African-Americans and Puerto Ricans, for instance, have a long history of racial tensions. The other maids celebrate Marissa's promotion by doing an improbable dance of joy to show her success is a success for all of them -- in real life, they might be happy for her, but maid work is hard work that doesn't leave a lot of energy for dancing on the job. It is only one step above cleaning people's houses for a living and only better because there is a place to go up and a chance for advancement at a hotel while there is no place to go when working in a private home. But it still involves cleaning the toilets and scrubbing the floors.
Marissa is very intelligent, as pointed out to her by the butler who quit when she got fired. He gives her a little speech in which he says, "To serve people takes dignity and intelligence." He goes on to explain, "They are only people with money and we are not their servants because we serve them," indicating that class is more than one's occupation. He can say that because he isn't Puerto Rican or an immigrant. Marissa has class in the sense that she is honest, attractive, hard working, intelligent, well-spoken, polite, etc. But as she tells Chris during the break-up scene, "Half the time I'm some stereotype they're making fun of; the other half of the time, I'm just invisible," indicating that she experiences discrimination. This came out clearly in an early scene, too, when the white clerk at the dry cleaners ignores her. When Marissa comes behind the counter to speak to her, she orders, "Step away! Away! Away!"
Later, she says, "Get out -- out!" She would never say that to a person she didn't consider marginalized. It expresses, too, the attitude of mainstream America toward marginalized people -- they don't want them around. Marissa's Puero Rican mother understands this and is alarmed by her daughter's relationship with an upper class person: "You want to end up back in the projects? Keep dreaming dreams that will never happen."
Alleyne (2005) states, "...understanding the complexity...
55). Obviously, the clerk at the dry cleaning counter hadn't learned this, which is rather ironic since as a clerk, she probably doesn't earn quite as much money as Marissa does as a maid. A clerk has a little more status, however -- she doesn't have to clean up after people, or wear a uniform, to earn the money.
Ethnicity and culture are treated in the film as though they aren't very important in the larger scheme of things. The message is that the rich treat the poor who serve them as though they weren't really human beings. They are there only to serve them, and getting to know them as individuals with cultural backgrounds, habits, values, problems, and victories is just "not done." The story implies that if people did get to know each other, there wouldn't be the separation, and sometimes the rich could learn from the poor. But where would Marissa and Chris send their children to church? What would Chris think the first time he got beans and rice with tortilla and fried plantain for dinner?
When he met Marissa's mother who believes her daughter has no right to go out with a man who is "rich, and white..." what would be their impact on each other? If they clashed, what would be the impact on the relationship? How would Chris teach Ty to succeed in the white man's world? Would Marissa approve?
References
Alleyne, S. (2005). Zoning in on cultural differences. Black Enterprise, 35 (9), 55.
Koehler, R. (2002). Maid in Manhattan. Variety, 389 (4), 40-41.
Noh, D. (2003). Maid in Manhattan. Film Journal International, 106 (1), 43-44.
Puerto Rican Americans web site: (www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Puerto-Rican-Americans.html).
Rozen, L. And Gliatto, T. (2002). Screen (Picks & Pans). People Weekly, 58 (26), 35-36.
Schickel, R. (2002). Maid in Manhattan. Time, 160 (26), 71.
