#aplang16stereotype

[akoaysi-cathy-blog]

Alright this is a little late... but we’ll see if anyone responds to this.

Sooo. Stereotyping is bad. My stereotypes, however, are not entirely hurtful to my reputation. I’m Asian. There haven’t been many instances where Asians are seen as threatening. I’m indifferent about stereotypes because they can be super awful and disgusting to think about or they can be hilarious. 

They’re disgusting because they generalize a population without even getting to know an individual within it. It separates people and separation within a single society is rarely ever peaceful. 

However, it’s great to joke around with people of the same ethnicity as you. You found someone with something in common and it isn’t just skin color it’s also culture. There’s an almost instant connection. With that connection it’s easier to exaggerate and joke about the little habits you have that are instantly associated with your skin color. 

Then the conversation with Lila happened and she mentioned something and it added a little bit more depth into my thinking. She said, ”Well, it’s true so why would I be offended?” From there she talked about how people assume she likes Starbucks. And she does. She pretty much said that was all she got as far as stereotypes go and she is fine with it. 

At the end of that conversation I thought to myself “She’s lucky” but then questioned why I thought she was. She faced a stereotype that could be as offensive as ones given to me. But it goes back to the whole “It’s true so why would I be offended?” thing. It doesn’t seem like Lila cares at all and I wish I could live that care free about what people thought about me. I do get self conscious and annoyed when people get me wrong. I’m jealous that there gets to be white stereotypes and then the stereotypes that go along with European countries. So white people get a choice to be white or some sort of European whereas I don’t get that choice. I get to be Chinese or Japanese. 

Then I started thinking “How did they decipher me as Asian?” For all they know I could be of Hispanic descent. My last name is Javier and my skin is around the same color of a person who is Hispanic. My eyes don’t totally give away that I’m Asian because I don’t have the monolid eyes as the mainland Asians generally do. So what gave away that I was Asian? I don’t fit the Chinese, I mean Asian, stereotypes... I never told the guesser I was Asian they would generally just ask “Are you Chinese?” and I would say “Nope.”

[maya11499-blog]

Stereotypes

Before the in class conversation, I felt as though stereotypes were evident but did not affect me personally. Growing up as a 3rd generation Indian American, I adapted a more Americanized persona. This often confused the white people around me, asking if I’m Brazilian, Puerto Rican, African and many more, but they never guessed Indian. I’ve received the comment that I am quite “white” for an Indian several times before. But I will never understand this comment and what it actually means. I can’t help but feel offended, just because I’m more americanized than other Indians does not make me “white”. I will never be white. I will never want to be white. After the in class conversation, I came to the realization that there is no single stereotype that fits everyone in the category. The media today doesn't seem to understand this reality, often displaying indians as being the unpopular, nerd who makes a fool of themselves. A stereotype that is often deemed untrue. For me personally, I’m judged by both sides of the spectrum, F.O.B.’s and white americans. I’ll never fit under a specific stereotype because there’s no stereotype out there made for people like me. Which makes sense because there’s not a single person in this world who completely matches the stereotype they are labeled with. Just because I don’t compete for the highest gpa, have a thick accent, or constantly smell like curry does not mean I’m disconnected with my own ethnicity. It means that I have had a different upbringing than the F.O.B. stereotype placed on Indians. Stereotypes are a false prejudice belief fueled by everyday media and carried out by everyday people.

[candadiangirldoll-blog]

I used to use stereotypes a lot , especially when I was younger , because Stereotypes are used to be able to understand people we don't know and easily divide them into categories . I learned in my conversation how stereotypes harm others , and the personal experiences people have had with stereotypes . I realized The problem comes from people forgetting that stereotypes are not gospel , and applying them to people as fact . Stereotypes can't be positive because they reduce people to 1 aspect and rob people of their complexity . Even if the stereotypes is something like " high intelligence " , it still creates a 1 dimensional view of people .

[briannaaiello]

STEREOTYPES

I always thought that stereotypes were always a negative assumption about someone based on their race, religion, or gender. I never actually thought about the fact that some stereotypes are good and that sometimes people want to live up to their stereotypes. When talking with my group (aka Riya and Erika), I realized that everyone no matter what has some sort of stereotype. It could be from a sport you play, a class you take, or even the clothes you wear, but most importantly a stereotype could arise from your age. Our generation, specifically, is stereotyped as a whole bunch of teenagers who are too obsessed with social media to know anything about the world. I know that I, personally, don't fit that stereotype so it really Irritates me to no end. What I really took away from this discussion is that everything and everyone is stereotyped in some way, but each stereotype holds some truth.

[the-meggsterr]

Stereotyping

In the past and present I know I have stereotyped others. Being a straight white girl there aren’t many hurtful stereotypes that people apply to me. But before I talked to Jarrett I didn’t realize some of the things I said weren’t okay. I didn’t even know how hurtful my own mentality was. I’ve tried to stop stereotyping other people but it’s something that is webbed inside us to do. I don’t know where it came from but it’s something that is connected to who we are as humans right now and the only way to get rid of it is to teach our kids not to stereotype and get them out of the media. But that would be incredibly hard because then they couldn’t just throw in a minority to make it easy for the main character. Before I talked to Jarrett I didn’t know how hurtful calling someone an Oreo or saying they sound white was.

