Limits of Stereotypes
Have you ever wondered what your race says about you? Well, society has different ideas about every person, usually based on their race. Unfortunately, these ideas are just based on what people see. It all changes when people begin to look past appearances. As the saying goes, “look for what it is inside not on the outside”. When people focus on outward appearances they do not appreciate what is on the inside. Judgments are ideas that stop people for looking for something more important than what they know based on appearance. It becomes worse when these little unknown details never come out and the ideas based only on appearance become stereotypes. Stereotyping can be an issue within schools. For example, teachers tend
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These judgments are made with minimal or unknown information. In school, most of the stereotypes are based on race. In an interview that I conducted, a 55-year-old white male stated "our race defines how we perform in school". A teacher’s ignorance can be a significant impact on students’ education. Some teachers do not understand the fact that every student is different and they can improve as much as they want. Race does not determine a students learning ability. Teachers set limitations to what they believe is a students learning capacity based on their racial judgments, this causes students to believe they cannot exceed the teachers set limitations based on their …show more content…
These kinds of people have created them without the concern about the harm they cause to the ones that those stereotypes are directed to. In society ignorant people judge students based on the education they have or their grades or even the school they go to. In another interview that I conducted, a 17 years old Mexican woman stated "people in society judge students by looking at their education". She said, they are influenced for what they see to determine how intelligent or serious that student is on education. When a person judges a student based on their grades we can say that that person is ignorant. We sometimes do not know what the student is going through. Grades do not determine the student intelligence and capacity. These kinds of stereotypes that come from ignorant people sometimes push students to be how society wants them to be. Stereotypes can create pressure in students leading them to quit their education. To prevent stereotypes, teachers should influence students to push themselves as far as students want to go. Teachers can inspire students to push themselves and prove to others and themselves that their grades do not determine their potential or intelligence. When teachers help students to improve their potential they can definitely inspire them to be better at school and outside of it. They get inspired to be better people but also as an individual that does not get influenced
Stereotypes are everywhere and can often create problems for people, however they become even more detrimental to teens, especially at schools. Writer and science correspondent for the NRA, Shankar Vedantam, in his article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance,” explains that stereotypes can hurt the performance of the person that it is associated with. He supports his claim by first explaining that how well people do on tests are determined by who administers the questions, then he explains that studies show that when people take tests and they are reminded of negative stereotypes that associate with them, then they don’t do as well, and finally he states that the studies are being widely ignored by all the people who should take heed of the findings, such as test makers and college acceptance people. Vedantam’s purpose is to tell you about the research conducted by Huang in order to inform you that stereotypes can affect performance on tests. In my 9th grade class at Point Loma High School, we were given questions about stereotypes from our teacher to interview two students.
RaStereotyping is a way of thinking about groups of people. It ignores the differences of the group, while emphasizing its similarity. One belief, that is a stereotype, is that red-haired people are hot tempered. Another belief is that Scottish people are stingy. Such thinking ignores many even-tempered redheads and generous Scottish people. Stereotyping emphasizes many differences between groups while ignoring their similarities to other people. It ignores that many blond and brown-haired people also lose their tempers. Stereotyping overlooks the fact that many American, Brazilians and French people are stingy.
As students and educators, we should learn that a student should not be judged because ultimately we expose them to stereotypes based on things such as racial background, education level, and social class.
Stereotypes can be defined as sweeping generalizations about members of a certain race, religion, gender, nationality, or other group. They are made everyday in almost every society. We develop stereotypes when we are unable or unwilling to obtain all the information we would need to make fair judgments about people or situations. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Quite often, we develop these ideas about people who are members of groups with which we have not had firsthand contact. Stereotyping usually leads to unfair results, such as discrimination, racial profiling, and unnecessary violence, all behaviors which need to be stopped.
