Alexander Guney’s April 6 Voices piece “The fight outside the closet” represents a gross misunderstanding of the nature of stereotypes. Stereotypes have nothing to do with a group identity; they have everything to do with the way a group is perceived by the dominant culture.
But instead of challenging and criticizing the practice of stereotyping, Mr. Guney places blame on those who are stereotyped and suggests that minorities have the power and responsibility to change the way they are perceived. In reality, minorities have neither the power nor the responsibility to do this. The dominant group has to be educated, not the minority.
As a genteel Southern woman, I (Elizabeth) am very upset by southeners who parade about with their incestuous relationships and drunken debauchery. That is exactly why Northerners disparage Southerners. If only all Southerners would move to plantations and farm cotton and drink mint juleps, then these stereotypes would disappear to be replaced by a more positive image of the Southern individual.
As a Latino man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, I (Ruben) am very upset by the truckloads of illegal immigrants who walk across the border to get a free ride from our hard-earned tax dollars. These aliens reinforce the stereotype that Latinos can’t take planes into the U.S. like the hard-working Asian immigrants do. We will never be a model minority until we learn how to migrate like civilized people.
Actually, we don’t even like referring to ourselves as “a genteel Southern woman” and a “Latino man.” We just mean to show the ridiculous nature of Mr. Guney’s claim. To say that gay men should stop getting AIDS so that heterosexuals will like them more is just as ridiculous as saying that black men should stop smoking crack so that white society will accept them more.
Ruben Loyo (COL ‘07) and Elizabeth Molly Howard (COL ‘07)
