Donut Identify Me With My Weird Blog Theme

I have always heard that high school is a good time to find your identity. However, similarly to Hester's situation, a high schooler does not simply find his or her own identity, but is instead branded with one. I’ve noticed that many times, people are known more by an activity that they participate in or an event that impacted their life than their name. Unfortunately, I am a hypocrite in this case.

        I don’t go to football games. Maybe it’s because I’m scared of that mono-infested donkey head or whatever animal it is, or maybe because I can’t see over anyone’s head in the student section of the bleachers. I am possibly the most ignorant student in all of Troy High when it comes to football; I can only faintly tell you how it works and what its objective is. In a school of 1.4 thousand people, it is easy for me to be completely unfamiliar with Troy High’s football and the people involved in it, while still maintaining a (pitiful) social life. Someone could give me name of a football player, and I’d just blink and stare back. However, if he or she said “Number 99? Neon-pink-spandex-shorts-for-spirit-week dude?” I’d automatically be able to envision the face of the person—forever pink spandex football dude number 99 instead of his name, Austin Mahoney. There is so much more to Mr. Mahoney that I will never know about, but he will never be able to escape the identity that I hypothetically branded him with.

        Maybe Mr. Mahoney will one day go to college in Austria and create a new path for himself, but he must not forget that high school is just a microcosm of the “real world”. Unless he beats society to its own game, the cycle will repeat, and Mr. Mahoney will be branded once again.

You do you, Austin Mahoney. 

“Donut Stereotype: They’re All Demeaning and Offensive”

As the daughter of two Asian immigrant parents, I am no stranger to stereotypes. I've probably heard them all--short, bad driver, smarter than average. For years, I've told myself that I would defy these stereotypes—maybe not the short part, but “I will be a wonderful driver, thank you very much.” However, the more that I think about it, the more that I realize that I am not ashamed to fall into every single Asian stereotype. 

(I don't know martial arts, but I wish I did).

Stereotypes were not created out of thin air—they are stereotypes because they are common. Do all Canadians have a fiery passion for hockey? No, but a lot of them do. Are all Caucasian girls clad in a long Northface parka and Uggs in the winter time? No, but a lot of them are. We create our own stereotypes—people did not originally jump to conclusions about a certain group of people to shame them, but instead to speak what they know and what they have observed. I’m not saying that it is acceptable to stereotype. However, I am saying that it is inevitable. Everybody does, and everybody will, the difference in it being conscious or subconscious. How the certain groups of people react to the stereotypes are what causes the dramatics. It is not uncommon to see these kinds of posts that joke about the actions of the “basic white girl”. Conversely, if an article was posted about the actions of the “basic black girl”, the “basic Indian girl”, etc., the internet would explode. One article is classified as a list of humorous stereotypes, but the others are classified as just flat-out racist. If a filmmaker portrays a new Asian immigrant with broken English and a bowl of rice for lunch, it is considered an offensive and racist stereotype. However, if the filmmaker instead portrays the new immigrant with perfect English and a slice of lasagna for lunch, it is still considered offensive and racist because the filmmaker tried so hard to defy the stereotypes that he made it seem like the Asian culture is inferior. All in all, there is no way to win with stereotypes, but there is also no way to avoid it.