There Are Many Different Types Of Stereotypes. Most Commonly

“A Question of Class” focuses on Dorothy Allison’s struggle of identifying herself as a poverty stricken individual, and breaking free from her predetermined destiny while simultaneously accepting her past. Allison understands the prejudice that comes with being poor with the statement, “I have learned with great difficulty that the vast majority of people pretend that poverty is a voluntary condition, that the poor are…less than fully human…” The quote fundamentally means that society does not view the poor as their equivalents to the world, and one chooses to live in such conditions. Although the remark was made in the 1950’s, it still rings true in the societal ideology of present time. Changes have not been

In Bell Hooks, Seeing and Making Culture: Representing the Poor, Hooks writes about what she considers to be hazardous in dispositions towards neediness in the United States, and in proposing arrangements. Hooks starts the essay off by saying, “Americans today rarely talk about the poor” (Bell Hooks). She explains that Americans acknowledge the existence of four groups: the poor, the working class, those who worked and have extra money, and the rich.

It has always been assumed that races have a certain look; a person can always tell what a person is by their mannerisms, their speech and the overall way they carried themselves even if they looked a certain way. However, this is mainly due to stereotypes that have long plagued our society and what one “expects” someone to look like just based on the negative connotations that are associated with skin complexion. When we read certain literature, the description of the character is the first thing that we look for as it is a way for us to somewhat bond with the character and attempt to see the story through their eyes. Toni Morrison’s Recitatif explores how the author describes each character not expressing their race leaving a bit of mysery to the reader and attempts to breaks down the stereotypes that exist for each race. Through a literary analysis, the reader is able to see those stereotypical assumptions about the color of one’s skin and how they should cease to exist in any world whether it is literal or figurative.

The purpose of this essay is to inform the reader of a real problem, media misrepresentation, and to try to have the reader change the way the think, feel, and perceive the poor. She gives examples of encounters she has had that are a result of the damaging depiction and conveys to the reader why those thoughts are wrong by using her own personal experiences. She mentions that before entering college she never thought about social class. However, the comments from both other students and her professors about poverty were alarming to her. Other people viewed the poor as, “shiftless, mindless, lazy, dishonest, and unworthy” indigents. Hook opposes that stereotypical image of the poor, referring back to being taught in a “culture of poverty,” the values to be intelligent, honest, and hard-working. She uses these personal experiences to her advantage by showing she has had an inside look at poverty.

Poverty is one of the leading problems in America today, and most blame it on the poor themselves. People blame it on the poor’s lack of knowledge and character; however, this is not the case. Rutger Bregman, a historian and author of Utopia for Realists, explains that “poverty isn’t a lack of character; it’s a lack of cash” (Bregman). Bregman provides a solid argument even though he never provides an emotional overview of the situation. Although Bregman’s speech, “Poverty isn’t a lack of character; it’s a lack of cash,” lacked more to the emotional appeal than most are used to when it comes to poverty, his problem-solution structure and focus on facts, statistics, and ethical incentives provided the strength that his argument needed.

In Tressie McMillan’s “The Logic of Stupid Poor People”, it changed people’s views on the threat of keeping up with society, and the status symbol people think they must maintain. Society classifies it as Middle class, suburbs, or simply rich and poor. People feel threatened when someone looks better than them, or has something that they do not have. This story killed all reasons to even feel this way. McMillan also linked this story back to her own personal childhood. Their family was a classic black American migration family, with rural Southern roots. During this time most African Americans were considered as poor. Her family

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

Peter Edelman provides stark numbers in regard to poverty in his article “Poverty in America: Why Can’t We End It?” Low paying jobs, single parent households, lower occurrences of welfare, and race and gender issues all contribute to poverty in America (Edelman). He is sure to point out that this is not a new problem, but something that America has been having trouble dealing with for many years. One of the shocking numbers he provides is “104 million people - a third of the population - have annual incomes below twice the poverty line” (Edelman). A negative attitude toward those in poverty may prevent people from having empathy for and being charitable toward those less fortunate. However, whether or not the attitude is positive or negative,

The problem about being in the lower class is that even though someone gets paid a high amount of money, it all goes to bills and after that, they have very little to spend on food and the necessities. While being a higher class, they can get paid with higher amounts and have more than they can spend with an enormous amount left over. All that left overs can buy more than someone need. Being in the lower class isn’t always going to be easy but sometimes there is some miracles that happens.

Barbara Ehrenreich agrees with what Harrington says in his article about poverty, he discusses about how we humans do now acknowledge people who are in poverty, the way he thinks that the way people in poverty live is unique, programs that may help people in poverty to change, and how being poor is not having money at all. Barbara agrees with how Harrington uses the word “others” instead of “poor” to describe the people in poverty. Barbara believes that people who are in poverty are not necessarily out of money, but “poverty is a shortage of money” (pg. 609). I agree with Barbara because having completely nothing is poor, but when you see people in poverty, they manage to know what to do to get food they have a cart full of plastic bottles, which then get money so that they can buy something to eat like what Harrington was saying that the people in poverty have a unique way of living. Ehrenreich discusses that many people who are middle class are slowly falling into poverty and years go by. She wants to get her point across in which she is saying to stop stereotyping those in poverty because it is over used in other words it is old. Barbara also quoted Banfield in her article and his opinion about people in poverty is that poor people should be watched, he thinks that they are sick in other words, people in poverty do not know what they are

The US is home to people of many different ethnicities and backgrounds. I define race as how society portrays humans in categories. For instance, when the US government asks citizens to identify themselves, the options include American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or White*. This causes the media to portray stereotypes which is where society learns from (and associates with) how people of different races look like, thus creating the mould of how certain people should look based on their race.*** Racism in my perspective is seeing each category as unequal therefore treating them unfairly. Because of how strongly society portrays others, I used to portray others in the

The example I found was a Facebook post that displayed USD’s awareness of rape that is called “What we were wearing.” This display represented what people wore the night they were raped. Each picture in the post had the outfit the victim wore and a description of how scared, silent, and confused they were when it happened. This is an example of stereotyping because it shows normal clothes, not dressy, sexy clothes that each victim wore when they were raped. The outfit varied from athletic, baggy, festive, military, and children’s clothes, which make us visualize that the victim was not asking for anything or wanting someone to attack them. I chose this post to share because of how heroic and brave each person was to share their story and a new way to end the stereotyping that the girl was asking for it because of what she was wearing.

In today’s society the ideals of an individual defines everyone. The most prominent ideal/belief that I have is the idea that we should not teach the children of the future to believe the same things that their parents do. They should decide what they believe on their own. The reason that I believe in this idea so much is because of the amount of hate in the world today. People can’t get along because there are some people in the world that teach nothing but hate of others. The children that are see their parents acting hateful towards others for no good reason will copy their parents and will grow up thinking its okay. To me, it seems that all of the hate in the world, is taught, not inherent. Prejudices because of race, sexual orientation,

Stereotypes, true or false. There is no knowing what they are. Stereotypes are beliefs that are known by many people about a group but are based off of assumption. For people trying to reach stardom by getting on the big screen, it can be a difficult journey. While some people may say that having an actor as a friend is great, others may sneer. This is the impact that stereotypes have on our society.

Although people believe people have finally stopped classing people in social classes people still subconsciously classify themselves and other’s in these classes that people believe people have gotten rid of. One may think that the poor are represented and treated well; however, in reality people represent the poor as people that do not have a full life and people who do not have values. Moreover, people put honesty and integrity into the rich, and do not trust the poor and believe that anything bad or negative was caused by them. Poor people are usually more likely than others to share among the people between them. For example, poor people are willing to share