How Stereotypes Define Us?

A "stereotype" is a social perception of an individual in terms of group membership or physical attributes. Stereotypes are generalizations made about a group and then attributed to all members of that group.

In this world there are many things people are guilty of, one of those guilt’s is stereotyping others , even if it wasn’t meant in a harmful are negative way we all have been a victim or the aggressor . This paper will discuses what stereotypes are, how they affect people and how stereotypes can affect society. However, the common factor in either situation is that no good comes from stereotyping others.

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)

The US is home to people of many different ethnicities and backgrounds. I define race as how society portrays humans in categories. For instance, when the US government asks citizens to identify themselves, the options include American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or White*. This causes the media to portray stereotypes which is where society learns from (and associates with) how people of different races look like, thus creating the mould of how certain people should look based on their race.*** Racism in my perspective is seeing each category as unequal therefore treating them unfairly. Because of how strongly society portrays others, I used to portray others in the

According to ABC News, “Some chimpanzees attack chimps that are of the same species, but not a part of their group. And some fish attack their own kind simply because they weren't hatched in the same lake” (Stossel and Kendal). It makes sense that an animal would use its instincts to stereotype in order to survive, but humans have no excuse. Stereotypes have become a major part of society’s culture and communities. Although stereotypes help us to perceive and distinguish different aspects of life, they have quickly turned into judgements, discrimination, and even intoleration. Humans acquire and master stereotypes through conversation,interactions, and most of all through media that surrounds society. Mass media has become an outlet for entertainment or information, but recently information humans get from media can be biased, distorted, inflated, or misguided, otherwise known as fake news. Fake news plays off of people’s opinions,

Of the two automatic processing I relate strongly to stereotypes than I do attitudes, but however I watch how people interact with their environments. There is many reason why people will stay them use stereotypes for engaging and that is due to social media, which includes News broadcast, Facebook, Radio, and etc. These are also the major reason why we still have racism today. They pump subliminal messages to us every day in all shapes and forms. When I do use my attitude to engage in a person, it’s sometime felt with a gut feeling regardless of the persons color, ethicist or gender.

You're walking in the halls, it's your first day at a new school, everyone is staring at you and you wonder what they are thinking? How they feel about you? Will you fit in? You remember coming from a school where you were always bullied because if what you wore, but what are you supposed to do about the fact that your parents don't earn as much as other families, so your parents can't afford to buy you the new Jordans. You hope and pray that this school is much different and that you may actually have friends this year. Half way through the day you hear whispers and laughter behind you, when you turn around you see a group of girls making fun of you. You turn back around and walk away with your head down, after all you should be used

Stereotypes are all over the world, each group is called by name, that doesn't really fit to everyone in that group. Stereotypes affect people’s social lives, emotions, and how people communicate with their surroundings because of how they feel of what they’ve said of them. Mostly every person is stereotyped of how they look but never on how they are because they have never met the specific person.

Stereotypes are by definition a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person. Stereotypes can apply to other things as well but I will focus on the stereotypes seen in society. As we have seen in “To Kill a Mockingbird”, stereotypes have been present throughout history. However, it seems that even though stereotypes usually carry negative effects on people with their presence, they have lingered with us for some strange reason.

The world has always ranked lifestyles. what do I mean by this you may ask. Well ,since the beginning of time the world has never been starved of leaders, because frankly everyone wants to be in control. Most leaders we have start from a very young age. however, other human beings always have to put others down whether its emotionally, logically, or physically. The world isn’t improving because we are constantly ranking our leaders and followers under the labels ; rich, poor, and average. These labels have an extremely high power over people.

Stereotypes can be defined as viewing an entire group of people in a generalized way, and they impact our society in many ways (Stereotype). For example, in an interview with Guy Raz from NPR, Jamila Lyiscott says, “You have this lens where you're looking at yourself through the lens of other people the way that they're looking at you” (Staff). This evidence reveals support for the definition of a stereotype by showing how others viewed her because of outward appearance; however, Lyiscott should not look at herself through the lens of others because in the end their opinion doesn't matter. This also shows that stereotypes affect society by the amount of confidence a person has after being judged solely on the way they look, and the feeling that they need to change to please others. Without a doubt, stereotypes affect society in many ways just like they affected Jamila Lyiscott's life.

Barbara Kruger, an American conceptual artist, once said “All violence is the illustration of a pathetic stereotype” (All). Stereotypes are at the basis of every dispute, argument, or violence we as people are quick to judge other people even if we have never got to know the person we’re criticizing. If stereotypes continue we will become a world with separated groups of people that are at war with each other.

James A. Forbes once said “When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind, and spirit, their ability to asses and understand people accurately is comprised” (James). This quote speaks a lot about what stereotypes are and how they affect people in our society today. People are judged by their outer appearance and not by how smart they are or how big there heart is. Stereotypes impact different people in many distinctive and various ways in our world today.

Do we suffer from having stereotypes about and against us? Of course, we’ve all had those experiences where we were held up to a certain standard based on our culture and race. It puts labels about how a person should act or live according to their sex, race, personality, and other factors. This could influence individuals who like different things or do different activities, but feel ashamed of doing so because of stereotypes. We should learn not to judge and perceive people because of what we think they should be like, and should change our point of view about the stereotypes that are in our society. In the end, self perception is the only thing that can make or break us.

I think that we should get to know someone before we discriminate on them because they could actually be a nice person. Stereotypes are judgmental people that can be negative to society because if they are discriminating a person, it could affect that person and everyone around them. Everyone can be a stereotype, even if they are not trying to be. We all use stereotypes, all the time, without knowing it. We have met the enemy of equality, and the enemy is us.