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Essay On African American Stereotypes

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Because the United States of America is so diverse, it is bound to have stereotypes due to all of the different cultures and ethnicities. According to Learner’s Dictionary, a stereotype is an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic. I personally view stereotypes as judging a book by its cover because I do not fit many of the stereotypes for my race. The most common stereotypes are food related. I observed different food stores to look at the foods and determine which foods are stereotypical to a certain ethnicity. My observation took place at Kroger’s grocery store and Dollar General. I found more stereotypical foods at Kroger’s than Dollar General. At Dollar General, I saw a box of spaghetti pasta with a picture of an …show more content…

Italians are mostly known for spaghetti and meatballs so I found it to be sort of a cliché for an Italian family to be on the front of the box. Italians are not the only ethnicity that have stereotypes, African Americans does also. They are portrayed as having a love for fried chicken, watermelon, cornbread, grape soda, Kool-Aid etc. and I saw all of these items as I was walking down the aisles in Kroger’s. This is definitely a stereotype because I know African Americans who do not like watermelon nor grape soda. I personally do not drink Kool-Aid. I also saw a box of Aunt Jemima butter milk pancake mix and a bag of Quakers smooth and creamy grits. These are not only stereotypical for African Americans, but for people who live in the south also. The stereotype is that all southern people love to eat grits anytime of the day; and that Aunt Jemima is the only pancake mix they use. Because Caucasians are the most prominent race in America, stereotypes develop slowly for them, but there are some, nonetheless. One of the most common stereotype is that Caucasians are known for making

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