Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes

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Racial and Ethnic Stereotypes

People being generalized based on limited and inaccurate information by sources as television, cartoons or even comic books (Tripod). This is a definition that seems to go against many public standards. The above words are the exact definition of stereotypes. Stereotypes as understood from the definition, goes mostly hand in hand with media -- only not the regular meaning of the innocent media we know. Media propaganda is the other form of media that is rather described as media manipulation. In this paper, the following will be discussed: first, how stereotypes of ethnic groups function in propaganda, why does it function so well, and finally, the consequences of these stereotypes on the life of Egyptians in particular in society. A fair examination will be conducted on this example of stereotypes through clarification examples and research results from researches conducted from reliable sources. The real association between Egyptians’ stereotypes and propaganda discussed in this paper shall magnify the association of stereotypes and propaganda in general.

It seems necessary for this paper to start with some clarification of the terms associated with propaganda. Propaganda can be thought of as a foster parent for stereotypes. Propaganda is known to be the intentional manipulation of public opinion through hidden messages in advertisements and other media functions. Thus, propaganda uses many techniques to be able to deliver theses hidden messages to the public and influence their opinion. Fear, brainwashing, name calling, glittering generality, misinformation and much more are some of the techniques that propaganda uses to influence and manipulate the opinions of the majority. Propaganda finds the usefulness of stereotypes in the fact that it’s easy, fast and straight to the public. In the case of stereotypes about ethnic groups, Egyptians in this case are being portrayed as uneducated, unethical, ignorant, desert animal raisers, terrorists and uncivilized ethnic group. These name calling and misinformation techniques are what propagandists use to manoeuvre the society to portray Egyptians as humans of the underworld and Egypt as a deserted country that hunger and illness are its residents. The previous are all stereotypes that are propagandas of the media to convert such generality into truth and facts.

Racial stereotypes specifically function mostly through propaganda of the media, due to the unlikelihood of every man travelling to every country, using the technique of ‘misinformation’ through movies, shows, and news reports. Egyptians have been stereotyped as desert residents for many years regardless of the reality and actual state of Egypt as a country.

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