but she never accepted that stereotype. so, as her senior project in high school, she pretended to be pregnant. she wanted to see how people treated pregnant teens. >> my mom was a big inspiration in doing my project because she was a teen mom as well. she got pregnant at 15 and my three older sisters are teen moms as well, they got pregnant at 16, 17, and 19 and one of my four brothers was a teen dad as well. >> throughout the 6 ½ months of her "pregnancy," only a select few knew it was a faked. rodriguez confronted students, teachers and community members, many of whom expressed anger at the promising high schooler for becoming pregnant. she received little if any support. (low audio) then during a school wide assembly, rodriguez presented her senior project on stereotypes, revealing her pregnancy had been a hoax. many of her school mates were shocked, but she was stunned by the overwhelming media attention. >> i think that this project was such a spark because it's something unique and it's something that definitely spar

and i guess nothing gets attention nowadays than stereotyping and playing up racial stereotypes. mission accomplished if that's what you want. i don't think that's a winning strategy either short-term to win the election, and long-term for the republican party to compete nationally in a country that is increasingly less white. >> you hit the nail on the head, and this brings the subject of larry mccarthy promoting mitt romney and the bug bow of this inherited many cases fear that democrats and liberals have of willie horton. here is the man who did the willie horton going to work for romney. is there any evidence that this stuff works any more. >> i think it works in republican parties. if it's going to work anywhere, that's where it works. nationally, or in a general election it works less and less. that's why we we're seeing less overt appeal to racism and bigotry and even the gay stuff it's amazing how quickly culture has moved from an area where it's okay to demonize gay people and now it's not. now it's seen as a political liability. now we see an situation where african-ame

went immediately to a knee jerk reaction, racial stereotyping and away we go. same sort of thing that people are afraid of happening with what? and these are nice additions to, van nap white for you. so the idea is that when we're talking about this we're not talking about an issue that's just about these two books. we're talking about an issue that has not gone away. sadly, one of the unique and terrible things about our hire tanl as americ-- heritage as ams in languaging is one of those places where weigh find out exactly how strong that bond still is. so i think i'm about done with these. do i see a hand? i thought i saw a hand for a

a knee jerk reaction, rags yal stereotyping, away we go, okay? same sort of thing that people are afraid of happening with what? >> "uncle tom's cabin." >> little vanna white for you. when we're talking about this, we're not talking about an issue that's about these two books. it's an issue that has not gone away. sadly one of the unique and sad things about our legacy, we have a racial intolerance that we are still experiencing today, however sad. language is one of those places where we find out how exactly that bond still is. i think i'm about done with these. i'm going to take these off. do i see a hand? please, go right ahead. >> >> i just want to make the point really quickly, was it concern? i completely disagree with kevin specifically because when we were talking -- >> from what point. >> i'm going to say that exactly. when we were talking about being in the library and not allowing the children to read certain books, i disagree poignantly because emmitt till was a child, malcolm x was a child. i'm sure as heck they heard the word nigger

it made the broadcast, the display of those stereotypes, really, really not legitimate. so here you have chubby checker who is doing the twist. he was popularizer of the dance craze the twist, ray charles and the supremes, and, you know, i just want to mention briefly that media was much more decentralized. media was much more independent. you can black-owned radio stations. you had independent radio stations. you had an alternative press, and so media was not as sort of corporate controlled as it is today. so this allowed for more perspectives on civil rights, more independent perspectives, both black and white, progressive, to get out there. just some quick looks at racial stereotypes, if you had grown up in the several rights movement this stuff would have been very common and even in the cartoons they don't show these anymore. these were some warner brothers and cartoons and others. racism was just part of the culture, children's literature. you remember james baldwin saying growing up it comes as a rude shock to be rooting against gary cooper against the indians and

