preview

Racial Stereotypes And Racial Discrimination

Good Essays

It is common knowledge that the topic of race is being examined all over the world. Frequently, more efforts are made through formation of policies, enactment of laws, and abolition of practices to obliterate racial discrimination. The pace of success of this endeavor is being delayed by the media because the media constantly portrays race in an inappropriate and derogatory manner. A race as described by Yolanda. T. Moses is a group of people who share similar and unique characteristics, while racial stereotypes are automatic and mental pictures held about all members of a particular social group. When people are stereotyped racially, they do not take into account individual differences .The media’s poor understanding of the true meaning of race has been communicated to the general public, making people think race is a biological phenomenon whereas it is socially and culturally constructed (Moses 735) and this has caused the increase in racial stereotypes by media’s continuous portrayal of negative stereotypes of different races all over the world. Years ago, biologists made research on the biological variations between individuals and they made inferences that the distinctive characteristics of members of a particular race are a result of their inherited genes. They often limited their understanding of race to skin color and physical attributes until 1758 where a Swedish botanist named Carolus Linnaeus established the classification system still in use for various

Get Access