Stereotypes-Personal Narrative Analysis

When we are born, we are given characteristics that we cannot control which impact our social identity and how other people view and stereotype us in this world. As David Myers notes in his essay, Ingroup and Outgroup, “Once established, prejudice is maintained largely by its own social inertia. If prejudice is social... then people follow the path of least social resistance… conform to the social fashion… a need to be liked and accepted.” Prejudices influenced by a society heavily impacts a culture as it inhibits growth and progression. Suspicion and poor stereotypes are administered to social groups which are heavily ingrained and nearly impossible to release ourselves from that stereotype. That is the life a Hispanic must lead within the

Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced practicing her mother tongue. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. She claims that by forcing them to speak English and attempting to eliminate their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that results from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States, Anzaldúa says she had to accommodate to the American culture. The fact that she was discouraged from practicing her native language induced her to become ashamed of her roots. In addition, she explains that she constantly felt suppressed on account of her gender. By incorporating Spanish words, powerful personal anecdotes and historical facts about her people, Anzaldúa produces a unique composition in which she depicts an unfair and repressive world and reprimands the prejudices that hinder certain cultures from flourishing and establishing themselves.

I was intrigued by these differences in perspective, and attempted to understand why this was occurring. I first asked my parents, as I was only in the fifth grade, and their answer was simply that we were different, and that that wasn’t a bad thing. Feeling displaced, I began to question everything that I did on a regular basis, and if there was a proper manner in which to act for someone in my situation. The constant choice between my Mexican and American identity was always present.

I consider you have exposed a great discussion. To understand why people behave a certain way we use something called attributional processes. Frequently, we tend to leap to conclusions that people’s behavior is due to some characteristics of their personality rather than to some aspects of the circumstances in which we are. Stereotypes are dispositional negative attributions, (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2007). Stanger and Crandal (2000) consider that it seems that stigma develops out of an initial, collectively held motivation to avoid danger followed often by an exaggerated perception of features that promotes threat and accompanied by social sharing of these perceptions with others. What is more, they conclude that stigmas for the most part

Being a latino in the U.S had been and still is the reason for suffering discrimination against one's aspirations and goals in life. Not only that but as an ESL life was far from being the American Dream most people come to this country looking for. The truth is that for those that had not escape from the category of ESL, prejudice will be a stigma that would follow them through high school and life. From these tumultuous waters I rose. Expectations were low and many assume that I was either stupid or incapable to compete with my classmates. My attitude and determination were the floating devices for my sicking life.

Being Hispanic to me means being different, strong, hard-working, and colorful. I go to school in a little village called Baltimore, with a whopping population of just under 3,000 people. Living in such a small village has its ups and downs, for instance, you get to know everyone, but you also really get to know everyone. One of the downsides of living in this area is the lack of diversity. In my entire high school, there is a total of five Hispanic students including myself. Growing up I never saw myself as different to my classmates, we were all just in school to learn about education, life, and each other. It wasn’t until my middle school years when I found out that not everybody watched “El Chavo del Ocho” Saturday mornings or put Tajin

Being separated from English speakers in Pre-kindergarten, translating English to Spanish for my family, ,making scavenger hunts at La Pulga to find affordable clothes and furniture,looking for books in Spanish for my Abuela so she could have something to read, waiting for my parents to come home from long work days, watching I.C.E vans appear at my neighborhood on my way to school, being told that I'd end up pregnant before I even got a chance at going to college and that I shouldn't speak Spanish because I'm in America, I was very conflicted with how I saw my family and background.To be Hispanic was no different that realizing that once the word is broken down, His-Panic, was nothing more than something shameful.This was my world, my childhood

I was waiting in line to pay for my groceries at a mexican food market with my mother and of course she left me in line, which induced my anxiety. I didn’t have any money to pay, and I didn’t speak a lick of Spanish. Palms sweaty and nervous, I put down the groceries seamlessly looking for my mom to come back. Before the cashier spoke she looked up, visibly encoding my appearance, and said something in Spanish. I wasn’t sure what to say so I said “My mom is getting a few items she forgot.” I will never forget the look on the woman’s face, like I offended her. She was probably thinking to herself “ How can this mexican girl not know Spanish, who raised you?” I have never felt more judged. However, that experience taught me that even the people within your believed “race” put you into those stereotypical stances making

