Passport photosb

Kumar opens her article by introducing us to the wonderful world of passport "books;" and describes how many immigrants are read strictly through the information printed on their passports. In a sense, we judge the "person" by the passport; just like the term 'judging a book by its cover,' we judge who and what a person is by where they are from and what language they speak. As we progress through the article there are more and more articulations of this, by way of how we group people (generalizations) and how we percieve them (socioeconomic status, language, etc.) She also expresses the view that we do not only make assumptions about these people, but that we hold them to certain standards or expectations, and that we discriminate them based off of what we initially percieve them to be. Especially in the excerpts that she places within the text is this point drawn out (ie the Guns N Roses lyrics). Her view seems to be that from their first steps off the plane all the way up until they have become fully "americanized" they are stereotyped by their skin color and speach. Her claims lie in the outright actions and words of 'real' Americans, as well as the sublties which give away our stereotypes.