African American Stereotypes
Ivory Marvin
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific types of individuals. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. African Americans have been perceived to be someone they are not in the media, history, and in everyday life. Although some stereotypes are true, many are harmful and inaccurate.
African American stereotypes are generalizations about the behavior of African Americans originated mainly in American culture and derived from how slave owners used to view slaves. African American stereotypes allow someone from getting to know a person their self. If someone has one bad interaction with an African American, they will limit their
…show more content…
The age range for college-going males is generally 18 to 24, not the 18 to 55 (and up) range of the jail and prison population. Viewed this way, the ratio of black men in college compared with jail and prison is 4-to-1.
Black slang is a form of informal spoken language whose origins are most often associated with African Americas. Slang is a way for young African Americans to express themselves. Many other races copy their expressions because they think it is cool. Some commonly used terms are words such as; gangsta, bling, grills, hang, hood, benjamins, dopes, aight, holla, crib, playa, roll up, straight, yo, and shawty.
The Stereotype that Black women have bad attitudes is very common. In fact, it’s been around so long that it has earned the name, Angry Black Women Syndrome. Do Black women have attitudes? My guess is that most black women would fall into the unique personality type. That is a person characterized as quiet, determined, independent, serious, and interested in trying to better her self. “The idea that Black women are a species of neck rolling, lip smacking, finger snapping, ball busting sub-humans come from? People, who have no contact with Black women outside of retail shopping, see Black women going off on their husbands, boyfriends, kids, co-workers, even bosses with no constraint, remorse, or respect for authority and societal norms on sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, news clips and even commercials. “
Making assumptions about others is what stereotypes people. Saying that all blacks are evil is like saying that all Mexicans are lazy and came into America illegally or that all Arabs or Muslims are terrorists. These stereotypes are very untrue and make the next generation of kids afraid to socialize with these people just because of these labels that are given to them. It also blocks people off from being able to learn and appreciate differences.
According to their website, “Racial stereotypes are automatic and exaggerated mental pictures that we hold about all members of a particular racial group. When we stereotype people based on race, we don’t take into account individual differences. Because our racial stereotypes are so rigid, we tend to ignore or discard any information that is not consistent with the stereotype that we have developed about the racial group” (University Counseling Center 1). America does a great job keeping up the blacks are dangerous racial stereotypes. But the real question is how someone can develop a racial stereotype? According to Notre Dame Counseling Center, “We develop our racial stereotypes in a variety of ways. On a very simple level, it’s human nature to categorize people. It’s our way of making a complex world simpler. From an early age, we learn to place people and objects into categories. However, when we’re very young, we tend to put less of an emphasis on attributing values to these categories. As we grow older and are influenced by parents, peers, and the media, our tendency to label different racial groups as superior/good or inferior/bad increases significantly. Additionally, the less contact we have with a particular racial group, the more likely we are to have negative feelings about the group. Any negative experiences that we have
Throughout the years, racial stereotypes have played a major role in society. Even today, one combines racial stereotypes and prejudice thoughts before one even says a word to the person. Just seeing an African- American man while in a parking lot and pulling out ones phone, can be a simple example of modern-day racial stereotypes.
Even more evidence of the racial stereotypes that is given to African American people is evident in Native Son, when it was stated that all black men want to do is go out and rape white women, (Wright page 351 ). This places a stereotype upon us that is ultimately hard to escape from, with people running from you without even taking the chance to get to know you and you having to prove yourself to them from a distance, even though deep down you know you will never be good enough to please them. While most forms of racial stereotypes follow in the fashion of others judging you because of the rumors they hear, it also comes in the form of them using very invective language towards you. As seen by Richard Wright on page 337, all of the white people were calling Bigger racial names and racial slurs in an attempt to try and dehumanize him from all other humans so that way they feel better for the horrible way that they were treating
Stereotypes are something that you could very well see everyday. They aren't always true, but they are brought from truth. To say that all white boys can’t play basketball is a stereotype. Which means that typically that might be true, but it most definitely does not include everyone. If you ask me they are something that we need to get rid of,but we never will. Because it is in human nature to prejudge someone when you first see them. To assume certain things about people based on what they look like.