>> but bar's right, there are a lot of myths about first ladies, and there's sort of a stereotype of everyone that you get stereotyped the minute you move in, that's it, doesn't matter what you do, that's your stereotype. >> even before you figuratively took the oath of office, i remember at the beginning of the second bush presidency, there was this consensus among some in the press, who obviously had never met you, that you represented the second coming of eisenhower. and first of all, let's be fair to mamie eisenhower. >> who's that an insult to, me or her? >> insult to you. [ laughter ] >> that was rhetorical. >> actually, mamie was as much an icon in the '50s as jackie was in the '60s. >> you're not old enough to know that. no, no. >> but you must at some level resent the presumptions, if nothing else, the intrusiveness. >> well, not really. i mean, look at all the things they said about george.

where's the student coming from an air crash in in further stereotyping about women's history.visit from their family heritage, their desire to get ahead, their sense of a feminist is ugly, i better not identify as one. i'm the only way to break down all of these theories is with her mad because it is exactly what people want to project does this image at the women's professor is a scary on a chart gave him off with an ax. so when i come in and i'm fairly cheerful and california girl and can talk about body surfing or whatever seems on and can talk about body surfing or whatever seems on and can talk about body surfing or whatever seems on and can talk about body surfing or whatever seems on some kind as humorless demon. then we talked about why those stereotypes exist. >> and finally, when revenge of the women's studies? >> i am so not a vengeful, by a person. >> well, when i first started thinking, i wanted to talk about all of these issues. why are students afraid of taking women's studies? vitae some faculty advisors discourage students or their parents say you shouldn't ta

problem and i really wanted her to stay in school so this was an example of a husband who had a stereotype about what goes on in a women's history class and i knocked myself out trying to win enough of his approval that he would not keep his wife out of class. that was in binghamton, new york, and a time when there was, as now, poverty and struggle. but a desire for education for many women. and, unfortunately, then as now, women's studies or women's history is seen as controversial to too many people. >> what is women's studies? >> well, women's studies, of course, is an effort to fill in the blanks of what we are not taught about in terms of how women have contributed to planet earth. and for the most part, women's contributions to history have been overlooked or trivialized or they're simply absent. we learn about the history of great men, the founding fathers. that's all considered the public side of history and women are seen as the private side. people are very respectful of what goes on in the family but what goes on in the family is private and sometimes it's not seen as important.

a great novel that excavates a lot of the different asian american stereotypes that we have in our society. it will make you laugh but it will also make you think about the ways in which we think about certain groups of people. we have to have those conversations with our children and these kind of conversations on your show and same kind of discourses in our classrooms so we can sensitize people to this insensitive language. >> thank you for joining us. i appreciate it. share your thoughts on twitter. we want to know what you think. coming up, the republicans war on women's health continues. a mostly male panel testifies to congress about contraception. sandra fluke was not allowed to testify. she is my exclusive guest next. and later, general motors posts a record profit and unemployment claims hit a four-year low. all good news for the economy. bad news for mitt romney. robert reich with the conversation. stay with us. we're right back.

do we treat asian-american stereotypes differently than others? my guest says, absolutely.conversation? minutes away. [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan was designed with near-perfect weight balance from front to back... and back to front. ♪ giving you exceptional control from left to right... and right to left. ♪ the cadillac cts. ♪ we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. >>> what to make of jeremy lin. his game is certainly dazzling. no one has a problem describing that. but his background? that has caused several gaffes already. the latest being this espn writer using a racial slur in a headline that read, quote quarterback blink in the armor after lin's team, the knicks, lost to new orleans and the headline was up and it was up for 35 minutes in the middle of the night. espn did take it down. the writer has been fired and they've been suspended for saying this specific phrase on air and jeremy lin, as well, has moved on. >> i don't think it was, you know, on purpose or whatever. but at the same time they apologized, so from my end i don't care an

a great novel that excavates a lot of the different asian american stereotypes that we have in our society. it will make you laugh but it will also make you think about

says he's ready to tackle another asian stereotype, becoming a ninja. and i have to be honest, he's well on his way. this is his training video to get on the show "american ninja warrior." it's a show going into its fourth season. it airs on g4. look at some of the feats of strength that yan is pulling off in this video. >> whoa. >> yes. there he is climbing the robe with no legs. watch, after he climbs it, he goes down and says i'll just go right back uch. >> now that's kind of impressive. but watch when he gets the whole way over to his right. he swings over to the yellow. but when he gets to the end of the yellow, see that little tiny slice, yeah, he's going to swing over to that. >> this makes my fingertips hurt. >> the fourth season of american ninja warrior is going to start airing in march. the preliminary rounds will be on g4 but the finals will be on nbc. basically, the show is in the same obstacle course. some guys don't even make it through the stages. so this guy, yan, is trying to get himself on the show. and if his demo reel here is any tr