“Filthy wetbacks”, James murmured under his breath one day during core after learning about our class was introduced to the history of the ancient Mayans and Aztecs. Neither of the other boys at my table turned their heads, nor showed any signs of offense at his words. They were both proud of their heritage and the color of their skin, unlike me, who wanted pale skin and blue eyes, and refused to speak Spanish anywhere outside of home. How ironic was it that I had grown up surrounded by people of my ethnicity, and yet I still felt insecure about myself. The way Latinos were portrayed on television as stereotypical roles such as a housemaid or a drug dealer made me feel even more self conscious. “How could someone who knows prejudice firsthand display that same hate towards someone else?”, I thought to myself every time I thought of James and his comments. I did not understand where his hate for Latinos came from, as he was a racial minority himself nor did I ever learn why he made these

When I was a toddler, I was potty-trained as most of us are. One winter break many years after I believed I had mastered the use of my bladder, my family visited my cousins. Santa Claus had been especially generous that year and given them a Wii, the most valuable gift my eleven year old self could have imagined. I was excited to race my sister, Sydney, in Mario Kart. Midway through the first lap, I realized that I desperately needed to go to the bathroom. I asked if we could pause the game, but everyone agreed that my absence would be a forfeit and Sydney would be crowned victorious. Having competed with her many times, I knew that losing was not an option. Winning meant excuses and insults to me in order to belittle the victory, but if I

One day me and my two friends went to the mall they had been my friends since I was little. My mom had knew there mom and my dad knew there dad as well. We played on the same soccer team since we were 4 years old there name was Roberto and Rodrigo we would always hang out every weekend. We would go to the movies or we would go play soccer at a field that was by their house. After all I didn’t consider them my friends for what they have done to me. My dad had bought a new stereo for the car we went to the mall in and I remember it was in there we went to go look around in the mall we left the all and it was still in there. We went to go eat after to buffalo wild wings. My dad had called me and told me to be careful with the stereo that was in the back of

The next aspect that we are going to talk about is race. Growing up race wasn’t something that was around. While in grade school there were one or two Hispanic students but other than that there weren’t any racial differences in my school. When I went to high school the number of Hispanic students increased but otherwise that was it. We didn’t treat any of these students any different just because of their race. Around town there were Hispanics as well but there was never anything that caused problems. When I was very young I always found it interesting to try and listen to the Hispanic people talk to see if I could pick up any words that they said since I was learning Spanish in school. When I went to Central Community College this is when race was really shown to me.

Imagine the typical asian household. Most people would think of a plain, very quiet house with children that are constantly studying mathematics or practicing the piano. Their parents probably wouldn’t like their children to be doing anything but studying. These students are not involved in the school as much, and focus mainly on studying, getting good grades, and getting into a good college. This is what most people would think when they see an asian kid in the hallways of school. They would be the quiet, shy kids that aren’t really interested in anything, really. I, however, do not fit into this stereotype.

Stereotype, a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. My assumption about all male stylists being gay, is still a mystery. This specific Fantastic Sams had no male workers, but I hope one day I will encounter one, and it put my stereotype to rest. Though, my previous thought of all female stylists being stuck up was completely false. Every person that I talked to there was so nice, and caring. Everyone there treating every person who walked through those doors with such care, they made it had a very family friendly environment. The stylists hair, not all of theirs were done. As a matter a fact, most of them did not have their hair done. That stereotype was altered the very first I walked

Aside from arising from mental shortcuts, it has also been proposed that stereotypes are a result of group conflict (Sherif, 1966). Regularly, individuals behave in a way that is expected of them in order to uphold the impressions others have of them. Thus, individuals act accordingly and embody the stereotype which is projected upon them (Baumeister & Bushman). The degree to which we rely on stereotypes when establishing judgements of others has been widely investigated in the field of social psychology. Frequently, the harmful consequences of relying on stereotypes is noted with the potential of this tendency to lead to prejudice and discrimination. Furthermore, the variation in the significance of stereotypes has been explored to determine