Download e-book for kindle: Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, Law, and the American by Steven W. Bender

Although the beginning of the time period “greaser” is debated, its derogatory which means by no means has been. From silent videos like The Greaser’s Revenge (1914) and The woman and the Greaser (1913) with villainous identify characters, to John Steinbeck's portrayals of Latinos as lazy, drunken, and shiftless in his 1935 novel Tortilla Flat, to similar to violent, felony, drug-using gang contributors of East l. a., unfavorable stereotypes of Latinos/as were considerable in American pop culture some distance prior to Latinos/as turned the main populous minority team within the U.S.

In Greasers and Gringos, Steven W. Bender examines and surveys those stereotypes and their evolution, paying shut realization to the position of mass media of their perpetuation. targeting the intersection among stereotypes and the legislation, Bender finds how those damaging pictures have contributed considerably to the usually unfair remedy of Latino/as below American legislation through the yank felony approach. He appears on the manner demeaning structures of Latinos/as impact their felony remedy through police, prosecutors, juries, lecturers, citizens, and vigilantes. He additionally indicates how, by means of internalizing unfavorable social pictures, Latinos/as and different subordinated teams view themselves and every different as inferior.

Although battling opposed to cultural stereotypes could be a daunting job, Bender reminds us that, whereas challenging to wreck, they don't have to be everlasting. Greasers and Gringos starts off the cost of debunking current stereotypes and implores all american citizens to re-imagine Latinos/as as felony and social equals.