color to the character, but their humanity was not explored, that you saw a flat, and realistic stereotype, i would go with you. -- on realistic -- unrealistic stereotype, i would go with you, but if your criticism is you do not want to see the made or you do not want to see denzel washington plays a rogue cop, i have issue with that. maxim is a man who is illiterate, and in the middle of the play, he says, i am having sex with another woman. i have impregnated her. tell this wife i have to raise this baby, and i am bringing it home to you, unapologetically, and we sit in that theater and scheerer, -- cheer. tavis: you are back to august wilson, and in the context of his body of work, there is a balance of character, of other upstanding, outstanding, celebratory african-american figures, so that violence is there. -- that balance is there. i am suggesting there is a lot of celebrating, but there is this ambivalence. you want them to win, and you are pulling for them, but there is something about this industry. it is not an indictment about the two of you. it is an indictment of the industr

where's the student coming from an air crash in in further stereotyping about women's history.visit from their family heritage, their desire to get ahead, their sense of a feminist is ugly, i better not identify as one. i'm the only way to break down all of these theories is with her mad because it is exactly what people want to project does this image at the women's professor is a scary on a chart gave him off with an ax. so when i come in and i'm fairly cheerful and california girl and can talk about body surfing or

some people say it perpetuates stereotypes. others at the very least say it's a start.r has today's "i am america". >> reporter: the new cbs show "rob" is a hit. loosely based on the real-life marriage of rob schneider to a latina. the show has been a top ten sitcom. >> in the show you meet your new wife's family and it's like oil and vinegar at the beginning. was it like that in real life? did you have to kind of really work? >> this was her idea. she said, you should have a family and meet and cbs liked the idea and shot it. >> reporter: in reality, his wife's family does not speak english and live in mexico. on the show, they live in america. >> i believe it's called guacamole. >> impressive. you know your stuff. >> reporter: but for many, rob's fish out of water humor lacks authenticity. >> i would give them a c. >> reporter: she has been reporting on the show and watching it closely. >> this is a big family because you're all catholic. the greatest concern, stereotypes from the overt to the more subtle. >> i can wait until we're spending time together, sharing our

now, every one, or a lot of people, seem to have this stereotypical image of the south. tara. with the plantation home, and the white columns and the live oak trees and the spanish moss. and you had hundreds, if not thousands of slaves out in the fields, toiling away. is that a myth? or is that a reality? again, let's look at the facts. we've got the 1860 united states census. there were nearly 400,,000 slave owners in the south and me owned about four million slaves. you do the math. what's the average? the average is 10.3 slaves per slave owner. so, hundreds of slaves, thousands of slaves, the arithmetic average is 10.3. listen to this, again, according to the 1860 u.s. census, 20% of all slave owners owned only one slave. 20%. 60% of all slave owners owned five or fewer slaves. 71% of the slave owners owned fewer than 10 slaves. 97% of the slave owners owned fewer than 50 slaves. 99% of all the slave owners owned fewer than 100 slaves. and there were only 15 -- 15 people, not percent, only 15 people in the entire south that owned 500 or more slaves. only 15. so i think we d

i mean, you have spike lee on twitter doing a one-man crash course on racial stereotyping., probing where exactly those lines are. so i think that -- as much as you have your floyd mayweathers and others out there, asking some of these questions, you know, you actually have a fairly fullty racial group ask very active african-american community really rallying behind this and trying to, you know, push this country forward around racial discourse. >> yes. phil and i asked this question of you as well. do you have anything to add? we had gotten into it here. >> no. i think that's exactly right. i agree with everything that -- that i think overall, the overall reaction to jeremy lin has been tremendously positive and so many people regardless of their race or ethnicity have latched on to his story. i think that it -- as with all industries, all walks of life in this country that the more asian american players we see in the nba and more sports we will start to figure out realizing some of the stereotypes are silly and that -- to -- to joke about them or to even believe in them

