Stereotypes: Prejudice And Discrimination In The United States

Stereotyping wasn't a big problem when living in Texas. Living in Wisconsin was a whole different story. People find it offensive, and it could end up being racist. Always remember what is being said to others and how careful one has to be. Even if they know what people are saying just for fun and no harm is intended, people can take it to another measure. Nothing shouldn't be done period and we shouldn't allow it.

Stereotyping and discrimination are very deeply ingrained in American culture. Even though there have been movements taken to combat stereotyping and discrimination such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Rights movement, and the Black Lives Matter Movement, it still exists. This raises the question of, how do we end it? While there is no definite answer there is a way to avoid stereotyping and discrimination. The three essayists Bharati Mukherjee, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Brent Staples and show that by learning about stereotyping, people can also learn how to change themselves to avoid discrimination based on stereotypes. By comparing and contrasting these essayists experiences as well as outside research to show the theme of why people

Racial stereotypes more or less affect our perceptions toward race, and judge people in a certain frame unconsciously, as Omi set forth in In Living Color: Race and American Culture. It greatly impact the images of minorities on the visual media, which the most direct medium to reflect the popular beliefs. Even though the “racist beliefs” have “just recently being reversed”, the portrayal of minorities on visual media is still not exemplary (Horton, et al “PORTRAYAL OF MINORITIES IN THE FILM, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES”).

We are always told that we, people in America, are completely free, from speech to freedom of choices. A common known fact by all sociologists is that that way of thinking is completely false. The reason for this is the way we act, from the way we do our hair to the way we treat others, is hugely influenced by our society. To be more specific, the urge to fit in is fueled by the leadership, and crowds we consider “cool” in our society.

the officer that declared him as a burglar. As a result, colored people feel the need to take justice into their hands by protecting themselves with weapons.

Stereotype’s in the United States is something that is an unconscious effort, and many people explain it to be natural. Gay’s is something many people do not agree on. It has through the country for a spin, the hate, violence, and eventually equality. John a good man, works a 9-5 factory job, goes to church every Sunday with his family, and enjoys time with his kids doesn’t agree with gay people and believes they shouldn’t have the right to get married. Stacey a women that has raised three kids by herself, loves her children unconditionally and works three jobs to support herself and her kids sits in the back of the church, when the pastor asks if anybody has any confessions or anything anybody would like to get off their mind, the

Stereotyping is the generalization about others, which leads to a predictable characteristic of other people. Stereotypes only represent one aspect of an individual that is usually the negative aspect. Stereotypes also cause an individual to make a harsh statement toward individuals without recognizing the damage those words can cause. Example someone who accuses Middle Eastern men to be terrorists has made a negative stereotype against these people, when every Middle Eastern men are not terrorists. Discrimination is the ill treatment or denying of some ones rights because of his or her race, creed, color, sexual orientation, disability, and ethnic background. Fiske, (2010) “discrimination entails acting on the basis of one’s stereotypes, and prejudices denying, equality of treatment that people wish to have.” Discrimination wears many faces and can take on different forms that can be overt and subtle. This behavior can be very hurtful to various groups, organizations, and individuals. Example A person is denied housing because he is an openly gay individual.

Growing research has explored the impact of ethnic stereotypes on mental wellbeing amongst Asian Americans, one of the most rapidly expanding ethnic groups in the United States (United States Census Bureau, 2010). The stereotype of Asians in America as an academically and economically successful ethnic group who have “made it” in America are often labeled as a “model minority” (Lee et al., 2009). More specifically, the model minority myth refers to the idea that Asian Americans in the U.S. are perceived to have high educational, occupational, and economic statuses and are able to acculturate better due to these successes in comparison to other migrant groups (Gupta, Szymanski, & Leong, 2011). The idea of a “model minority” instilled the assumption that any migrant group can pursue the American dream through determination and hard work (Lee, 2009). This assumption focuses on the upward mobility of Asians in America yet fails to address the socio-cultural disparities of varying Asian sub-groups. The flourishing Asian population in the United States presents a growing concern for mental health

Prejudice is the preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. In

In this modern world, prejudice is still a universal problem we still have yet to overcome. Although it is true that our society is much less prejudiced than it was 40-50 years ago, we are still struggling to create racial harmony in a world that is so diverse in terms of racial group, sexual orientations, ethnicity, nationality, religions, and so on. I think the core of prejudice comes from stereotyping, which is the generalization of motives, characteristics, or behavior to an entire group of people. In the world where media propaganda is ubiquitous, often times most stereotypes are not formed on valid experiences, instead they are based on images publicized by the mass media, or even created within our heads after seeing and hearing examples from many different sources, like movies, or even hearsay. Stereotyping is more powerful than we think, because it allows those false pictures to control our thinking that leads us to assign uniform characteristics to any person in a group, without consideration of the actual difference between members of that particular group.

Earth is populated by approximately 7.1 billion inhabitants, within those dwellers you come across people of diverse color, race and ethnicity. In today’s society stereotyping and discrimination have become an increasing social acceptance. Stereotyping can be described as classifying or making assumptions about person based upon their behaviors and or clothing. One stereotype that is currently on the rise is the misconception Americans have on Latinos. The first stereotype misconception there is, is that Latinos took all the American jobs. The following fallacy, Americans have is that all Latinos are Mexican. Preceding that fallacy is, Americans believe Latinos are not well educated and lazy.

There are three different theoretical perspectives. Functionalist perspective, which emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Functionalists see the contribution that it makes to society. The conflict perspective, assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, and political representation. The interactionalist perspective, which generalize about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole (Schaefer).

Racial stereotype has been one of the biggest concern all over that world. The situation is worst when there are people from different ethnicity live together like in America. Racial stereotype develops in individual when the person is unaware of the race and have never interacted with the person from that particular racial group. Influence of parents, friends and people around a person can create misconception towards a race to the person. Media is one of the reason for the development of negative thinking towards a racial groups as media always concentrate on the race of a criminal than the crime he commits. Racism was at its best in the early and mid 20th century. Even though the country is recognized as land of freedom still there

Social conflict also focuses on macro-sociology. Symbolic interaction paradigm says society functions well through interactions. Communication is spreaded through symbols created by society. Social interaction is important, because it causes social change. Many variables such as behavior events are explained through social contact with others. The people are the ones who determine what is reality, and what is not reality. Life works in a dramatization point of view. Symbolic interaction paradigm focuses on the small issues that affect communities in society, therefore making it a micro-level orientation. Functionalist paradigm sees society as a well integrated, self-regulating system that meets people’s needs. While Social conflict views society having many groups that are self reliant, with their own goals and needs. Symbolic interaction explains society is shaped, and constructed through interaction, and communication with others.

In the United States, there is a top one percent of our society which are seen as rude, greedy, and selfish. These happen to be very common stereotypes that the one percent is named as is. For myself, personally I feel that the one percent is in a way greedy with their money and have a bad reputation in which that they do live up to the stereotypes that they are to be said about. I have found that I am prejudice in this kind of way, because I feel that the one percent as a group are just plain simply selfish in a way that they only care about themselves and only that reason, but on the other hand, there is also some others in the one percent that aren’t greedy or selfish they would actually give back, and help out this changes the way some people view the in the one percent in a different kind of perspective giving the one percent a better point of view towards society. This is