Stereotypes In Brent Staples Just Walk On By

Society will continue to judge humanity based on race, culture, and intelligence. Stereotypes affect how citizens determine their future. Demonstrated in the excerpt “The Hunger of Memory,” Richard Rodriguez faces stereotypes when he travels to the United States to achieve a higher education. Likewise, in the essay “Superman and Me,” Sherman Alexie is assumed to be less intelligent based of his ethnic background. Both of these authors’ futures are influenced differently based off the prejudice situations they face. Whereas Rodriguez perceives differences as continuing in a stereotypical humanity, Alexie perceives differences as expanding beyond stereotypical standards.

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.

Although Racial Stereotype is something we experience daily, people should not be quick to judge or make conclusions based solely on skin color. Not every stereotype is true. Staples introduces himself by using the words “first Victim” by doing so he sets a picture in the mind of the reader that when he came up behind the lady on the street, something was going to do happen to her. He is faced with different stereotypes that he experiences daily from different races. Throughout the essay Staples makes the argument that racial stereotype is wrong .Staples explains his thesis through narratives of incidents in his life. He gives details of numerous accounts of people mistaking him for a thief or mugger.

Through the use of diction and exaggeration, Staples is able to create this intelligent and humorous persona for the listeners. Staples first starts by describing a white woman as a “victim” (543). He purposely starts his essay by appearing as a criminal sharing his stories of trouble. As the reader progresses through his essay, one can see that he continually becomes more complex and through with his word choice. This transition shows that audience that he never was a criminal, but a rather intelligent college student. Likewise, Staples uses this shift to show the audience that initial perceptions of people like him are generally wrong. He paints himself as a criminal, only to reveal his true self, like what most white people would do. This conveys his message because Staples showcases that black people are almost instantly seen as bad and scary, when they could be better than the person making the discriminating notes. Staples mentions how he and other blacks are quickly judged by everyone else. In one instance, upon entering a jewelry store, he is met by an “enormous red Doberman pinscher” (544). This use of exaggeration creates a humorous persona to Staples. The purposely description of the dog as enormous shows just how unnecessary the prejudice against African Americans really is. The humorous persona that Staples has conveys the message that people are too assimilated with the negative

Furthermore, stereotypes are used to increase an individual’s self-esteem and strengthen their social identity. Social identity theory contributes largely to the formation of stereotypes, as it states that a person’s social identity is formed from being part of a group. To justify one’s own group, they often pick out real or imaginary differences and flaws in other groups and compare those to their own group (Ford & Tonander, 1998). This led Ford

Stereotypes are socially constructed, over-generalized views regarding a particular group of persons with certain characteristics that are widely accepted, and usually expected, in a society. The dominant group of a certain society, which in this case is probably Caucasians and men, usually creates these social constructions. Claude M. Steele, a researcher from Stanford University, performed multiple research studies on the idea and psychological effects of stereotypes on its victims. In his studies, he coins the term “stereotype threat” as the “social-psychological predicament that can arise from widely-known negative stereotypes about one's group,” which implies that “the existence of such a stereotype means that anything one does or any of one's features that conform to it make the stereotype more plausible as a self-characterization in the eyes of others, and perhaps even in one's own eyes” (Steele 797).

Stereotypes are no secret. Everybody develops them in some way or another and uses them in social interactions. These generalizations, both positive and negative, about a characteristic(s) of a group (“Stereotypes) have existed throughout modern and historical societies. The husband in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” interacts with Robert based off of stereotypes formed from social norms and media portrayals of disabled persons. He treats Robert in a negative manner at first relying on those prejudices, but as he comes to know Robert, he re-develops his stereotypes and interacts with Robert in a more positive way.

Steele argues that Staples can show knowledge of white culture by whistling Vivaldi. So, when Staples is walking during dark hours in Chicago he can avoid the stereotype threat of blacks being violent by showing he has knowledge of classical music—by showing acculturation. Acculturation here can be defined as an immigrants or unfamiliar person(s) assimilation to their host culture. According to Steele and “The Potential Roles of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, Stigma Consciousness, and Stereotype Threat in Linking Latina/a Ethnicity and Educational Outcomes”, It is often thought that acculturation and education level as connected. Steele’s argument is that by Staples showing knowledge of white culture, he is showing education. Therefore, people will view him as an educated man and educated people don’t usually attack others. So, Staples must not be dangerous. The association between acculturation and education may be true, but showing acculturation isn’t effectively fighting the cloud. On the contrary, it feeds it.

In life, there is a common ground on which most every person can relate. At one time or another, we have all been promoters of or victims of the unremitting nature of stereotypes. According to the Webster’s dictionary, a stereotype is defined as “a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.” Most stereotypes take on a negative form and are based on characteristics such as age, gender, race, status, and personal beliefs. Generally speaking, the greatest problem that arises with stereotypes is that they judge group of people by the characteristics and actions of their ancestors, rather than on an individual basis. More often than not, these assumptions will

Staples illustrates how the nature of stereotypes can affect how we perceive others around us in either an excessively admirable light or, in his and many other cases, as barbaric or antagonistic. In his introductory

Staples seems to have become self-indoctrinated and quite belligerent in the gestures, word usage, and outline that he chose to write his essay. He understood the characteristics that trigger the social aspect of being endangered and yet utilized the same social cues to stay alive to where he calls himself a survivalist. A graduate student and yet his social views generally portray someone who is being forced to amalgamate into another echelon of society. I generally try and disregard articles with a foundation in race-bating tactics so this essay was rather controversial to me. Having personal experience with the issue he is attempting to portray I find it irresponsible to not show the opposite side of the social spectrum. When dealing with

Social identity is a theory which explains how people develop a sense of belong and membership to a group. Individual’s social identity is part of their self-concept which derives from their knowledge of their membership of a social group together with the emotional significance attached to that membership (Forsyth, 13). People are influenced on the group they belong to. Belonging to the in-group makes a person feel good because they belong somewhere in this group and allows them to feel important. The out-group is where people feel to be, they do not belong to a group and have feeling of exclusion and are often times treated more harshly than someone who belongs to the ingroup. This bias of favoring the ingroup relative to the outgroup leads to false impressions being made and stereotypes forming. Stereotypes help us navigate the world around us by providing a quick representation of what we think a person is like. This does not mean our perceptions are always correct and occasionally, this quick mental shortcut can get us into trouble. For example, the film 12 Angry Men stereotyping was rampant among the jury. When a stereotype is used it can cause a disruption of procedures. Instead, of inspecting all the evidence with an objective eye a bias can allow for systematic

The presences of stereotypes are overwhelming and are developed by both the environment a subject is raised in and their family. Stereotypes, which are pervasive throughout different societies, become intertwined in the collective values of the society as justification for all forms of social, economic, and political inequality among groups (Devine and Elliot 2000;Kaplan 2004; Operario and Fiske 2004). As people become more exposed to stereotypes they start to become a permanent part of a person’s life, they begin to stereotype themselves almost always involuntarily.

Stereotypes can be defined as an exaggerated belief about an individual or a group based on their appearance,

1. Identity is people's concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and how