So most of my blogs posts (minus the first two) have been about the American view of other people and how we stereotype people and how we are wrong. I began to ponder, where do these stereotypes come from? Why do we still have them today if we are supposedly a modern society? I thought America was supposed to be a melting pot and we were supposed to accept everyone; but, we obviously don't. Almost every person in this country comes from immigrants. None of us are truly "American" so shouldn't we be more respectful to those from other countries and cultures? This country alone is filled with so many different cultures and we have a hard time even accepting that. Think of all the stereotypes that northerners have of southerners and vice versa. Americans are extremely judgmental and critical of everyone.
I believe that the reason we create stereotypes is to categorize different types of people into different groups. Humans are always trying to organize everything so they can store it in their brains and stereotypes enable us to tell the difference between ethnic groups. People also create stereotypes to make themselves feel like they are better than other people. For example, when the United States completed manifest destiny and pushed all of the Native Americans onto reservations. In the eyes of those early Americans, the Indians were savages who needed help civilizing themselves. Americans used this stereotype to justify what they knew was unfair.
I also believe that the reason we continue to have stereotypes today is because we keep teaching our children to judge other people and not just accept everyone for who they are. I saw this tweet the other day and it really got me thinking:
https://twitter.com/Sume_Kalyan
If we are teaching our children to cringe at people just because they are different then why do we expect them to grow up and be kind people? This five year old that @Sume_Kalyan is discussing is just bound to grow up into someone just like all of the other ignorant Americans I have been talking about. There is something inherently wrong with how we Americans raise our children and it needs to change if we ever want our society to be better.
If you would like to learn more about stereotypes check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype
This tweet also reminded me of an article I read on CNN today about a transgender child who is no longer allowed to use the girls bathroom at her school because the faculty believe that it will make the other children uncomfortable. Here is the article plus a picture of her:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/27/us/colorado-transgender-girl-school/index.html?hpt=hp_c5
This young child is only in first-grade and the staff of the school are already discriminating against her and teaching the other students to discriminate against her too. Even if she is a little different, shouldn't we celebrate that she has realized who she is so early on and is so confident in being herself? We also teach our children to dare to be different and express themselves but then in cases like this when they actually do express themselves, they are segregated and ridiculed.
If you ever decide to have children or you already do have them, I urge you to raise them to better than this. Tell them that everyone is the same on the inside and that we should all be comfortable being ourselves. Tell them not to ever make fun of someone just because they are different. This way, the next generation can be better than the last and society will progress.
Your travel advisor,
Kinley
I like this post because my mom is one to stereotype people, though she doesn't try to, it happens (basically like most people I guess). Just last night we were watching a show called Duck Dynasty and the people on the show may not look the smartest but just because they have long beards and make duck calls for a living, that doesn't mean they're not smart right? Well, my mom automatically assumed that they were pretty much dumb. So, unknown to me, she went online and looked up the people. What she found was they had good education and had good previous jobs, and they can't be too dumb seeing as they made millions off of the duck calls. When she asked me if I was surprised I said " I don't know, not really. Cause unlike you I didn't judge them based on their appearance and where they live." So in conclusion, I agree that people do judge and stereotype people too much. Good idea for a blog post!
ReplyDeleteI think that you summed up stereotypes very well. I agree that the problem can be aided by teaching children that all people are the same on the inside and that you should encourage them to be themselves and express themselves. I also think that the problem is because American's sort of put themselves on a pedestal and most think that we are better than any other country. This causes us to look down on other cultures and promote stereotypes. I think that you did a very good job at identifying the problem of stereotypes.
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