Stereotyping Is Inevitable, By James Baldwin

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.

First of all, stereotypes are destructive and prevent or discourage individual growth because it can cause violence and harm. For example,

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.

Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping are important topics at the cause of debating within social psychology. A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people, in which certain traits cling to all members, regardless of actual individual variation (Akert, Aronson, & Wilson, 2010). As humans, people assign objects and individuals into categories to organize the environment. Individuals do this for not only organization, but also survival. Is stereotyping inevitable? That is the question; according to Devine (2007), it is, but Lepore and Brown (2007) have to disagree. Devine believes that “stereotyping is automatic, which makes it inevitable.” On the other hand, Lepore and Brown are not convinced that stereotyping is

Stereotypes are something that you could very well see everyday. They aren't always true, but they are brought from truth. To say that all white boys can’t play basketball is a stereotype. Which means that typically that might be true, but it most definitely does not include everyone. If you ask me they are something that we need to get rid of,but we never will. Because it is in human nature to prejudge someone when you first see them. To assume certain things about people based on what they look like.

Stereotyping is a normal part of every one’s life. Humans, by nature, classify things. We name animals and classify them by common characteristics but stereotyping can have negative repercussions, and everyone does it. In a recent study it was proven that everyone has an unconscious need to stereotype (Paul). In Junteenth and The Invisible man, Ralph Ellison argues that stereotyping can cause mayhem by making the people become something they are not.

First of all, what are stereotypes? A stereotype is a quality assigned to groups of people related to their race, nationality, and sexual orientation, but there is not only one type of stereotype there are actually two types of stereotypes. There are positive and negative ones. For example, a positive stereotype about asians would be that they are smart and polite. A negative one would be something like asians have small eyes or they’re short. Some people may get offended by these and other people will not care about it at all. These are effects from the stereotypes.

Stereotyping characteristics are associated with our past experiences of the particular group’s characterization and thus, in essence, we would have to have a certain picture of that group’s social behaviors on our minds. Eventually, such characterization leads to the generalization of the entire group’s social and cognitive behaviors that we believe are inbound or depict the true

Today we live in a world that is a multicultural society. More commonly America is said to be a “melting pot”, meaning that our countries populations are made up of many different cultures and ethnic groups. As people with different cultures come in contact with each other there are external aspects such as food, dress, and language that becomes very evident. Using our own cultures lens we view everything from our cultures perspective thus narrowing our views of others and aiding in the difficulty of communicating with individuals of other cultures and backgrounds. Stereotypes exist within every culture all around the world, this includes, African Americans and White Americans within the United States. When thinking of stereotypes the first

As a society, a majority of people use stereotypes without consciously knowing it. It categorizes people and simplifies our understanding of different groups of society and our surroundings. In this aspect it can be beneficial because being able to identify someone based on gender, ethnicity, culture, etc. you can make assumptions of customary greetings or how to approach a particular situation or custom. Also, stereotypes may help oneself identify with an in-group. In comparison, problems may arise when stereotyping individuals and groups. In extreme cases stereotyping leads to prejudice and discrimination. If we can learn anything from our history, is that stereotyping that leads to prejudice and/or discrimination often have traumatic effects

Stereotyping has been a normal occurrence since human beings have been able to do so to others, as tragic as that is. Although it has been through our history, nothing from the past can possibly compare to the amount of stereotyping going on in our world in the modern day, and how much it impacts us and others around us. Robert L. Heilbroner says it best in his article “DON’T LET STEREOTYPES WARP YOUR JUDGMENT (citation) “Stereotypes are a kind of gossip about the world, a gossip that makes us prejudge people before we ever lay eyes on them. Hence it is not surprising that stereotypes have something to do with the dark world of prejudice (Heilbroner Pg.19 number 5).” He then goes on to say that “Once we have typecast the world we tend to see people in terms of our standardized pictures.” He then goes on explaining about a demonstration he performed with a number of Columbia and Barnard students, showing

Stereotypes are prevailing and oversimplified ideas of particular groups of people or certain things, and they have been around for a long time. Stereotypes are immensely detrimental to a myriad of people because they abject and discriminate them, as well as cause division and separation amongst certain communities. Breaking stereotypes is important due to the social climate that we are currently in today. Racism and discrimination are ubiquitous because people of colour are painted in a negative light due to the stereotypes they are given.

Stereotypes are all over the world, each group is called by name, that doesn't really fit to everyone in that group. Stereotypes affect people’s social lives, emotions, and how people communicate with their surroundings because of how they feel of what they’ve said of them. Mostly every person is stereotyped of how they look but never on how they are because they have never met the specific person.

Stereotyping is a form of pre judgement that is as prevalent in today's society as it was 2000 years ago. It is a social attitude that has stood the test of time and received much attention by social psychologists and philosophers alike. Many approaches to, or theories of stereotyping have thus been raised. This essay evaluates the cognitive approach that categorisation is an essential cognitive process that inevitably leads to stereotyping. Hamilton (1979) calls this a 'depressing dilemma'.

They make one story become the only story”. Stereotypes often come from a physical, or behavioral characteristic. They do have some truths within them although there is often details that are either overlooked or left out. The characteristics given to groups who hold a specific stereotype are exaggerated greatly. Basically, stereotypes come from a lack of information. With a lack of information it is more likely for problems to arise. Once given an idea of how a person or group should act, it sticks in the mind. People continue to believe stereotypes after seeing one being proven right. Once a single stereotypes is proven, the mind will continue to reinforce that assumption with that particular person or