Trishawna Watkins

Bethany Gavin
English Composition 1
10/04/14

Exemplification Essay

Discrimination is the unequal or different treatment of individuals. The law

protects people from discrimination based on race, age, and sex but, is that enough.
When America was first founded there were three groups of people the English, the
Blacks and the Indians. America has grown very quickly in a short amount of time.
America is now a very diverse place with many different types of people. There are
three challenges facing America today the clashing of differing cultures,
stereotyping, and judging by appearance.
A lot of people immigrated to America and brought their culture and life style
with them. One may think that cultural differences will slowly disappear. But that is
not the case because culture is passed down, culture is how someone is raised.
Judith Cofer asserts "It is custom, however not chromosomes, that leads us to
choose scarlet over pale pink. As young girls, it was our mothers who influenced our
decisions about clothes and colors - mothers who had grown up on a tropical island
where the natural environment was a riot of primary colors, where showing your
skin was one way to keep cool as well as to look sexy."(235) We as children learn
and take after our parents and as such adopted the culture and standards of our
parents. With so many people from different backgrounds, is it possible to not have
misunderstandings and culture barriers. Cofer who was raised by her Puerto Rican
mother explains issues she has had with cultural misunderstandings.
Understandably, "When a Puerto Rican girl dressed in her idea of what is attractive
meets a man from the mainstream culture who has been trained to react to certain
types of clothing as a sexual signal, a clash is likely to take place." (Cofer 235) This
is just one example of what occurs every day in America. We have Muslims who
wear hijab, Jamaicans who are loud, Whites who are generally quiet, and Blacks who
express themselves openly all on the same bus interacting. Each who has been
raised a different way. Will one cultural group realize when and how they are
offending another? Most likely not, especially when what knowledge we have of
other cultures is completely dependent on TV and other people bias.
We now have many different types of cultures mixing. However, there is no
understanding of cultures and their background, this forms stereotypes. Stereotypes
are the oversimplified and widely viewed image of a group. Several examples of

stereotypes are that Asians are smart, Blacks are ghetto, Caucasians cant dance.
One of the largest perpetuators of stereotypes are the media and TV. Cofer talks
about one of the largest and degrading stereotypes that media and TV uses to
portrait Hispanics. Cofer admitted "Mixed cultural signals have perpetuated certain
stereotypes _ for example, that of the hispanics woman as the 'hot tomale' or sexual
firebrand. It is a one-dimensional view that the media have found easy to promote.
In their special vocabulary, advertisers have designated 'sizzling' and 'smoldering'
as the adjectives of choice for describing not only foods but also the women of Latin
America."(234) In her essay, Cofer also talks about the stereotypes of Hispanics as
maids and waitress who speak improper English. (235) This displays one of the
biggest problems with stereotypes, With one glance they place limits and obstacles
on that particular group that have to be overcome in order to be taken seriously.
Like stereotypes a persons appearance is used to make and immediate
judgment about a person. Appearance or how some looks, dresses is dependent on
genes or culture. The statement first impressions last could never be more true.
They say dont judge a book by its cover but, it is still being done. Without even a
word being exchanged a person is judged on their character, personality, culture,
intelligence, and wealth. In fact unattractive people are less likely than their
attractive peers to be viewed as intelligent, likeable, and good. Brownell and Puhl
have documented that overweight individuals consistently suffer disadvantages at
school, at work, and beyond. Among the key findings of a quarter-century's worth of
research: Unattractive people are less likely to be hired and promoted, and they
earn lower salaries, even in fields in which looks have no obvious relationship to
professional duties."(Rhode 247) Appearance can affect a person ability to function
in day to day life. It is wrong that how some looks or dresses can affect their pay.
Clashing of different cultures, stereotyping, and judging by appearance are
types of discrimination that are going on daily. We as Americans must try to be
more aware of how we make assumptions and judge people.

Works Cited
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria."
Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. Patterns for College Writing. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 232-237.
Rhodes, Deborah L. "Why Looks are the Last Bastion of Discrimination." Kirszner,
Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. Patterns for College Writing. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's, 2012. 246-250.