Fobs Vs. Twinkies: Article Analysis

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During his inaugural address on January 12, 1971, Jimmy Carter said, “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.” It has been forty-five years since that quote, and racial discrimination still has not come to an end. There are many different examples of racial discrimination, such as discrimination within single race communities, or discrimination consisting of one race against another. The articles “FOBs vs Twinkies” by Grace Hsiang and “Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples portray both of these examples of racial discrimination. “FOB’s vs Twinkies” addresses the intraracial discrimination that occurs within Asian-American communities and the difficulties that result from this. “Black Men and …show more content…

For example, both authors tell stories and give examples of racial discrimination that is partially caused by stereotyping based on clothing, or looks, and both articles were posted in magazines for an audience of 18-30 year olds. In Grace Hsiang’s “FOB’s vs Twinkies” regarding Asian discrimination, she says, “I 've heard ethnocentric Asians speak with disgust about Asians who wear Abercrombie and Fitch (which is viewed as the ultimate “white” brand), or make fun of those who don 't know their parents’ language” (343). In this article, Asian’s discriminate against other Asian’s based on the brand of clothing that they wear, regarding them as being “too white”. This is similar to the discrimination that Brent Staples personally received and writes about in his “Black Men and Public Space” where he states, “To her, the youngish black man-a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket- seemed menacingly close” (346). In this article, the young woman discriminated against Staples because of what he was wearing and how he looked. Hsiang and Staples may be writing about two different instances regarding different races, however, in both stories the discrimination is caused because of what the victim of this stereotyping was