Fight Stereotypes With by Throwing Away Your Culture

Lucio: Reading the play "Trying to Find Chinatown" by David Hwang made me think of when there comes a time when we may be stereotyped because of our gender, race or nationality; the first thing we do is trigger our defensive mechanisms, but what if they say is true; I can imagine it now, I'm prepared to defend myself when my opponent say "I bet you like fried chicken", and right before I attack, I see the crispy, golden and juicy piece of chicken and I end up say "Yep I love fried chicken".

Malcolm X: You clearly don't understand why you should fight against stereotypes whether if it's true, false, good or bad. Lets look at the Asian stereotype of intelligence, at first glance you would think it's not so bad when someone thinks you are or expects you to be intelligent, but how would you feel that they only have that assumption because of your skin colors and not because of your hard work. It is as if you are put in a box and categorized because of your genetic predisposition and not your true worth. So ask yourself would you like your opponent to believe that you like fried chicken because your taste buds demand it of because your the color of your skin demands it.

Lucio: Oh that's a completely a wonderful perspective on the matter. It induces thought on how we stereotype on so many things other than just race; lets take sports for example, I love basketball but even in that there are many stereotypes. Take a look at this video to see what I'm talking about:

Malcolm X: Remember one thing, do not let the stereotypes of others make you mask or defend against who you truly are. Whether it is mannerism, types of food or beliefs all these are building blocks of each man's culture and you should never be ashamed of it. Just like Benjamin the Caucasian boy in the play adopted by Asian parents, believed that one should not hide from their  roots or assimilate into another country by forsaking the culture that made them who they are.