Last week, Mayte Lara posted a picture on Twitter and everyone went crazy. For those that have no idea who she is, do not panic! I am here to tell you. Mayte Lara is a high school graduate.
What's so special about her ? Well, she was the valedictorian at her high school, she had a 4.5 GPA, she is Mexican, oh and she is undocumented. She also was awarded a full ride to the University of Texas. People everywhere were shocked and surprised when they began to hear about her. When I went on Facebook and saw her picture all over my newsfeed, I was happy and proud. Mayte, to me, at that moment, was an example of the American dream for the Latinos. As a child of immigrants, I know my parents left their country and family, so their kids can have better opportunities in life. I also know that most children of immigrants want to make their parents proud and will do their best to graduate from high school and attend a four-year college.
Yet, for an undocumented student, I know it is more difficult because they are not as privileged as a child born in the United States, like me. So, when I heard about Mayte Lara, I was very proud of her accomplishment. For her to break the silence must have taken lots of courage, especially since there are political figures and individuals who dislike undocumented people and wish for them to get deported. I'm sure Mayte knew that by posting that picture on Twitter she would have people congratulating her and some people who, unfortunately, were going to be mean and say harmful comments. However, no one really pictured that a Fox sports reporter would make a racist remark on live broadcast.
Emily Austeen, a Fox sports reporter, said (on barstool sports), " I didn't even know Mexicans were that smart," and when she said that, none of the people who were around her bothered to correct her. Instead, they joined in and agreed with her. One guy even said, "if you steal one scholarship, whatever, I'll have plenty of Mexicans redo my kitchen for cheap," while the others laughed.
Yet, right when Emily Austeen realized that she had said something racist, she tried fixing it ,but things only got worse. First, she insulted a Mexican girl and Mexicans by viewing every Mexican as people who are not capable of pursuing a higher education. Then, she stereotyped Chinese people. She said, "you guys know that the Chinese guy is always the smartest guy in math class." Stereotyping an ethnicity is completely wrong. You cannot assume that a person is good or bad at certain things just because of their ethnicity. However, she never apologized for stereotyping Chinese people. Yet, she did apologize for saying something messed up about Mexicans, but she should have also apologized to the Chinese individuals.
After saying hateful things about Mexicans, Emily Austeen got fired from her job and she no longer works at Fox Sports. However, firing someone does not really make much of an impact.
People like Emily Austeen need to educate themselves and get educated. They need to realize that stereotyping people is not OK and making racist remarks is rude and just simply not OK. Emily Austeen was a reminder to the POC (people of color) community that nothing has changed. We are in 2016, and people are still making racist comments, even when individuals try telling us that racism stopped existing. I hope the awful comments made by Emily Austeen will help individuals realize that the things that they might say can be harmful to people.
