Spanglish Blog Post - Racial Understanding
I'm not going to lie, this doesn't have a lot do do with the spanish language, but read it anyway.
This blog post is about a person who passes, or can be mistaken for another race. Who is this person?
Martin Sheen, or Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, is an actor who is known for playing many famous roles. One role he played, has a very personal connection to me. In 1993, he portrayed confederate general Robert E. Lee in the war film Gettysburg.
I was confused. If Sheen is Spanish (he's a first generation American, with his mother being from Spain), why is he playing the leader of the Confederate Army? Why also, did he not look Spanish?
After a long time of reading and thought, I've come to an important and personal conclusion. There's nothing wrong with Martin Sheen. There's something wrong with me. I simply don't know what Spanish people look like.
So what did I do? What any person would do. I googled "people from Spain" and found pictures of these people:
I was confused. If someone told me these people were American, I would believe them. But if someone told me these people were Spanish, I wouldn't. That's because before now, I thought Spanish people looked like this:
I've come to the realization that no mater how true you may think it is, a generalization is bad. Assuming a person looks, dresses, or sounds a certain way just because they speak a certain language is wrong.
Again, I apologize for this post having nothing to do with the Spanish language, but I felt that this was important nonetheless.
This blog post is about a person who passes, or can be mistaken for another race. Who is this person?
Martin Sheen, or Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, is an actor who is known for playing many famous roles. One role he played, has a very personal connection to me. In 1993, he portrayed confederate general Robert E. Lee in the war film Gettysburg.
I was confused. If Sheen is Spanish (he's a first generation American, with his mother being from Spain), why is he playing the leader of the Confederate Army? Why also, did he not look Spanish?
After a long time of reading and thought, I've come to an important and personal conclusion. There's nothing wrong with Martin Sheen. There's something wrong with me. I simply don't know what Spanish people look like.
So what did I do? What any person would do. I googled "people from Spain" and found pictures of these people:
I was confused. If someone told me these people were American, I would believe them. But if someone told me these people were Spanish, I wouldn't. That's because before now, I thought Spanish people looked like this:
I've come to the realization that no mater how true you may think it is, a generalization is bad. Assuming a person looks, dresses, or sounds a certain way just because they speak a certain language is wrong.
Again, I apologize for this post having nothing to do with the Spanish language, but I felt that this was important nonetheless.
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