Institutional Influence

In the first chapter of The Latino Threat, Leo Chavez discusses the reinforcing of racial stereotypes by the way Mexican immigrants are represented in magazines. As I was reading this, it took me back to the "Couple in a Cage" video we watched nearer to the beginning of the semester. While we were watching this video, I kept thinking how the people viewing the couple were so influenced by the fact that the couple were being presented by a museum or other seemingly trustworthy institution. The information, however ludicrous it may have been, was taken as must-be fact solely because of its source. We saw this in Between the World and Me, when Coates talks about Prince Jones and his death, and the history of police violence in that county. Coates tells us about the official statements made by the police, and we can replace that scene in our minds with countless press conferences that we have seen on television, chronicling the police's version of the violence that we have witnessed in recent times. Most people take these for truth and fact simply because the police, a seemingly trustworthy institution, are the ones making the statement. This blind trust of institutions, be it police, museums, or magazines, has proven in each of these cases to be possibly very dangerous. We forget that even if the words we hear or read come under the official letterhead of a reputable source, the words themselves are written by people, people who do not live in a politically isolated bubble, who have different experiences and prejudices, and who may or may not have ulterior motives in including or leaving out certain pieces of the puzzle. If we are to move forward as a nation, we must learn to take everything--even information from seemingly trustworthy institutions--with a grain of salt.