American Poetry
The story “How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl or halfie)” by Junot Diaz focuses on the stereotypes of the common girls on the basis of their social class, race, and ethnicity. There’s always an impact of the stereotypes on the human’s behavior and actions, and here in this story, the main character Yunior treats women on the basis of these stereotypes regarding a girl’s class and to which ethnic group she belongs to. His decisions are completely dependent on these perceptions and thoughts. There exists a subjective idea offered by the author regarding the issue. He tells how women tend to respond to what’s said to them and how they react in any specific situation.
He also proposes pretentious examples where he had to act in a certain way for the achievement of the goal such as needing a false identity. The author doesn’t like black women as he thinks they treat him bad and think inferior of the Dominicans. He believes that a local girl may not be quick in being physical, no matter how tempting and attractive she might be. And about a white girl he says, “Don’t stop a white girl as she might just give it up right then. Taking her gum out of her mouth, she’ll stick it to the plastic sofa covers and then get closer to you” (Diaz, 152). Thus, he believes that the black, brown or halfies are not as morally ignorant as whites. He thinks that the white girls belong to wealthy families, and are always dropped by their mothers or fathers. The story emphasizes on hiding one’s race and ethnicity so that the date can go smooth. “Run a hand through your hair like the White boys do even though the only thing that runs easily through your hair is Africa” (Diaz, 145).
Yunior is a guy who doesn’t have control over his sexual desires. Even though he loved Magda, he spent nights with other women. He wants to renew his relationship with Magda but doesn’t succeed. This is because his words and actions oppose each other. He isn’t sorry for what he did, rather, justifies his deception by saying that it was merely a fling and something that wasn’t controllable. Cassandra, the other woman, was all over him, how could he resist? Yunior isn’t a proud or an egoist male character but a guy who needs his desires met. He doesn’t know the true essence of the relationship. That’s why he argues that it isn’t something to get angry about or made a fuss of. He calls Magda’s friends “sorest losers” since they advised her to take the trip and never talk to him again. “All of Magda’s friends say I deceived her because I was Dominican, that all us Dominican men are dogs and aren’t trustable” (Diaz, p.18).
Even his friends admit that the relationship isn’t going to work out. “My boys were like, Fuck her, don’t sweat that bitch, but every time I tried, I couldn’t pull it off. I was into Magda for real” (Diaz, p.7). However, Yunior feels like an optimist and wants to give his relationship another chance which doesn’t work at the end. Magda is right on her stance that someone whose words and actions don’t go together, must not be trusted again. It’s absolute nonsense to trust such a person. Yunior has gotten used to fulfill his desires this way, and he can never be honest with Magda as she wants him to be. And hence, this is how Yunior lost her.
Works Cited
Díaz, Junot. This is how you lose her. Penguin, 2013.
