It isn't as if all the movies are created with the same worldview in mind, the directors are usually very independent of each other; nonetheless, stereotypes are stereotypes, quite simply, because more often than not that is exactly how the majority of the people being categorized act and behave in the real world.  It is not a bad thing to generalize, it allows you to get a basic understandings of a peoples collective capabilities; it only becomes a bad thing when you leave no room for deviation, if one were to say that South Americans were capable only of cooking, cleaning and stealing with ZERO chance at learning any other crafts then it becomes a problem. If you specify the group you're talking about, generalizations can be a good thing if they ring true.  Is it bad to say Ethiopia is starving, even though the rich are living in lavish excess? Not at all. It is again a generalization. Exactly generalization is a basic principle of statistics, and a basic and completely natural human instinct, we have to thank it for our survival...    The sad thing is that most people don't understand a thing about this, and this ignorance is used by the powers that be, by the elites of the world (and no, they're not necessarily Jews, although we can't hide that they are overrepresented for that matter) to use people for they selfish economic agenda, they teach bad statistics and bad generalizations, breaking stereotypes using the masquerade of benevolence, tolerance, etc...     If you have a bag with 100 apples, 3 are green, 3 are rotten, and 94 are red, you can safely generalize that you have a bag of red apples, you don't say you have a bag of rotten apples, or green apples... that's common sense!    What the elites do is cherry pick the 3 green apples, showcase them and put them all over the place using religion/media/government/intimidation, so they can convince people that they have a bag with green apples, or that all the apples are equal...:rolleyes:     Chaos:   I remember when I visited Charleston SC for the first time, I kept asking where the city was, until the tour guide, annoyed, told me We are in the city. No tall buildings like I am used to. I have been in a total of 5 countries in Latin America, Panama, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Guatemala, Venezuela (I have been to Puerto Rico too but I am not counting that), and I have seen modern cities, with all the amenities that you could expect from a Western city. I don't deny that, I've seen what you say to some extent myself, but you'll probably are talking about the best side of the cities and the places of interest, but have you gone to Caracas, Medellin, Bogotá, or even better some of the towns or minor cities in Central/South America and got into a bus, the ones that the regular people, the locals, take for doing their everyday chores? try touring like that, and you'll see a totally different reality, you'll see what the average person sees every day, try going to the places outside the tourist route, outside the fancy malls, and not around the 5 star hotels and airports...    It's still debatable the part of all the amenities from a western city, not in a particular specific case but I'm talking overall, as I explain in this post above with the apples example, overall Central-South America is a corrupt crime ridden jungle slum. Again I'm not saying that there are not places like you describe but they are not a representative portion of the whole picture.       Panama, in particular has a lot of jungle, most of it is forest preserves to protect the Panama Canal watershed. But for a 3 million people country, it has 2 nice metropolis, several small cities, and several city-resorts that are certainly 5 star. Colombia is beautifully cultivated land, the DR, is very nice too, Venezuela was the least nice of all four. When I visit the US, I normally go to the midwest, with barns, corn fields, one movie theater per town, and very few things to do, but I will not judge the whole USA just because of those towns. Exactly, this is the point seeing the proportions of the stuff, I would like to point out that in some cases you can not even equate apparently similar scenarios, for example would you say that the quality of life, the level of education (not necessarily formal education or title holders, I'll develop into this later), etc... of a small town in the so called Western World (Europe, North America, Australia, and to some extent even Japan) is the same as in a town with the same apparent characteristics in Central/South America? Africa? the middle east? Asia? Oceania?        First, both Latin and Hispanic have dictionary definitions meaning people from Latin America. Even the Royal Spanish Language Academy, in Spain says so. So sorry, you can go blue in the face and not change that. Certainly a product of the custom and simple convenience, from an educated point of view: Latin is said of European peoples that developed a language based on the vulgar Latin and their ancestral languages during and after the Roman Empire, or in specific terms: Portuguese, Spanish (Aragonese, Castillian, Leonese, Galician, etc..), French, Italians, Romanians, etc...    