Being Asian Stereotypes Essay

In our ways of distinguishing and differentiating different groups of people, there tends to be an oversimplification of how we perceive race, gender, and other groups (32). This is a problem because it creates an idea that such organizations completely or accurately define groups of people. Consequently, the presence of stereotypes occur and function to potentially create harmful associations and social reactions. To be more specific, different groups of people will elicit specific reactions which are a response to already-present stereotypes. In the case of the stereotype content model, these reactions are measured by warmth and competence. As the textbook points out, groups higher on the warmth and competence scale are more likely to receive responses

Now, since the Asian group is high competence and low warmth, the stereotype model claims that I and other individuals in the Asian group may receive responses of envy and jealousy. I have had experiences that have resulted in such social interactions and they have mostly occurred in school. I went to a predominantly white high school and out of the 30-35 students in that class, I was the only Asian person there. Unlike my Asian stereotype, math is my worst subject. I struggle with math a lot and that class was really difficult for me. Anway, we had three exams in the class and my teacher had told us that the second one is usually the one that most students have difficulty with. In hearing that, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could study hard enough to get an A on that test. I studied on my own, went to study sessions and met up with my teacher multiple times to make sure that I understood the concepts completely. I took the test and a week later I got it back with a 96%. I was extremely happy that I had gotten an A on this test because I was usually getting B's or high C's. But then, a guy sitting behind me (who had never spoken to me before) looked at my test and said, "of course the Asian girl gets an A." I did not