Theory for Beginners talks about several ideas, all of which are related to stereopyes. In my opinion, Michael Ryan, author of this reading, does a very good job of pointing out several stereotypes that many people do not recognize. What I liked most about the stereotypes Ryan pointed out were the global identity of them. He did not just pick on one community, like, Americans, for instance. The way Ryan writes leads me to believe he does NOT agree with these but that could just be his way of getting a rise out of his audience. I truly like the way he makes the readers mind work, he truly gets the gears in my head going and thinking about these streotypes. In a few paragraphs he talks about 9/11and how people of the United States think of Middle Easterners. He talks about George W. Bush and a speech he gave after the attack on the World Trade Center. During this speech the president talked as if the only terrorists in the world are middle easterners and because of this we the people of the united states have began to think of terrorist as only middle easterners and middle easterners as terrorists. This is something that stuck out like a red flag in this reading. I could not agree more with him.
The shooting in Colorado during the new Batman movie was a very terroristic event, yet no one sees it that way. In fact, a few days after the shooting I saw a picture online that said, "If I were Arab, the shooting would be terrorism. If I were black, I'd be a thug. But Im white, so its mental illness." I believe this directly relates to the point Ryan is trying to convey, that is, that we allow the media to set these stereotyical standards into our minds like a branding. Ryan is trying to convice his audience to do their own research on matters and not allow your local news station or CNN make your mind up for you. A LOT of what we see in our news is embellished to be more interesting.
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