Mexican American Stereotypes and Breaking Them Down
             Los Vendidos written by Luis Valdez is a play that looks into how stereotypes are portrayed about Mexican Americans. Throughout the play Valdez shows the different types of stereotypes and what the stereotypes do to the people that they are portrayed upon. According to Popular Culture: An Introductory Text a stereotype is "a standardized conception or image of a specific group of people or objects" (1). Stereotyping is an everyday part of life. In popular culture, stereotypes are examined around the characteristics of: Age, Sex, Religion, Vocation, Nationality and Things. Frank Wu states that in racial stereotyping "Asian Americans between the ages of four to eighty have been confronted by a Westerner striking a Kung-Fu pose" (With a Foot in Each Culture 1). Frank Wu also states that "images of martial arts masters such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan permeate popular culture" (1). Even the television shows promote stereotypes. For instance in some television shows they promote blond headed girls as air heads and athletes are portrayed as dumb jocks. A perfect example of a television show that does this is Saved by The Bell. In this show they portray smart students as nerds and being very geeky. According to this show nerds dress funny, are uncool, and have pocket protectors. These examples of stereotypes might not be thought of as being very serious, but there are others that are more serious and create problems. These
             stereotypes stem up form the different races such as: Mexican Americans, African Americans, Asians, and Anglo Saxons. Everybody in one point in their lives has heard a negative stereotype about a certain race. These stereotypes are reinforced everyday not just by the media but by Law Enforcement as well. Everybody knows what racial profiling is and it probably does not affect the smaller towns but it does affect the ...