You Are What You Drive...

The sun was beating its penetrating rays down onto our scantily-clothed bodies, as if to remind the people of The Dalles that wearing less doesn't really keep the sweat at bay. We were meandering along the busy sidewalk, just sipping our iced teas and trying to enjoy the pleasures that accompany the hot July afternoon when I began to wonder if my little sister and her friend were even coherent to the world around us. 

"Oh my god! That is such a beaner car!"

"No it's not! It's a ricer car!"

As my sister and her buddy battle out their bizarre argument, I look to my left and watch the little tricked out Honda drive past us with music blaring in all directions. 

"It's a beaner car if it's visually pimped. It's a ricer car if it's loaded under the hood." 

What the hell does that have to do with beaner and ricer? As their banter comes to a close, I start wondering how much a car symbolizes a person in our society. 

We constantly are exposed to commercials that proclaim "You're a manly man if you drive this Ford pick-up." "You're a sexy individual if you're caught in a Bentley." Why though? Is a person seriously a hick if they pull up in a beat up Chevy? At first glance, ninety percent of most people would probably go with their first impression and agree with society in saying yes, that person is a hick. But then, why don't we ever leave it open to the driver to decide if the car expresses who they are? That person in the "Ricky Bobby" truck could very well be the hick we're thinking of, but on the same hand, the driver could be a broke college student, receiving a hand-me-down set of wheels. 

When I look back to the "beaner" and the "ricer" idea, it seems almost racist. Who are we to categorize a culture through the way a vehicle is decorated? When my sister and her friend declared their branding of the car, it was almost in a tone of disgust. Implying that this kind of a car is undesirable and trash like, thus making the "beaner" and "ricer" reference of Mexicans and Japanese degrading and insulting. The person driving the "beaner" car could, in all actuality, be a Caucasian female that has kids at latch key; she just happens to like huge spoilers, spinning wheels and hydraulics; doesn't mean we need to classify that type of a car as one that Mexicans would drive.  Just on the flip side, a hispanic person could love to drive something completely different and more conservative. Thus, making one type of a car represent a minority of people, pointless; we all have different tastes. 

 I grew up out in the country, with horses and muddy roads, and yet, I own a little red Toyota Celica. I wasn't going for practicality, I just liked the way it looked and how it made me feel. When I first purchased the car, everyone was shocked; they were expecting me to come home with a little pick-up truck. The truck would have suited their overall assumption that they had of me, but the truck wasn't who I was. Every person has their own taste, their own way of expressing themselves, but just because I have a little red Celica, doesn't mean I'm not a country girl too. 

I guess when people see expensive cars, they're automatically going to assume the person is rich and when a Hummer is out in the parking lot, one would see someone like Arnold stepping out of it with a gun slung over his shoulder. These assumptions all tie back into our society and how we are exposed to media and how we were raised. It's up to us to decide whether to actually presume that since that little Honda is all tricked out, it obviously must belong to a hispanic individual. But when it actually comes down to it, would you still holler out "What a beaner car!" if it drove past you and your friends?