policy is being developed on the basis of a very... a superficial, stereotypical and unreal image of people in countries that are critical to the united states in its future, and critical for policy makers to understand better... to understand their aspirations and what they're really looking for in order to identify that common ground which means that together we can make solutions, whether they're latin american, northern american solutions, or they're that critical relationship between countries in the middle east and the united states. i don't know if i was very clear on that one. >> hinojosa: well, no, but i think what you're saying is that the human contact is so important, the understanding of humanity. and so, you know, again, you are such a symbol in so many ways, your majesty. so i'm sure that there are many people who would be surprised, or maybe have forgotten the fact that you became a muslim yourself. and so people are saying, "wait a second. the queen is a muslim, but she doesn't look like someone who i think, or have been told, or the image..." so for people who are w

there's a lot of stereotypes out there. he's breaking stereotypes. >> reporter: we learned after the game, kobe bryant said this about jeremy lin. kobe bryant said, players don't usually come out of nowhere. if you go back and take a look, his skill level was probably there from if beginning but no one ever noticed. it is a great story. it's a testament to perseverance and hard work. it's a good example to kids. that's from kobe bryant of the los angeles lakers. think of when the jeremy lin jerseys come out, that will be lin-sane. live in menlo park. >> they say jeremy lin came up with the linner-net. >>> let's turn things over for jeff. we have to come up with a fun name for you. >> i came up with jan-tober. we had impressive rainfall totals across the bay area, considering how weak this storm system was. moist in the lower levels. richmond, 12/100th. we're tracking a few areas of mist across the peninsula and into san francisco. that's what we'll continue to encounter over three to four hours. let's take you outside. and

when it comes to sexuality and stereotypes when it comes to race. but he made a broad sweeping generalization about the gop and its hypocrisy about sexuality. i think these stories should be looked at as individual circumstances and judged as individual circumstances. lz, by your own standard, i don't know how you apply a broad generalization to an entire party. i don't know how you can do that by your own standard. >> lz? >> well, i can give you a long list of examples but i don't know if we can take up don's show like that. we certainly have plenty of examples of both people in religious front as well as the political front who happen to be gop candidates who happen to be anti-gay or linked to anti-gay organizations and then we find out later that they are somehow either wrestlingle with sexual orientation or involved with these kind of flames -- >> i don't know what broader conclusion we're trying to reach with that. >> okay. will, listen, i get both your points, and i think that both of you do have a point to some extent on this issue, so we'll

and perhaps even organized crime know not to be a putin wants this stereotype to be to be quashed in the government must give you a small business and small businesses the support they need to be able to. know the birth rate has always been an issue in recent years in russia. again saying that we need to increase the birth rate especially in some reason regions very important to do that and in order to do that we have to be able to make sure that families can afford to have more children so there will be extra government funds made available for for mothers to have to encourage them to have a second child families to have a second child in some regions they'll be further payments made available for families and have say a third or fourth child those regions that have really serious demographic problems more higher birth rate more people being born they need somewhere to live another issue for me to discuss with housing he wants to make more social housing more state funded housing available to people but he also want to see more people get on the property ladder themselves people buy

frustrated greeks have been running in central athens once again to protest against ever more a stereotype being pushed upon them greece's cabinet has passed the final set of massive cuts you creditors demand in return for a one hundred thirty billion euro bailout which could now be cleared on monday but the rage of a league of population is still at the forefront of greek society jacob graves reports. system under siege m.p.'s drowned out the pleas of tens of thousands of demonstrators amassed within a short passing another round of unpopular cuts. the results proved incendiary. that you got the protests turned violent as protesters including fringe and a kiss clashed with police again leaving their mark on athens. a day on this is the remnants of public anger the glass isn't the only thing that's been broken as governments past increasingly unpopular austerity cuts people are being left asking who can they trust serve their interests the measures are very very tough part of the poor people especially and this is the reason that we feel. today i think more measures have been taken and the

