Background of the Study

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Every human being in this world has differences and similarities because God created human different one to another. For example in characteristics, races, sex, appearances, and so on. Each human has their uniqueness, especially with races. The problem of race in the modern world is essentially a social problem because it involves the relations of peoples, not merely as individuals in their interpersonal relations, but people as members of groups, which are differentiated because of both physical characteristic and cultural differences Frazier, 1957:31. Races are distinguished from this individual’s viewpoint. The only properties that count are the immediately visible ones: skin color, body hair, facial configuration Todorov in Back, 2000:64. McLemore also stated that races are sharply distinguishable from skin color, head shape, eye form, hair texture, and so on are biologically inherited 1980:83. In dealing with those differences, people have their own perspective. It can be positive and negative. It is a positive perspective if everyone can accept the differences and live peacefully with another human being. On the other hand it is negative if people cannot accept the differences and try to oppress each other. This attitude is often called as discrimination. Discrimination means treating some people differently than others or favoring one social group over another based on prejudice Hanes, 2007: 29. On the other words, discrimination is the unfair treatment of people simply because they are different from the dominant group in the society. Discrimination is the most common form of prejudicial expression. Based on the book Prejudice in the Modern World by Richard Hanes, prejudice is a negative attitude, emotion, or behavior toward individual based on prejudgment about those individuals with no prior knowledge or experience. Prejudice itself is actually far more than simply a negative attitude. It often involves action such as discrimination or violence. Actually, discrimination is not the same as prejudice; discrimination is an action or behavior whereas prejudice is an attitude. Prejudice can encourage discrimination and then discrimination may cause the prejudice. Hanes in Prejudice in the Modern World stated that, For example, discrimination driven by prejudice can lead to a group receiving fewer opportunities for education, jobs, and career advancement. These barriers to self improvement result in low morale and the development of few skills among members of the disadvantaged group. These results of discrimination can cause further prejudice and discrimination. It becomes a vicious, endless cycle 2007:69-70 Discrimination and prejudice are certainly related and often found existing simultaneously within in a group or individual. Discrimination may take many forms. Extreme forms of discrimination include genocide, the deliberate killing off of a racial, religious, political, or cultural group Hanes, 2007:72. It can be said from this quotation that discrimination also can cause the fatal result. In this case of Mexican citizen is no exception. In the book Race and Culture in the Modern World , Frazier stated that the race and culture frontiers which have grown up in Latin America may be divided into two groups: Mexico and Central America. In Mexico, racial mixture was so common that more than 90 of the 25.000.000 present inhabitants are of Spanish- Indian ancestry. The racial pattern becomes more complex in the other countries because of the presence of large numbers of Negroes, imported from West Indies 1957: 14-15. From this quotation it can be seen that many groups of different races dominated the number of citizen. According to Race Relations 3 rd Edition , the Mexican Americans are a most diverse ethnic group. On one hand, they are an indigenous people who were overpowered by white settlers and similar to the Native Americans Kitano 1985: 157. Their immigration from Mexico to the United States makes them one of the largest immigrant groups. Their immigration has included the temporary worker, the legal immigrant, and unknown number of illegal or can be mentioned as the undocumented. The Mexican Americans are a large and complex ethnic group, yet in the minds of the majority, there remains a simple stereotype of lazy, stoic peasant, or its opposite, a ruthless, and cruel bandito. From the quotation above we can understand that the stereotypes of Mexican American people are unpleasant people, and most of them are criminal. For this research the writer takes a play by Luis Valdez, Los Vendidos. Los Vendidos is a play about the condition of Mexican American from at first the Mexican came in the early 1910. In this brief play Valdez clearly explores white’s stereotypical images of Mexicans while also exposing those who willingly play stereotypical roles. Los Vendidos means those who sold out. Valdez did not agree with some people in his own culture selling out and forgetting their values and heritage and conforming to white society. www.docshare.com This study is going to analyze the types of discrimination in the play Los Vendidos , which experienced by the characters. Valdez used stereotypical models of Mexicans to make the secretary of Governor Regan, think that the odd behaviors of the models were appropriate. The models were: The Farm Worker. Johnny is a big city thug. The Revolucionario starts and participates in revolutions and other things of that nature; the last is Mexican-American. This play showed how Mexican people who lived in United States were discriminated by Mexican American. This is interesting to be analyzed because this play contains many forms of discrimination among Mexican in America. The writer attempts to analyze the stereotypical characters in this play then reveal the types of racial discrimination faced by Mexican American.

B. Problem Formulation