Why You Gotta Be Like That?

In which the author explores issues of ethnic stereotypes…

    Somehow the experience of white water rafting escaped my attention until a few years ago when I decided it was now or never.  I found a business online that rented rafts or canoes to go down the Delaware River, no experience and more importantly, no helmet required.  The Kittakenny Outfitters carried a van load of people to the site for launching and it was during this ride that I noticed our fellow adventurers were German and Japanese.

     The people running the van had forgotten the equipment needed to inflate the rafts so we were left on the banks of the river for awhile, time I used to observe the foreigners.   The uniformly blond German family was dressed in matching outfits with special boating shoes. They efficiently used the down time to practice their canoeing strokes. Eins! Zwei! Eins! Zwei! Their synchronization and uniformity had an unfortunate militaristic style to it. Yikes! Let us see what the Japanese are up to.

     This was a family of five, each with their own camera.  This predated the selfie craze and every conceivable configuration of poses was taken for almost the entire time we were waiting. Of course I ended up taking a few pictures of the rather charming family and was thanked with smiles, bows and halting English.

    [Here I would like to digress briefly to comment on the navigational style of the captain of our raft, Mr. Darcy.  He piloted the air-filled vehicle just like his beloved pick-up on the parkway.  That is, it involved tailgating, weaving in and out and attempting to pass others on the right or left.  I pointed out that his exhortations to me to paddle faster were pointless, as other rafts drifted by, piloted by folks who appeared to be asleep, inebriated or as Mr. Darcy put it: “dead, if they’re lucky, in this heat.”]

     My own family has people descending from Ireland, Africa, Puerto Rico, Sicily and the Cherokee Nation.  It is, however, open enrollment season and as we are currently low on Asian/Pacific Islanders and Jews, applications are now being accepted.  

     Our Sicilian member is one person who cannot talk without using her hands, a trait shared with my close friend Therese, also of Italian descent. To give background to these phenomena I will share that I once watched a sad documentary on the abuse of deaf children by the clergy, and voiceovers were provided for the deaf.  The locale shifted to Italy and I wondered why the “translation” was not a voiceover, but subtitled.  It turned out the speakers were not deaf, only Italian but were energetically waving their arms and hands around in the air as if using sign language.

      Some Italian women of my acquaintance have been known to sit on their hands to prevent them from waving around, or wear “reminder” strings to help quiet the errant appendages.  This has proved futile and they gave up, as it is out of their control.

     Why do some stereotypes persist and others don’t?  All of the African-Americans I am related to or close friends with work two jobs, or have one job and go to school also.  None of them can play basketball. (Okay, maybe one guy and I’m talkin’ to you “J-Dawg”.) On the other hand, most people I know of Italian descent are good cooks and many keep beautiful gardens. And none of them are gangsters!   

     One thing that surprises me is how quickly our newest Americans pick up the common prejudices of the native born.  A landlady was Filipina and  overjoyed to meet moi, a potential white tenant.  Here is how she broke it down: South Americans okay, except Columbians. Central Americans not okay, except Costa Ricans, maybe.  Cubans okay, Puerto Ricans not so much.   Haitians in general a better bet than Jamaicans. African Americans had to meet strict requirements and pay an extra month’s security. How would an immigrant collect all these ideas so quickly?

     A Dominican neighbor complained to me about the noise from the Corcoran Marble establishment.  She speculated that they were so noisy because they were probably Irish, and drinking on the job.  I pointed out to her that the place was noisy because they were cutting marble, and all those bicycles parked outside the place probably did not belong to members of the Hibernian Society.

     Prejudice is a double edged sword and there seem to be more positive expectations than negative. Being a good singer, dancer, athlete, business person, cook, writer or scientist are traits assigned to different groups and are talents many of us would be happy to possess. Nobody wants to be known as a drunkard, cheat or violence-prone lazy person. Endless opportunities exist to prove or refute the common beliefs especially in such as culturally diverse area as Long Island. I will never tire of observing my fellow Islanders and telling their stories.