After talking to him I’ve realized that that isn’t okay and most of the people I’ve met don’t fit their stereotype. I thought Jarrett would also be stereotyped based on other things he does but he told me that almost everything people say (like stereotype wise) relates to him being black. I never realized how hard it was for them to escape white people stereotyping their skin color. The things we say aren’t okay and just because we need an easy way to get “representation” or we need to make ourselves feel better by stereotyping others isn’t a good choice either. I didn't know that saying "Oreo" fostered a white is right mentality and I didn't know that people actually said that black people don't read. I'm disgusted by the latter and have done the former. We all have things that make us different but my things aren't really on display 24/7 like skin color. I'm sorry.

I don’t know why we stereotype. I don’t know where they came from. I don’t know how hurtful they can be because I’ve never really experienced it like other people have. I do know that they need to stop. But I don’t know how to do that either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[heyitsparpar]

Stereotypes

I used to think that stereotypes were always really easy to see, as the ones that had come to my mind all had to do with outward appearances; every single stereotype that I had used to define myself had to do with people making judgments based on what they could see of me from the outside. Although I realized that not every single stereotype was this way, I guess I instinctively valued these obvious, outward stereotypes as more “significant” to me than other more “insignificant” stereotypes that considered what was on the inside of a person.

While talking to Gabi and Daniel, it became clear really quickly that they felt the opposite way; the types of stereotypes I had picked out for myself were greatly different from the ones they had. Where the first thing that came to my mind was to talk about my outward appearance, mainly my skin color, both of my partners immediately talked about some of their inner qualities: Gabi chose to talk about her sexuality, and Daniel his religion. When I then asked the both of them to tell me about stereotypes that they faced based on their outward appearances or skin color, similar to what I had described about myself, they both hesitated, replying with an “I actually haven’t thought of that”.

Overall, we found that people who belong to a majority group don’t really feel the effects of a stereotype as much as people who belong to a minority group, despite the fact that these groups coexist and come into contact quite frequently considering the diversity of this school/nation. In this case, my choosing to talk about my outward appearance reflected the fact that my appearance (specifically my brown skin) is considered a minority here in a predominantly white country. I came to realize that stereotypes are really in the eye of the beholder; to me, stereotypes concerning my appearance were automatically deemed more prominent simply because my appearance being a minority has made me more susceptible to those stereotypes. But both Gabi and Daniel, belonging to the majority-white group, struggled much more than I did to come up with stereotypes that defined them in that way. They both instead chose to discuss other aspects of themselves that were considered minorities, such as Gabi’s sexuality as a lesbian and Daniel’s Jewish religion. These were two aspects that I hadn’t personally considered about myself, as I belong to the majority-heterosexual and non-Jewish groups. 

[yujoycee-blog]

Stereotype

I don’t really deal with stereotypes nowadays unless when I’m with my friends; we do tend to make fun of each other every now and then. In fact, I wasn’t aware that there were such thing as stereotypes until I was in middle school. People would assume that I am smart “just because I’m Asian” and it got very annoying. When I first entered the world of the Internet, I started seeing so many memes, parodies, posts, etc about people stereotyping each other. I used to think stereotypes were a way to identify people into certain groups, I didn’t necessarily think it was a bad thing until people started classifying me into a certain stereotype and I realized “that’s not true”. 

Then after talking in class about stereotypes, I learned that maybe stereotypes came to be because people assume that this certain group of people seem to have this common thing among them, which resulted in thinking that everyone who associates with that group must also do/have it too. Also, I always thought that stereotypes are mainly associated with culture/race but after talking to Brooke and Maya, I realized that people can also stereotype you based on what they have heard about you and how you look. Like for me personally, I think my stereotype is that I am quiet and shy. This particular stereotype was developed back when I was little and up to this day, it still has been following me around. Though in some cases that may be true, I feel like I already grew out of that stage. Also, Kreinbring mentioned the fact that stereotypes are more popular nowadays than before, I have to agree that it is true. The media today has such a huge role in enforcing those stereotypes that it has become the “norm”.

Now after this talk about stereotyping, I feel like it hasn’t change my thinking a whole lot except for the fact that I’ll probably be have a bit more convo about this topic for the next few days because AP LANG. I’m still going to joke around with my friends here and there. I know that I will see posts about people making fun of each other social media. But one thing that I have concluded is the fact that stereotypes will continue to exist and nothing really can break it. 

[maggieeeeeliz-blog]

Stereotype Struggles Still...

This is honestly driving me crazy. I'm incredibly flustered because stereotypes can be so frustrating. I'm frustrated because I really don't focus on stereotypes very much. I'm frustrated because although I rarely actually focus on whatever stereotypes or labels are associated with me, I realize I have been close to people who have stereotypes that are less escapable than mine. I've watched my adopted cousin of mixed race who didn't actually know her ethnicity until recently be told who she was and what it meant for her. I've stood by as someone made a racist comment about Mexicans being good for nothing but manual labor as my cousin of Central American decent stood 15 feet away. In 6th hour today we asked the question of why stereotypes exist and we couldn't find a conclusive cause or answer. I had asked the question because I thought maybe it was based on what was portrayed because people find comfort with what they know and when what they "know" or what is presented is always so stingy characteristics for different groups than that's why. But then that begged more questions of why are we portraying those things and I realized stereotypes existed even when media was historically limited. I know to some extent it must come down to a power struggle but I just don't know. This frustrates me because how can a problem be solved without knowing the cause. I like questions to be answered and this one, because of its complexity and nuance, doesn't have one definitive cause. And I realize that not all stereotypes are always "negative" per day but I don't think anyone likes people making preconceived judgements or expectations about them based on the simple colors they see. It seems that the only approach right now is individualized overall, and I suppose all decisions are individualize so even if a more definitive cause was found there's no way to really fully stop stereotypes for this reason. Sorry this is just a second blog because I kept thinking about it after class today.