'S'TEREOTYPE IN THE UNITED STATES'

I have the obligation to speak about stereotyping for this blog assignment. As a second Citizen in America and a man of color who speaks English as a third language, I know how it feels to actually deal with stereotypes. My very first experience of a stereotype was the very very first month that I entered into this country (United States of America). The very first one I ever encountered that hit me the most was with a group of females from my own ethnic group(African-American females) As I recall myself, I was an employee at Nordstrom Department Store, a store that is considered one of the most prestigious, sophisticated department stores in the U.S. I was a sales associate at the women's shoe department.

I remember one day there were a few French women who were shopping in my department. Unfortunately, they had problems communicating due to the fact their English was somewhat limited, the young Lady that was waiting on them (Marguerita) seemed to have a hard time selling them the merchandise. On the other hand, I heard a French accent come out of those ladies' mouths. I asked Marguerita to wait for me to finish with my customers then, I will take over the sale because I speak the ladies' language. It was a relief for both the ladies and Marguerita. I took my time in helping the French ladies, and they were really pleased with my service. One of them told me in french,"wow, you are truly a great asset for this company the fact that you are here as someone who speaks several languages can help foreign customers." That comment she made to me really brightend my day, and I found myself as one of the happiest persons on earth. A few months following, I became the all star person of the month.

While I was helping the French ladies, there were a few African-American women in my department shopping for shoes as well, they over-heard me speaking a different language to these ladies and that's when they began to lose track by listening to a person of color who happens to be their own race speaking in a different language. I remember after the French ladies left the strore, the African-American females aproached me wondering what I was doing in a negative attitude. I told them that I was helping my French customers because they could not speak English. One of the African-American women stereotyped me by making such a comment, "Wow I cannot believe a black person is speaking French." All I said to her as my response was,"Welcome to the new world. "At some point I did not blame her for her lack of education maybe, at some point she was misinformed in her instution that black people do not have the same abilities as whites when it comes to education or maybe she was not taught that black folks who are from different parts across the globe speak different languages.

Of course, she was born and raised in the Northwest part of the United States, all she ever saw in the media about her race was mistreatment and stereotyping about her race. Especially when it comes to young African-American males, their stereotyping is to be very active in the sports industry by being excellent basketball players, football players, gangsters and rapers in a thugish life style. Those African-American females are not to blame for the mistake they made by stereotyping me. They fail to understand that an African-American can be just as well educated as the rest of the American citizens who are living in this country. They misunderstood that their own group does not have the ability to become business leaders and professionals. In their minds, they had no clue that their own race can be part of corporate-America because the media seems to fail to show the good side of African-Americans.

Another hurtful stereotype that I experienced, which I will never forget for my whole entire life, was when I was working at the Edge Water Hotel in Dowtown Seattle as a shuttle driver. I was working the swing shift from 3 to 11 while I was taking classes at Shoreline Community College. My job was to take guests to certain places in Downtown, such as the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and major business places in the area. I remember one day, I had one of my lady guests who sat next to me in the passenger seat while the van was full of other guests. That one lady in the passenger seat had the assumption that I was an African-American until she asked me a question about the area. I was so thrilled and informed her about the area of downtown because it was my job to educate people about the area and to tour them around. From that point on, the lady heard my little fancy speech, which did not sound too American to her. Immediately, she began acting differently toward me by asking me if I would be able to teach her some Swahili. I paused for a few minutes...... I politely asked her "why?" Then she said "what part of Africa do you come from?" From that moment on, I was completely shocked and stunned, and I kept still before I could actually respond to her. Above all, she was a guest of my hotel, and I am not about to say something negative to make her feel uncomfortable and make her look like a fool. Well, I asked the Gracious Father to give me something approriate to to say to her about the remark she made about me.

I said, "Ma'am, I want you to know one thing. What makes you think I am African? Furthermore, just because I speak with an accent does not mean I'm from Africa." I kept going by saying," Black people come from all over this planet, we even come from Asia, in case you did not know." I said,"Let me tell you a few places I know besides the Continent of Africa where black folks come from: Caribbean Islands, South America, West Indies, Cenral America, even in the South Pole there are a tons of us down there." I said, "I am sorry Ma'am.

I would be the wrong person to teach you Swahili, for your information, I do not speask Swahili. In addition, to that I have never been to Africa. I came from Haiti and I can only speak French and Creole."

In my opinion, it is not my intention to deny my African Heritage. As a man of color, I surely understand that my ancesters are from the Congo, Africa,but I was not born there. It is really critical and distracting to me when people assume that all blacks are Africans or African-Americans because of the way we look and speak.

I fully learned a huge lesson from that one comment the lady made about my race. Now I know if I ever notice someone who speaks with a foreign accent and I want to know what country that person is originally from, my job is to find an approriate way to approach that person. I will have to do it in a very diplomatic way, by having a professional conversation with that person. From there, we would have the opportunity to get to know each other. That way we will find out which part of the globe each other was originally from, instead of stereotyping people that have a certain look and speak differently rather than coming up to them whom you have never met with impolite questions.

Posted By: Abner T. Richet

America on film and Women Studies