Stereotypes & Prejudice:. What Are They, And How Do They

I am a typical brown girl on the outside, but a totally different person on the inside just like an egg. Even though I will be as quiet as an egg if put in boiling water, my inside will be screaming. I am not like some people, I have two different cultures now that I am in America now. Two years ago I was in India, being a girl with less opportunities, but here I can do what I set my heart on because I know I will have a way to reach it. I have changed how I see the world now, my beliefs have changed and my goals are in a bigger level now. Your cultural identity can change when you are exposed to new and different things.

In certain situations, stereotypes can be negative, which in hand, can harm certain ethnicities, racial groups, religions, and other backgrounds. This often alienates certain groups from mainstream societies, as if they are an "other." This further in hand can, lead to heated friction and division among groups, which is not a good thing, and is the "cancer" of a benevolent, developed society. Certain examples of negative (falsified) stereotypes are that African-Americans are violent, Asian-Americans are bad drivers, Latin-Americans can't speak English properly, Middle Easterners are misogynic, White Americans are racist, etc. Of course, these stereotypes in all cases are NOT true, yet sadly the general population tends to seek them as true.

When people act on their stereotypical views, that is when stereotyping becomes a big concern and can affect others.Stereotyping is the main cause that leads to profiling. Anyone of any race can experience profiling, and racial profiling discriminates and victimizes people who may not necessarily be committing a crime.

Right outside a corner store, next to a stoplight, or at a park, there may be a homeless person asking for some sort of help; it can either be for a place to stay, money, or food. Many people are used to categorizing a group of people by a solo characteristic, known as a stereotype. Misconception, on the other hand, is a conclusion of someone or something that is wrong because it is based on faulty thinking or facts. Stereotypes and misconceptions appear to be similar, however, these two are not. A misconception is formed from having a stereotype. Stereotypes and misconceptions are built because many try, but are unable to understand a person or a group, or are just simply unwilling to understand the person or group. There are over a million

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.

Stereotypes are harmful for the people which power does not favor, and are used as a tool used by people in power to show and state their authority over the people of lesser means.

Stereotyping leads to prejudice. If I am walking in a park and I see a group of people walking towards me (lets say all are white males) and they are dressed up and look very nice. I do not panic, now another group is walking towards me and now this group is all men (African Americans) and they are dressed and conduct themselves just the same as the first group, but I panicked with this group. Why because I stereotyped the second group and if I was prejudice no matter how they dressed or acted I would be afraid of them because they are black. I judge them based on skin color and not on individuality.

One of the opposing arguments to why racial stereotypes aren’t bad I would have to agree with; Racial Profiling gives us our identity. There are some good racial stereotypes such as Asians are “good at math” and African Americans are “good at sports.” Those generalizations help give them confidence in who they are. It gives them a chip on their shoulder if they didn’t have that stereotype to begin with. Without racial stereotypes the specialization of each race would be almost nonexistent and the only thing different from each other is the skin

Stereotypes are something that we are all affected by in our everyday lives in one way or another. You may have made a stereotype about someone, and not even realize that you are stereotyping them. For that reason I believe that there are many different stereotypes embedded into our minds. Everyone has made a stereotype about someone, and may have been wrong or right about that stereotype. Either way if you were wrong or right about what you thought about, or labeled on a person, it is still a stereotype. I have noticed that people do not take the time to get to know someone, but rather stereotype them off appearances or gender, or religion, and many other different categories of people.

Stereotypes, or preconceived ideas about persons or groups, are a major problem throughout this country. I did not realize how much until I attended college at Minnesota State University at Mankato, where I was one of 5 students from the Southern United States. I was asked if people ever thought I wasn’t as smart because of my accent, if I had to walk to school, if we had outhouses, if we had electricity, and the list goes on. I had been in the military and traveled across the country and had never been asked questions like that before. It must have been because they had never really been exposed to someone from the South other than television or movies as I could come to no other conclusion. The problem is much worse for minorities because larger numbers of people have and act on these preconceived ideas without realizing that everyone is an individual regardless of the color of their skin or ethnicity.

Devine (1989) argues that stereotypes are inevitable on the basis that stereotypes and prejudice coexist and that stereotyping occurs automatically. Devine attempts to prove this hypothesis in three experiments. Devine reasons that “as long as stereotypes exist, prejudice will follow.” This hypothesis is rooted in a correlation. Prejudice and stereotypes are related, however there is no clear evidence of causality; Knowledge of a stereotype does not mean an individual agrees with it.

Racism and prejudice have grown over the years and has affected how we interact with one another. Stereotypes are a cliche idea about someone or something. For example, Tom Robinson was accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell. But the truth is that he didn’t, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bob, Mayella’s father was the one that actually beat her, because she tried to kiss a black man, Tom Robinson.

People believe that there are many forms of misunderstanding, getting things mixed up, and just straight confusion.They see it as they push the issue of racism in the past to the side, and they feel offended by it.Their argument is that all people could act suspicious and not only young men of color. People think that their race is superior than others, when people talk about the system they mostly talking about the police.

The one obvious negative effect of the perceptions that we know little about paves the way for stereotypes , ethnocentrism and Prejudice . Stereotypes are the oversimplified ideas about a group of people , Ethnocentrism is the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture , Prejudice is thoughts and feelings about those discriminated groups . Because all obvious things that we hear about include stigmas like “ All Asians are smart , and all blacks are criminals “ . It is sad that all of these invalidated myths have become common currently because they are seen as the self-evident and the obvious .

This reading includes the definition of “stereotype” and “prejudices” which can help to create a better understanding of both concepts and how they relate to each other through their characteristics. It also talks about minimal groups and how they seem to be more affected by this problem and the important role that the self-esteem and social identity play in the solution of this struggle. It contains a lot of graphics and charts explain most of the key concepts and with statistics of the actual life of racism and discrimination in the United States. The author of the book is Scoot Plous, his status as a professor of Wesleyan University gives support to the main ideas of the reading. Even more, he majored in social psychology so he is an expert