For example, it has been said many times in multiple different ways that academic success is typically associated with certain races and not others. This is a very stereotypical comment and it is sad that these types of judgements are present in the educational system. In Beverly Daniel Tatum’s essay entitled, “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” she discusses how self-segregation occurs in the education system today. Tatum touches on that the possible reasons that students tend to socialize with students of the same racial identity as themselves are cultural stereotypes. It is understandable that a student in order to avoid judgements would want to be around others who understand them and know what they are going through at school. A possible and very hurtful example of judgement that may cause students of color to flock together is that “doing well in school becomes identified as trying to be White,” (Tatum). A student in today’s education system undergoes enough stress as it is and they should not have to be worried with racial protocols. Why is being advanced and thriving in school only to be considered a White characteristic? I know plenty of White students who are struggling with passing classes and I also know several overly intelligent latinos, black and Asians. I am sure that I am not the only student to think that this unspoken rule that you
Pretend you are driving along on the highway. You see a person on the side of the road having car problems. This is person is wearing an Armani suit and driving a Porsche. The next day, you encounter the same incident but, this time, it is a man wearing baggy jeans with holes in them, a dirty shirt and he looks very unclean. Would you be more likely to stop for the man in the Armani suit, or the the second man? I know that I would stop for man #1. The reason I and most of our society would do so, is because we have a horrible habit. The habit is unintentional and we do it not meaning to hurt anybody This habit is stereotyping people by the way they look or talk based on what society considers normal. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Scout, Atticus and Tom Robinson are victims of being stereotyped by others. Each has to cope with being stereotyped. Scout and Atticus have the ability to change their ways in order for people to respect them, unlike Tom Robinson, who is stereotyped as a mutant to the town of Mayberry simply because he is black. For example people are preaching to Scout that she should act like a typical girl. Atticus is stereotyped as a traitor to his people, the white race, because he stands up for a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a young woman. Last but not least, Tom Robinson is stereotyped as being a flaw in the human race because he is black. When he is accused of committing a rape, he is not given a fair tr...
In conclusion, stereotypes are always going to come in different shapes and forms. We may not realize it at first, but we need to know they are there. In order for stereotypes to be broken, people need to stop feeding people what they think it is to be something or someone they have no idea about. Stereotypes come from uneducated biased people and with that cause a lot of false information. We need to change what information we give out because we are hurting other humans with our assumptions.
In the modern era, stereotypes seem to be the ways people justify and simplify the society. Actually, “[s]tereotypes are one way in which we ‘define’ the world in order to see it” (Heilbroner 373). People often prejudge people or objects with grouping them into the categories or styles they know, and then treat the types with their experiences or just follow what other people usually do, without truly understand what and why. Thus, all that caused miscommunication, argument or losing opportunities to broaden the life experience. Stereotypes are usually formed based on an individual’s appearance, race, and gender that would put labels on people.
Throughout the years, racial stereotypes have played a major role in society. Even today, one combines racial stereotypes and prejudice thoughts before one even says a word to the person. Just seeing an African- American man while in a parking lot and pulling out ones phone, can be a simple example of modern-day racial stereotypes.
Everyone knows about the various stereotypes and social stigmas that come with socioeconomic status whether they will choose to admit it or not. Society has come to assume that a child who comes from a family of low socioeconomic status, that they will not do as well as a child who comes from a family of a greater socioeconomic status. Unfortunately these assumptions are so ingrained in our brains that we start to follow the self-fulfilling prophecy. When a child from a noticeably low socioeconomic status walks into a classroom, it is not uncommon for the teacher to automatically assume that the child will not perform well in class, and in turn either grades the child more harshly or does not give the child as much attention as the other children from high socioeconomic status families. Do these children not perform well in class because of the self-fulfilling prophecy or is there something that happens during the critical period that causes the child to fall behind?
At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate.
“Stereotypes unreliable, exaggerated generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account” (Schaefer 40). Stereotypes can be positive, but are usually associated with negative beliefs or actions such as racial profiling.
Schools that are filled with low-income colored students across the country are far more likely to have inexperienced teachers, bad grades, very little opportunities for economic funding and racial segregation compared to schools in wealthier areas. The issue of teacher
If a young girl is walking alone through a park late at night and encounters three senior citizens walking with canes and three teenage boys wearing leather jackets, it is likely that she will feel threatened by the latter and not the former. Why is this so? To start off, we have made a generalization in each case. By stereotyping, we assume that a person or group has certain characteristics. Often, these stereotypical generalizations are not accurate. We are succumbing to prejudice by ?ascribing characteristics about a person based on a stereotype, without knowledge of the total facts?1.
Most people find stereotypes to be obnoxious, especially when they have to do with sensitive subjects like gender or race. “Stereotyping is a generalization about a group or category of people that can have a powerful influence on how we perceive others and their communication behaviors” (Floyd, 61). Because they underestimate the differences among individuals in a group, stereotyping can lead to inaccurate and offensive perceptions of other people. Although stereotypes are prevalent in almost every society, becoming aware of our perceptions of others, as well as differentiating between both positive and negative stereotypes can help us overcome those stereotypes.