Hispanic, are the peoples of Hispania, Hispania is how the Romans called the Iberian Peninsula, so Hispanic are Portuguese, Spanish and Basques. ;)      Well, hopefully not rock listening, I do not like rock myself, there is way better music than rock. But, depending on the country, you will find a sizeable portion of professionals. In terms of education, you will find white countries, like Spain, below some Latin countries, and Portugal below some others.   Panama is one of those above Spain. What do you like? Salsa? Merengue? Regaeton? Cha-Cha-Cha? Cumbia? Vallenato? :D seriously, I'm curious!  I like rock myself! I dislike all the above, but that's my opinion, that's my taste, in the same way that disliking rock is your opinion and your taste and we're both entitled to it.    And here's where I'm developing on the education topic I left hanging in a reply above...    From first hand experience, I can tell that government statistics are biased, they try to make themselves look good, period. The reality is another though.    I've seen countries in Central/South America brag about having literacy percentages above many countries in Europe, the reality is that they simply grant elementary/high school diplomas compulsorily to people that if measured by European education standards would not even deserve the literate qualification.    I'm not only talking about the lowest education levels, even at professional levels you see people that don't deserve the titles they hold, and could have their asses handed by an average European high schooler...    In Venezuela for example I would dare to say that 80%+ of the population with a high school diploma simply don't deserve it, are basically virtual illiterates that can read and write, they decode the script but can't really understand what they are reading, the can grab a pencil a draw words and sentences with the script but can't really express the ideas in their heads using the grammar, vocabulary, punctuation... that for me is a virtual illiterate...    I would say that 80%+ of the people with an university diploma, barely know only the strictly necessary to do their daily work in their chosen career, again don't deserve the titles they hold.    I would say that about 75% have failed a year or a subject during their school time.    From what I've seen from other countries in the region the situation isn't that much different...     Average years of schooling of adults (most recent) by country  ironically Venezuela is above Portugal in this list, are those years counting the years that Venezuelans have to repeat because they failed? is this list considering that a Portuguese with incomplete elementary school is more proficient than the average Venezuelan professional?    Does this count that the average Portuguese farmer knows more about general culture and the state of affairs of the world around them than the average Venezuelan university title holder?    Does this count that the average cost for an Engineering career in Venezuela's school system is about 400? and in Portugal the same title involves an investment of 60.000?     It depends on the region. In Florida, they would be Cuban, in NY, it would be Puerto Rican. why? because they represent the local majority, if we talk about the country majority of the central/south American minority? that would be?   In my country gringo means a person from the United States, no matter the race, that is, there are black gringoes. let's see: blanco, europeo, griego, catire, rubio, etc... I'm sure there's at least one umbrella term for white people in Panamá. And yes, I do speak Spanish, ;) Again, never watched the show. Was the prison supposed to be in Sona? That is a peaceful little town here. And yes, you definitely do not want to go to prison here. It's a nice series, filled with suspense, surprises and plots, if you like Burn Notice, Dexter and the like, you'll probably like this one too, the 1st season is the best, in my opinion, the other seasons seem that they pushed the plot too much... but well... If I recall correctly it goes on in Panamá during the 2nd or 3rd season, and yes the Prison is called Sona, so I assume it was in the town with the same name, most certainly there isn't even a prison there in the real world :P    And no one would want to go to prison anywhere in South/Central America for that matter... :eek:  The Americans that came here as GI joes while you had bases here were pretty much what you guys call hicks. And they followed suit dating and marrying our own version of hicks, the cholitas.  what  Americans  would call hicks, I'm not American, I'm Portuguese. ;)  Spaniards, Italians and Greeks came in a wave in the early 1900s as uneducated manual workers, the Spaniards that came in the 50s, again, uneducated manual workers, or clerks. How would you say that these European uneducated manual workers or clerks did in Panama, overall?  What we now receive are basically retirees that want to enjoy a stable, modern and pretty country.   Most of our doctors and engineers have good jobs and businesses here. Very few seek to emigrate. Most of your doctors and engineers cannot work here because of green card restrictions. funny how things are... if Central/South American workers were forbidden work in the western world for green card restrictions, can you just imagine the rioting and the calls for racism, and whatever?     But in real life, people do not deal with groups, they deal with individuals. Generalizations are good when they are the absolute ONLY thing that you are able to learn about an individual.  