African Americans can be considered as the most stereotyped group in the modern and the historical United States. Criminals, “mammies” (a loud, brash mother figure), the “sidekick”, and maids/butlers are common stereotypes portrayed
Stereotypes are a form of prejudice everyone will once experience in their lifetime. Stereotypes are centered around an individual's race, gender, social class, religion, and age. They have been known to be elements people use to make judgments and subjectify people to one key feature. As Gordon Allport states, “ To state the matter technically, a noun abstracts from a concrete reality some one features and assembles different concrete realities only with respect to this one feature”(364). Mr.Allport’s words can be summed up to say stereotypes have been used as key fundamentals to associate one feature or aspect of a person with a group that represents it, typically in an unfavorable way.
When I first heard someone say, “All African American people are Ghetto,” I was very offended that someone would make this type of assumption about my culture, and I thought how ignorant this person must be; but then I stopped and wondered why other people would think this about us. I asked her why she would say something like this, and she instantly listed shows like Tosh.O and Chelsea Lately, which highlight my culture in a negative view. It was clear to me that she had made up her mind about black people through watching the media and seeing African Americans fulfill that stereotype in person. This led me to question: Where exactly do these stereotypes come from?
These stereotypes are very disadvantaging to the African American race because they are putting out messages that you have to look a certain way to be attractive.
As we all know, African Americans did not originate from the United States. We were abducted from our homeland and brought here on slave ships by the hundreds. Before we were taken we were living a sustainable lifestyle that fit our basic needs. We ate fruits, vegetables, and meat from game that we hunted and gathered from the land. We also used herbs and natural remedies to cure us of our ailments instead of prescribed medication and radiation treatments. Today, many African Americans face countless health issues such as diabetes, asthma, HIV/aids, high blood pressure, obesity, and the list goes on. Many of these health issues come from the lack of education of our past, where we reside, and many stereotypes that are embedded in us in society.
Stereotypes seem to be very present in our country, especially stereotypes towards African-Americans. For the longest time, like it has been instilled as a fact in my brain, black people have been directly related to the words “ghetto” or “hood”. I don’t remember a time where I actually can remember the words “ghetto” or “hood” without the picture in my mind of an African-American person. I think that this is a big problem in today’s society because it is not true but still seems to be taught. In politics, society, and everyday life, it feels like African-American’s are being slammed for being hoodlums. This is a problem because there are millions of African-American people who do not fit this stereotype, but still get degraded and treated badly because of this age old belief.
In my graduating class, there were seven girls: four Arabs, one Somali, one Bengali, and myself, an African American who also has Ethiopian heritage. While in high school, I continuously dealt with a majority of my classmates, as well as some teachers, making remarks that I considered to be racially offensive and made me quite uncomfortable.
Throughout the world, society habitually puts every group into multiple categories. Those groups can vary from gender, to race, to religion, while those categories can fluctuate from what society believes each group is supposed to act by. This method is often referred to as stereotyping, which is a widely held label that each particular group follows in society’s eyes. Though many groups in society have stereotypes, the African American race has numerous. Though the way of living for African Americans have changed throughout time, the stereotypes from the past still haunt us today. Based off of societies stereotypes of the African American race, commonly known as “blacks”, each subgroup of this race reacts differently toward the stereotypes.
In today’s society it has become a norm to make assumptions of an individual and categorize them into groups that fit them. This would be known as stereotyping, and it occurs everyday and almost everywhere. It can affect someone’s everyday life along with their emotions. A stereotype is a widely held idea or image of a a group of people and is based off of some truth, while misconceptions are based off no evidence at all. Stereotypes can either be positive or negative. Stereotypes exist because that’s how the human brain functions, they see something that repeats within a group of people and that’s how stereotyping begins. An example of a positive stereotype would be that African-Americans are very athletic. However, there can be some negative
For many years African Americans have been judged and stereotype based on their appearance. African American women have been stereotyped as women that are angry, loud, argumentative, entitled, and hypersexual. More simply, people tend to associate African American women with negative stereotypes. Although women experience stereotypes women that have lighter skin tend to have more privileges. Women with light skin tend to be more attractive, sophisticated, and successful.