such an important stereotype one that lives so long is when you say uncle tom, at least in the '60s and '70s, you were referring to a black person that no matter what white people did, you loved and worshipped them, even to the point of your own destruction. kind of a cole condemnation. >> i think that's somewhat inaccurate. >> realry? here we go. this is good. go for it. >> i understand that uncle tom and that the term uncle tom is to portray a black person. >> a docile black person. >> right. i get that. however, he still -- he wouldn't beat the other slaves even though legree wanted him to become more of a head slave in charge of the others, he wouldn't do it. and i think that he was submissive but not to the point of betraying his own people. so he still held to his beliefs. >> even if he was submissive to the point of not worrying about his own safety, he would not mistreat his own people. excellent point that he did have a good, moral center. >> i think the other gentlemen who was it, sambo? >> you're right, it was sambo. >> i would much rather be called an uncle tom than a sambo.

one of the things the bombing had to do was overcome negative stereotypes, he had to calm the fears of the nonblack. >> host: 202 is the area code if you'd like to talk with professor kennedy. >> host: dr. kennedy you write about affirmative action in barack obama positioning toward affirmative action. you say it is a dangerous land mine for him? >> sure it is. frankly, all racial controversy is a land mine for barack obama and that is why he tries to stay far away from racial controversy and affirmative action and is no different. to say is less as he could come as some people were very critical of in for avoiding ratio controversy. i am not. he is the electoral politician and has to be attentive to public opinion and he wants to stay away from issues that be an electoral losers 410 and avoid controversy there will be the electoral loser. >> talk about politics talk about the african-american and republicans allen west and tim scott and you write to race still matters african americans must overcome there blackness in the eyes of their supporters. >> guest: they must. one of the most

and these all seem to sort of play into the stereotype. this one being he was trying to explain that he is intensely focused on the middle class. but he said i'm not concerned about the very poor. the full context being because they have a safety net. some people would argue about that. especially given the greater numbers of the poor. gwen: people on both sides have argued about that, actually. >> but it is becoming troubling for republicans because this is now becoming part of the narrative about mitt romney, whether it's him offering to bet $10,000 to rick perry in the middle of the debate or him joking about being unemployed or saying that he had been, you know, he had been worrying about getting a pink slip at some point in his life and his problems with not releasing his tax returns. all this stuff is building into a stereotype, a narrative as well. gwen: if you're newt gingrich, even though you've been talking about the food stamp president for some time, you're now suddenly defending the poor. you're jumping on this. and he isn't g

>> that is what is called in politics playing to your negative stereotype.limbaugh is a good man and a wise man. he ought not have said that. that wasn't helpful to the republican cause. the worst thing you can do in american politics is play to negative stereotypes, and i hope he has your next diatribe on his show. >> doesn't bother me any. >> if this plays with the republican base -- >> this hatred of birth control. >> it shows -- this is the problem mitt romney is having. the republican primary base has moved so far to the right but it's also animated by a tremendous hatred of the left, of obama, and democrats. >> you always say that. democrats always say the republicans hate. >> that sounds like hatred of women. that's a weird kind of message. >> this is expanding it beyond obama to say democrats are aborting their own, democrats are immoral. they don't like women. women -- i don't like women. i don't know what he is even saying there but whatever he is one of the leaders of the right. >> he is challenging the right of a woman to decide who wants to get

being smart is a good stereotype. but is it a stereotype nonetheless? >> well, i mean, it doesn't hurt that the guy did go to a pretty good school. he went to harvard university. it's not as if it's not accurate on some level. i do think that when you look at the way that his career has played out, where team after team and individual after individual has sort of underestimated his physical abilities, there probably is a little bit of that, a sense in which he's looked at as many maybe a smart player but maybe not somebody who can run with the big boys. that is something that asian- american athletes in general have gotten tagged with, this idea that they have to bring brains to the table because they don't have the brawn or the raw talent. his brains in leader have played a big role. he's changed the nature of the team. he's gotten a lot of great shots for his teammates. they're playing better together than they ever have. they're hoping it will only get better when the big stars actually come back off the disabled list. >> suarez: he also seems to be