine, called “Donald Trump: All the Times He’s Insulted Mexico” by Katie
For example, tv shows such as “Desperate Housewives” and “Ugly Betty” are furthering the stereotype that all Hispanics and Latinos are immigrants. This is offensive because many Hispanics have lived here in the United States for many generations. Another example is the 1961 classic “West Side Story” because it focuses on two groups of gangs; a Caucasian gang and a Puerto Rican gang. This movie and many others like “American Me” and “Mi Vida Loca”, have put out the idea that all Hispanics and Latinos are crime-prone and live the “thug life”. This stereotype puts it into other people’s minds that they should be afraid of Latinos and Hispanics, and that they should not be talked to or acknowledged. Donald Trump, president of the United States, furthered these stereotypes by saying, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” In this statement, Donald Trump has labled all Hispanic and Latino immigrants as druggies, thugs, and rapists. This statement has most definetly prolonged the stereotyoes about Hispanics and Latinos being bad people, because who would not believe the President of the United States? This is very, very offensive to Hispanics and Latinos who just want to live their life in peace and who are not, in any way, realted to crime, drugs, or sexually assulting
Some YouTubers such as Liza Koshy and SUPEReeeGO use being racist to gain more subscribers, likes, and views. The “David Lopez Juan” vines, progress the thought that it is okay to make fun Hispanics and Latinos. The vines in this video is making it seem like Hispanic and Latinos only talk about and like mexican foods, they can’t play sports,they are all gardeners, and that they are border hoppers. This is offensive and very untrue. Just because someone is mexican doesn’t mean they illegal, and it doesn’t even mean that they crossed the border every in their life. Not only what they are saying in this video is offensive but also the way this character is dressed and how he speaks. He has a drawn on mustache, he wears a sombrero, and he has a very heavy accent. Not all Mexicans have mustaches and I have never seen a mexican wearing a sombrero. Also I personally know mexicans who do not have an accent whatsoever and I know that people find it very offensive when someone assumes they have an accent or they speak spanish. Another video that furthers these stereotypes is called “Mexicans be like…” by SUPEReeeGO. This video makes people think that Mexicans abuse their kids for little to no reason. It also makes it seem like they are drunks, they are too poor to afford nice things, and that they punish their kids very harshly. These videos prolong the terrible stereotypes about Hispanics and Latinos when they upload