I disagree, in real life we deal both with groups and individuals...  if you were in a dark alley, came to a fork in the road and had to choose a path to get to the safety of your home... now both paths are the same distance and exactly the same in any other aspect, but this one: one path is filled with a bunch of blacks and the other with a bunch of whites, both groups are the same size, have the same cloths, smell, the same apparent attitude, etc.... which path would you choose and why?? :D  if black and white don't work for you, feel free to change them for something with the same effect, for me being white black works as absolute oposite, and white work as a comfort zone of a group with which I identify, I'd like to see what works for you and what your answer is, and the same for the original statement, and why... if it's not much trouble... :P      Generalizations can leave you in a state like a fort with only half the wall built. You have your protective generalizations, all blacks are rapists, all hispanics are thieves, and your defenseless generalizations, all whites are good people. When I was 18, I found myself in the blackest ghetto in Panama city with an empty gas tank (no warning light back then) in the middle of the night. Four blacks approached my car, pushed it to the nearest gas station, laughing at me all the way because I looked scared. Two years later my family lost one thousand dollars to a distinguished old-family white man on a hospital-share scam, which could have been avoided with a bit more research.   My point is give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but never enough to risk anything of value, no matter the race. People normally react well to trust. are you sure the white scammer wasn't really a Jew? :rofl  Now seriously, the point is what you say but never enough to risk anything of value if you know by statistics, by stereotypes (that is another form of based generalization), that blacks are more likely to rape you, in a situation where you can't make sure by individualization, would you honestly risk it?    You probably have found exceptions to the rule, probably because they are exception is why you found them anyway.  Do you think that these anecdotal cases are the rule or exception? if you had to bet a million dollars that you'll encounter 10 more cases like these during the remaining of your lifetime, what would you do?     He means that when its said that its commonly associated with being a white word. As if whites are the only ones who say it.   I have a black friend named Taylor (who is a civilized human being not a n*gger, but unfortunately a liberal) and sometimes when were hanging out during school he jokes saying things like  ya dumb naggers!! at his other negro friends, and of course when they aren't paying attention I get the first look until they realize who is next to me.   -.-....Just because im white doesnt mean im going to go around shouting that word like some uncivilized neanderthal. I only use it to describe ghetto ass, loud obnoxious people. Exactly, not all blacks are n!gg3rs, not all Jews are greedy scammers, not all Asians are good at maths, not all mestizos are thieves and not all whites are sheep...    But a majority of them indeed are, that's why these stereotypes exist, and it's not wrong nor unhealthy to use them like we're constantly told.    As a matter of fact if we embraced these stereotypes and differences and took the measures to create solutions we all could live more happily and the elite masters would be doomed...     We do have a culture, we rape lands and peoples, we enslave non-whites and we be awwayz keepin' a brotha down.....  Seriously though, the white race is now and allways have been the supirior race, only rivaled by the mongoloid race(asians). The white antis that are programed into guilt help those who would wipe us all out, to their own end. As long as one white is alive the white race and our very diverse culture will survive.  Personally I have no desire to see my race, White, or any races culture dissapear from this planet, well there is one race we could do with out;) This kind of attitude although I understand and find completely natural, it's not helpful, at least while there are so many people with a chip in their shoulder and easily offended...    it's normal that anyone think that their group/family/race is the best/superior to the others, the big problem is that we have come to a point where if you're white you're not allowed to feel pride, you're not entitled to self determination.    For the civil antis that come here, you'll see that White Nationalists disagree in almost everything except that our ethnicity also has a right for self determination and for a living space of our own, it's about freedom of choice and freedom of association, not hate.    I believe every race on earth is entitled to that, and that is the only real way of preserving the human biodiversity in this planet, and the real diversity.    Multiculturalism, miscegenation and globalism are the path to the contrary: a homogeneous world with no association to land nor kind that only live for consumerism, that's what the elites want, that's the best scenario for their economic interests.    Sorry for the long post... :D