Padilla-Law 1

Mikenna Padilla – Law

Preciado

English 5-6

10/20/23

American Stereotypes

Stereotypes are the unrealistic expectations, painful standards, and fallacies set in stone in

the American mind from ignorance. Stereotypes affect everyone based on ethnicity, race, class,

beauty, and culture. Stereotypes are detrimental for one’s personal identity, which causes

damage to one’s self-image, confuses one’s place in society, and discourages authenticity for

Americans.

Stereotypes make hurtful untrue assumptions that distort one’s view of themselves.

Someone who demonstrates this best is Emmy Award winner, America Ferrera. In her TED Talk

“My Identity Is a Superpower”, Ferrera speaks about her journey of finding success as a Latina

actress despite the stereotypes stacked against her. As a child, Ferrera’s dreams of being an actor

were fueled by the American belief that anyone can do anything, although she would soon learn

the system that she was entering did not honor that belief. Ferrera grew upset from her repetitive

rejections, and the only roles she was offered only depicted common stereotypes of Latinos.

Ferrera felt that in order to make any headway in her career she needed to “overcome all the

things that people said were wrong with me” (Ferrera 4:35). The expectations set by these

stereotypes for Latino Americans, created new unnecessary insecurities for Ferrera. These

obstacles continued to haunt Ferrera for years, even in her most successful points in her career.

Ferrera expressed her “deep shame that I couldn’t overcome the obstacles” (Ferrera 10:31).

Those exposed to the stereotypes that they are compared to feel a type of guilt for not complying
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with what is expected of them. A stereotype that harms one’s self-image holds back their ability

to discover who they are because stereotypes are built to shame self-discovery.

Trying to find one’s true place in society is an expected struggle one goes through in life,

although stereotypes make this natural process confusing and disorienting. If there is a certain

way that one must be, act, or appear according to stereotypes; then it obscures where one

believes they genuinely belong. Imma Achilike demonstrates this confusion in her short story

“Why Couldn’t I Have Been Named Ashley”. Achilike describes her experience of having a

unique name. In school, Achilike attributed having a stereotypical common American name to

popularity and she “figured that I wasn’t popular because of my weird name” (Achilike 2).

Achilike felt out of place when her name was butchered and laughed at. Achilike grew jealous of

other children with common names because their name was recognized in society. Achelike

displays her hurt when she describes her experience of never finding her name written on items

like other children, and that “every year I searched through and rummaged around that rack at

the store, but I could never find a pencil with my name on it” (Achilike 6). Stereotypes (even as

simple as a stereotypical name) hurt not only those intrenched in the stereotype, but also those

outside of it. Stereotypes provide a false sense of place in society and confuse those who desire a

different place.

Not fitting one’s stereotype, is met with more push back to fit what is easy for people to

assume. Ferrera learned in her experience with stereotypes that she needed to “resist the truth of

who I am” (12:57) and that in itself her “identity was an obstacle I had to overcome” (4:11).

Stereotypes discourage authenticity because they are built to determine who one is without

consideration. Finding one’s identity becomes increasingly more difficult when more stereotypes
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are introduced in America, a country that claims to support those who are themselves, but

shames those who actually are themselves.

To find one’s identity one must ignore the societal assumptions that stereotypes uphold.

Stereotypes are the blatant lack of effort to understand one another. Rejecting the habit of

stereotyping for not just the American individual, but for the country as a whole is essential to

genuinely find identity.

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Works Cited

Achilike, Imma. “Why Couldn’t I Have Been Named Ashley?”. SpringBoard English Textual

Power, Naaman Forest High School Garland, Texas.

Ferrera, America. “My Identity Is a Superpower -- Not an Obstacle | America Ferrera.” YouTube,

21 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjquHTj4HlY.