To some extent, I feel that stereotypes do rely on a certain form of reality. You know, that stereotype of the poor single mom with a missing black father... Well, yeah, they exist (keep reading, please!). If you only stop there, you will see them and definitely will have some racist thoughts. You have to still look after answers to see that it has definitely more to do with socioeconomic factors than it has to do with race. It's only one example.
Stereotypes rely on first impressions and appearances, and I've found they constantly pollute my own train of thought to the point I have to brush them off and make my own impression afterwards. They do are the first thing that comes to people's mind in most situations, but unfortunately, some people don't make that tiny mental effort to look past them.
So, I pretty much dislike most stereotypes equally, as they are not my thoughts, but thoughts that have been put in my head by society, culture and peers. I don't like being said what I should think.
Stereotypes are mental shortcuts that we create to help us organize our interactions. We really only have the mental resources to seriously interact with a limited number of people and so we form strategies to help us decide how best to direct those resources. The problem with stereotypes is that while they may provide some accuracy in forming impressions, our vulnerability to create false positives or embrace surface impressions without learning the whole story can lead us astray. So it's useful for organizing our lives but not always fair to the person being stereotyped.
For example, I am a liberal and fit many of the liberal stereotypes. But that doesn't mean that's all there is to me, or that it's impossible for me to have fruitful interactions with a more conservative individual. But many conservatives will see how I fit liberal stereotypes and dismiss me, and I'm prone to do the same in return. It narrows both our perspectives to create an unhealthy bubble.
I don't really dislike stereotypes, I more-so hate the people that continue to fuel them. At my college, there's constantly black people blasting rap or pop music through their headphones and yelling ghetto to people standing two feet from them. I've purposely tried to pay attention to white people as well and nope, almost none of them are loud and obnoxious like a lot of the black people on campus. It's certainly not all of them, but I can safely say I hate a good 85% of the black people that hang around on campus, and it makes me feel like a racist even though I'm hating them for individual behavior that just happens to add to bad stereotypes.
When I was a Resident Advisor in college I was involved in a situation where a guy really wanted to play his music loud during study hours. We kept getting complaints and I was forced to confront him multiple times. He'd turn it back down for a few minutes, then back up once he thought I wasn't paying attention. Finally we had to call the cops to report the noise because our authority alone wasn't enough. As I was making my statement to the office I overheard a young women proclaim, "they just did this 'cause they're white and we're black!" I wanted to explain that no, I did it because he was disturbing the other students and repeatedly refused to cooperate, but I had the impression all it would do was start another fight so I didn't try.
To some extent, I feel that stereotypes do rely on a certain form of reality. You know, that stereotype of the poor single mom with a missing black father... Well, yeah, they exist (keep reading, please!). If you only stop there, you will see them and definitely will have some racist thoughts. You have to still look after answers to see that it has definitely more to do with socioeconomic factors than it has to do with race. It's only one example.
Stereotypes rely on first impressions and appearances, and I've found they constantly pollute my own train of thought to the point I have to brush them off and make my own impression afterwards. They do are the first thing that comes to people's mind in most situations, but unfortunately, some people don't make that tiny mental effort to look past them.
So, I pretty much dislike most stereotypes equally, as they are not my thoughts, but thoughts that have been put in my head by society, culture and peers. I don't like being said what I should think.
Stereotypes are mental shortcuts that we create to help us organize our interactions. We really only have the mental resources to seriously interact with a limited number of people and so we form strategies to help us decide how best to direct those resources. The problem with stereotypes is that while they may provide some accuracy in forming impressions, our vulnerability to create false positives or embrace surface impressions without learning the whole story can lead us astray. So it's useful for organizing our lives but not always fair to the person being stereotyped.
For example, I am a liberal and fit many of the liberal stereotypes. But that doesn't mean that's all there is to me, or that it's impossible for me to have fruitful interactions with a more conservative individual. But many conservatives will see how I fit liberal stereotypes and dismiss me, and I'm prone to do the same in return. It narrows both our perspectives to create an unhealthy bubble.
I don't really dislike stereotypes, I more-so hate the people that continue to fuel them. At my college, there's constantly black people blasting rap or pop music through their headphones and yelling ghetto to people standing two feet from them. I've purposely tried to pay attention to white people as well and nope, almost none of them are loud and obnoxious like a lot of the black people on campus. It's certainly not all of them, but I can safely say I hate a good 85% of the black people that hang around on campus, and it makes me feel like a racist even though I'm hating them for individual behavior that just happens to add to bad stereotypes.
When I was a Resident Advisor in college I was involved in a situation where a guy really wanted to play his music loud during study hours. We kept getting complaints and I was forced to confront him multiple times. He'd turn it back down for a few minutes, then back up once he thought I wasn't paying attention. Finally we had to call the cops to report the noise because our authority alone wasn't enough. As I was making my statement to the office I overheard a young women proclaim, "they just did this 'cause they're white and we're black!" I wanted to explain that no, I did it because he was disturbing the other students and repeatedly refused to cooperate, but I had the impression all it would do was start another fight so I didn't try.