Bias: Stereotype and People

Stereotyping and discrimination are very deeply ingrained in American culture. Even though there have been movements taken to combat stereotyping and discrimination such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights movement, and the Black Lives Matter Movement, it still exists. This raises the question of, how do we end it? While there is no definite answer there is a way to avoid stereotyping and discrimination. The three essayists Bharati Mukherjee, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Brent Staples and show that by learning about stereotyping, people can also learn how to change themselves to avoid discrimination based on stereotypes. By comparing and contrasting these essayists experiences as well as outside research to show the theme of why people

She believes that stereotyping is driven by “our need for vast amounts of information in nanoseconds” (Ericsson 164). Using characteristics that may be true for some individuals, forms the basis of an opinion of all of a certain group. Stereotypes create divisions among people, by creating assumptions that are often deemed as fact. As Ericsson describes it, “They take a single tree and make it a landscape” (Ericsson 164). Stereotypes are overly broad and marginalize a group based on the characteristics of a few, that are often falsehoods for the

The first step to solving the problem is to admit that it exists. Many people hide in the sand by claiming that stereotyping ended with the increased globalization and the increased Awareness of diversity in the country. However, from the behaviors of people in the country, it is evident that stereotyping is alive and well. From this point, it will be possible to acknowledge the reasons around stereotypes and people will be able to observe their behaviors around people (Kay et al.,

According to many, “stereotypes” are outdated. As Americans, “everyone is equal and everything is fair”. However, digging deeper into the construction of society shows that this is a blatant lie: stereotypes are alive and well in modern-day life. Stereotypes appear in every aspect of society-from one’s gender to their sexual orientation to the color of their skin. The list is never-ending.

The news is here to inform the public about current events and issues around the world. However, each news station has its own bias towards certain events. Where some news stations are far left and others are far right, the viewers seem to be affected on both sides either way. Nonetheless, the viewers themselves are not completely innocent in this situation. The viewers will watch specific news stations to have their ideas or biases validated. People usually do not like to be challenged, especially after a hards day of work. This group of people consists of adults above the age of thirty. It would be nice to come home and have something to can agree with. The reasoning behind this, people tend to be more fond of news stations that gives them

Stereotyping leads to prejudice. If I am walking in a park and I see a group of people walking towards me (lets say all are white males) and they are dressed up and look very nice. I do not panic, now another group is walking towards me and now this group is all men (African Americans) and they are dressed and conduct themselves just the same as the first group, but I panicked with this group. Why because I stereotyped the second group and if I was prejudice no matter how they dressed or acted I would be afraid of them because they are black. I judge them based on skin color and not on individuality.

On a daily bases people make excuses for everything. Everything meaning our actions and the things that we say. Common things that we make excuse for deal with sexist, racist, and heterosexist comments. Sexist is classified as saying that one sex is better than the other. An example of this is someone calling a male or female something that they are not. I do not like this because we are all humans and deserve to be respected and not called something that is degrading. We all know that racist is downgrading one race compared to another. An example of this is, saying that all black people are loud and ghetto. We all act the same but some people do certain things different from others. That’s just there way of living. I do not think that just because one person acts one way the whole race does also. Heterosexist is defined as heterosexuality is better than all other expressions. An example of this would be talking about how a guy dresses and calling him gay. I do not agree with this as well because it is good to stand out and be your own person not matter how others see you.

Newspaper journalist shankar vedantam, in his article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance,” argues that stereotypes can affect how people perform on tests. He supports his claim by first explaining that when administered a vocab test black people would do worse than whites when administered a test from a white person and blacks would do just as good when given the test from a black person . He then explains that stereotypes affect peoples performances because they psychologically incap them. Vedantam’s purpose is to inform about how the stereotypes affect people and persuades you to put a stop to it. He adopts a serious and urgent tone

Throughout our American society, there have been topics, or more specifically, issues, that have been implemented in our lives. Whether it be poverty, economic issues, equality, and thus forth, there is one what has always been around for centuries, but has made a bigger impact is stereotyping. This in-particular topic has lead to a multitude of problems, such as social categorization, and the cause of prejudice. The stereotyping propaganda in the United States has caused more problems and attracted more attention than is truly needed.

What if I were to tell you that you that for the rest of your life, you would be unfairly judged, and possibly even discriminated against, based on false perceptions and ideas gathered from influences that only resemble you in the vaguest of ways, most likely being, skin color? And what if no matter how an individual person chooses to carry oneself, they will still commonly be regarded as a member of said misconceptions? Enter, stereotype: “A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.”(1)

I commend you for openly saying that you have such bias against that group of people. However, as a police officer, it is your responsibility to serve and protect the people. Meaning, you have to protect everyone regardless of their gender preference. You are on your way to acceptance because you have acknowledged the problem and you can do it. We have biases towards certain groups of people, race you name it. However, it takes a brave person to acknowledged

Racial stereotypes are ones that we hear a lot. We hear these stereotypes everywhere, in politics, on the streets, and many more places. Many times you hear that because you are a certain race, you should supposably act, talk, or do things a certain way. Also that races can do different things better than other races because of the way they look and are physically built. Additionally, certain races are known to do or eat different things, and if you are that certain race then your the way people perceive your race to be. In my survey a male 11th grader tells me about his encounter with a racial stereotype that was put on him. He said, “ People said that I sucked at sports because I was white so I stopped trying.” He continues telling me how he is stereotyped because of his race, since he is white he is perceived not to be good at sports. People stereotyped him as non-athletic because the stereotype they hear, that caucasian people are not good at sports. Even though there are many caucasian star athletes that are famous for being amazing at a sport, people still categorized him as non-athletic because he was white. This shows how people let stereotypes, they hear, create unreasonable assumptions and takes away the logic that there are races which maybe good at things that they are known for not being able to do or be good at. Even if there are caucasian people who are the best at a sport other caucasians will still be perceived as not being good enough to play sports because stereotypes have created a norm of how caucasian play sports. This once again shows how stereotypes are embedded in our way of thinking, that even with logic we can’t seem to stop stereotyping someone because of their race, the way they look, gender, and other

Devine (1989) argues that stereotypes are inevitable on the basis that stereotypes and prejudice coexist and that stereotyping occurs automatically. Devine attempts to prove this hypothesis in three experiments. Devine reasons that “as long as stereotypes exist, prejudice will follow.” This hypothesis is rooted in a correlation. Prejudice and stereotypes are related, however there is no clear evidence of causality; Knowledge of a stereotype does not mean an individual agrees with it.

The results from STEP are noteworthy not only because they complement the literature of successfully conquering stereotype threat, but also because it goes beyond the act of simply informing individuals on the phenomenon. Interestingly and in contrast of the two-pronged approach, the mere knowledge of the phenomenon of stereotype threat can negatively impact the performance

Bias and stereotyping can both be harmful for self-esteem and the developmental process in children. Bias is not only harmful for the target group since it lowers the self-esteem, but the group who feels superiority over the other is also harmed. The feeling of being superior disconnects a person from reality. Too much of self-esteem reduces the appreciation of others and may even slow down progress for the beholder. Stereotyping creates preconceived notions in the minds of children and adults due to which they fail to see others for what they actually are and rather judge them on the basis of information that is misguided and obsolete. Stereotyping results in developing strong perspectives of people who are different and causes prejudice.