If you could choose to be apart of a group or discourse, what would you choose to be? Would you choose to be apart of another race? In "Goin' Gangsta, Chosin' Cholita," teenagers talk about how they have chosen to change their identity, or rather, their image, but, in reality, these teens are white. My question is, though, that if discourse heavily relies upon being recognized as a specific discourse, are these teens really apart of these discourses.
For instance in the movie, "Save the Last Dance," the main character, Sara, moves to New York to live with her father, and attends a prodominately African American school. As the movie progresses, she starts to hang out more often with African American teenagers who act, speak, and dress in an urban fashion. The more she hangs out with them, and relates to them, she begins to pick up some of their speach, action, and dress patterns. Even so, when she starts to date an African American guy, her guise does not hold true to some of the other African American characters who feel she should not date him because she is white.
The issue here is that the other characters would not accept her as being "Black." Although she could dress like them, speak like them, attend their school and clubs, and later even dance like them, she was still white in their eyes. Her progression into Urban Society, though shows how one's environment can affect the discourse that a person chooses. Surrounded by African Americans, she chose to try and fit in even though she never lost her true identity.
Ergo, are the teens in "Goin' Gangsta, Chosin' Cholita" ever really gansta or cholita? Personally, I don't think so because these discorses are related to specific groups within races. Instead, I think that these teens have created a different discourse all together.