5 Examples of Racial Stereotypes in Sherman Alexie's "Flight Patterns" Still Used Toda

1. The way one talks is determinant of what or who they are.

This is most evident in William’s initial encounter with the taxi driver, Fekadu, when he classifies his accent as “a colonial cocktail of American English, formal British, and French sibilants added to a base of what must have been North Africa.” Is anyone else struggling to hear what that would sound like or just me? If you can hear it, congratulations you’ve trained your hearing to be racially aware, whatever that means.

2. Native Americans make property values go down.

While they’re driving William makes an internal mockery, that’s half funny and half racist, about his neighborhood and his own race, joking that “They were the very first Indian family to ever move into a neighborhood and bring up the property values!” So, you’re telling me that people actually spend time trying to show that there is a correlation between the two? Wow. All of a sudden I’m feeling much better about myself.

3. Black males are all violent.

At one point in the story William notices that Fekadu has a scar. His initial impression? “A black man with a violent history.” He does, however, quickly point out the issue with this and forces himself to “immediately reprimanded himself for racially profiling the driver.” And they say that women are quick to jump to conclusions, sheesh.

4. All black people are black American.

Even though Fekadu is from Ethiopia he tells William that “People think I’m black American. They always want to hip-hop rap to me.” If you don’t know by now that not every black person “hip-hop raps,” now you know, there might still be some hope for you after all!

5. Black people are drug addicts.

Fekadu says, “Because people think I’m black, they don’t see me as a terrorist, only as a crackhead addict on welfare.” There are so many things wrong with this sentence. If you can’t see that, then the sentence is not the problem.