Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Stereotypes
There are stereotypes against every single race. Personally, I hate when people try to stereotype me. Many people think that just because I am white and I go to SLU that I come from a background with a lot of money and that everything has been handed to me my entire life...neither of which are the case. And it happens all the time. I realize that people thinking that I am of a wealthy background isn't necessarily the worst stereotype that they could have, and I often wonder how having negative stereotypes affect people's lives on a daily basis. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to constantly have people associating you with negative stereotypes, seeing as how I get frustrated with people thinking that my life has been easy. Typically, when I am stereotyped I immediately get offended and probably come off in a bad way. Has anyone else been in situations when they were stereotyped, and how did you deal with it?
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I know exactly what you mean, just in a little different light. I am typically stereotyped as being nerdy and ultra serious, when in reality I just enjoy class and the rest of the time are a cool and pretty relaxed person. Stereotypes are easy for people to embrace because they allow for people to easily group people together and feel a sense of superiority over another person. Stereotypes must be de-constructed and conquered in order for people to move on.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of the reason for stereotypes is how we function and learn as a society. I know everyone gets stereotypes because as we socialize we learn how to act and react to certain things. We exist as a society to function smoothly. We have expected replies to every situation. Therefore, we are taught things like those who go to college have money because that level of education is expensive etc. I know what you mean though. If we didn't have ideas about people how would we prepare to interact with then though?
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