Latin America is not a "slum"

Today I encountered something that cannot go untold. Unfortunately I don't own a news program or have a spot on the radio, so I will use the only stage I know of: my old blog. The original purpose of this blog was purely for my study abroad, but I see no reason as to why it can not be reconditioned now. I will do my best to start posting more often if nothing more than for personal reasons

Buuuut back to what happened today...
Due to poor planning, I am currently enrolled in a Geography course geared towards Freshmen and Sophomores  While the class is terribly dry and useless  I have no one to blame except myself since I did not take it earlier in my college career. With the class, I'm required to attend a discussion with 20 other students and a TA maybe 2 years older than me. I can excuse them for the lack of depth in their topics, but I refuse to accept what I witnessed today.

After a short and pointless discussion about some articles in my discussion course, we shifted the topic to Latin America. I did my best to have low expectations, and I tried to keep my mouth shut since I was the only senior in the course, and by the end of 2013, I will have a degree in this very topic. However, it proved to be an impossible goal due to the overwhelming amount of ignorance escaping from the man at the front of the room's mouth. He starts the discussion by asking the class what knowledge they have on cities in Latin America. When I sheepishly state that they are growing economic powers in the world economy, my brilliant TA shifts the conversation to social classes in LA. I have no problem with this idea because clearly, we do not have sufficient time to discuss each country in the region, and we must cover something so that way OU can continue to drain my bank account. The TA then states in the most moronic phrase I have heard in my college career "Latin American capitols are surrounded by large slums. The center of these large cities is an area of great wealth, but they are surrounded by undeveloped slums..." I kid you not. My blood starts boiling, but the buffoon continues to spill crass stereotypes until I loudly interrupt him to inform him of his numerous errors. My argument was as follows:

1. The generalization is completely false. For example, Santiago and Montevideo have almost no "slums."
2. You cannot paint all of Latin America with one broad brush. Nothing in Tijuana is like Buenos Aires. Trying to do so is nothing short of ignorant and inexcusable.
3. His exact same argument can be applied to the United States. Ex. Oklahoma City and Chicago.

The entire class just sat there in silence. Instead of delivering, the TA made his wisest decision of his life and rescinded his statement. This exchange only took 10 minutes, but it was long enough for me to want to write the head of his department. You see, this man was placed in a role of authority. The students in that class arrived under a large veil of ignorance and do not understand the world. They do not know that Latin America is actually a gorgeous, growing, and safe place in the world. All they hear is a vague stereotype of a massive part of the world that discourages any interest unless they want to "save" the locals. 

Before this "lecture," I did not plan on attending this course outside of the dates of exams, but now I guarantee I will be sitting in the front row every class ready to act as a large annoying car alarm every time my idiotic TA even thinks about generalizing a part of the world because we as an institution are better than that.