ENG121 English Composition

Introduction                                                        

An example of an incident of stereotype was observed where a certain lady was employed far away from her home. Every time she was at the cafeteria having lunch, her colleagues kept telling her she had curly hair and could guess where she came from. Another colleague constantly asked her why she kept eating okra, and they also stated that they knew where she came from. The lady was afraid of being identified as an alien. She, therefore, tried to behave as expected of the regional group and avoid as much as possible the influence of her mother tongue in her speech (Koenig, 2018).

Another scene was observed when a group of Asian youths living in America went to attend a concert in a club and met an American security guard who denied them a chance of entrance and claimed that all the spaces were occupied. A few minutes later, a group of American youths came with the same need, and they were given a chance to access the premises, and the Asians were required to leave (Shih, Chang & Chen, 2019).

Thesis

Stereotypes are generalized overviews or public beliefs about a particular individual or social group of people. Stereotypes are also individual attitudes with the false classificatory concept to which, as a rule, a strong emotional feeling tone of likes and displeasures, approval, or disapproval is attached. Collective contacts highly condition these attitudes, and they become considerably consistent and perpetual within a group. People, therefore, create a composition of ideas and use the experiences acquired in the past to determine their perception of the object at a particular moment. The stereotypes may be positive and are often negative, but they are not accountable for personal differences. Therefore, stereotypes can be divided into three categories: assumptions, prejudice, and discrimination (Boyer, 2019).

Assumptions are claims and things that are accepted as true or sure to happen without any proof.  These claims are based on social class, culture, appearances, racial concepts, and beliefs. There is a different kind of assumptions that people make. Assumptions can be explicit, that is it is when it is stated directly. For example, one can say that the stranded people after Hurricane Katrina were the black people, the poor, and the elderly. These statements are made without any attempted prove. Assumptions can also be implicit, and therefore they are not stated directly but are implied. For instance, people may mean that racism is not good, but they never state it out neither try to prove it, but it's the point they try to make (Ellemers, 2018).

Assumptions can also be analytical, moral, or factual based on values. Some assumptions deal with facts based on gender profiling. Various statements are made such as men are strong and do all the good work, men are mortal, girls are not good at sports, women are not smart compared to men, men are unclean and messy, men who read too much are geeks, girls are majorly concerned about their physical appearance, among many others. Most of these assumptions handle the precise factual information that can be observed directly, and they are a driving force to stereotype (Ellemers, 2018).

Other assumptions are analytical and create stereotypes based on racial profiling, stating that all black people are good at running. This is a stereotype because it is grouping the race to indicate that every one of that race is a good athlete. Others state that blacks are of low social status, and they rate them as flawed and a minority in the community. Therefore, this results in a great systematic problem and is not involved in policymaking due to environmental racism. These assumptions go extreme the measurable data of examining the importance of relationships  (Lei &Bodenhausen2017).

Other assumptions are based on cultural values. It isn't easy to prove these assumptions of values since different groups of people have different cultural values. Some of these assumptions include that all Jews are greedy, all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists, Irish people are drunks, and eat potatoes.  Statements are also made that all blacks who do no life in United States are poor, Italian and French people are the best lovers, people living in England have bad teeth, and all Mexicans are lazy. All these assumptions create a particular picture of people based on ethnicity (Tameryan, Zheltukhina, Sidorova & Shishkina, 2019).

 Prejudice is an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or supposed characteristics. It also refers to the negative thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and attitudes a person has about a specific group regardless of their features. Prejudice is not based on experience, while it is usually a preconception originating outside genuine expertise. Racism is a strong type of prejudice that validates the belief that a particular racial category is greater or lesser than others. Therefore the racial majority uses these practices to disadvantage the racial minority. Institutional racism is an example of racism, and it reflects how racism is rooted in society. For example, many black people are arrested and convicted for disappropriate crimes (Fiske, 2017).

Racism occurs for various racial and ethnic groups. For example, black Americans are perceived as reckless drivers. Therefore, Blacks are more likely to be stopped by police officers for a vehicle search than whites, especially when the Blacks are moving around the predominately white neighborhoods. The Mexican Americans and various Latino groups are great goals of racism from the police and multiple community members. For instance, when a Latino is shopping for items using a personal cheque, they are often required to provide formal identification. This creates racial tensions (Mandalaywala, Amodio& Rhodes 2018).

Sexism is another example of prejudice toward individuals based on their sex. Gender role expectations are a common form of racism. For example, women are expected to be hospitable, friendly, and nurturing. And therefore, when women act in an assertive and unfriendly manner, they get disliked for violating gender roles. Sexism also exists on various levels of society, such as in hiring employment opportunities. And in most cases, women are not likely promoted in multiple professions that are believed to be male-oriented such as construction, aviation, and engineering. In such cases, women might be competent and qualified, but they are not considered due to a violation of gender expectations for modesty (Mudrick, Burton & Lin, 2017).

Discrimination consists of unfair actions against a particular group of people based on prejudices and assumptions. Discrimination can be found in religion, age, health, race, and gender. Many cases of discrimination are observed in the workplace. This can be gender wage discrimination when an employer pays women fewer wages than men for doing the same work. In most cases, Women are also given low-earning jobs. And therefore they are denied their civil rights (Castaño,  Fontanil&García-Izquierdo2019).

Other people are discriminated against based on their religious beliefs and might feel degraded and humiliated. For example, a person from the Hindu religion can be denied a job they qualify for in a Christian organization simply because they are from a different religion.  Catholics are also discriminated against for wearing crucifixes since not all Christians do that.  In other cases, people experience being poorly treated due to claims of specific religion related to discrimination under the Equality Act. For example, Muslims are mostly accused of terrorism and are denied many privileges in the community (Vang, Hou& Elder, 2019).

People can also be mistreated because of their race. Racial discrimination among Asian Americans in the United States is highly observed. These discriminations are majorly associated with their health implications among Asian Americans and their heterogeneity. An example of discrimination against Asian Americans is that they are denied high profile jobs due to their accents or speech. The Asians in the United States are also discriminated against when getting housing services, and the Americans seem to be considered first. This contributes to significant racial tensions among Asians and is afraid to seek public services (Shih, Chang & Chen, 2019).

Conclusion

Stereotypes are generalized overviews of public belief about a particular individual or social group of people. Stereotypes can therefore be divided into three categories that are assumptions, prejudice, and discrimination. Primarily, assumptions handle the detailed factual information that can be observed directly, and they are a driving force to stereotype. Prejudice is not based on experience, while it is usually a preconception originating outside genuine expertise. Discrimination consists of unfair actions against a particular group of people based on religion, age, health, and gender.

There are many ways of avoiding stereotyping, such as getting to learn people instead of making assumptions that they are troublesome and trying to restructure evil thoughts against them. Trying to fit in someone's shoes can also help avoid stereotyping. This is achieved when someone tries to imagine what could happen to them if they underwent the same judgment. Stereotyping will always exist as long as people continue viewing themselves being superior to others (Hill et al., 2017).

References

Boyer, H. (2019).The place of stereotypes in social thought and the media.Hermes, La Revue, (1), 68-73.

Castaño, A. M., Fontanil, Y., &García-Izquierdo, A. L. (2019). "Why can't I become a manager?"—A systematic review of gender stereotypes and organizational discrimination. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(10), 1813.

Ellemers, N. (2018). Gender stereotypes.Annual review of psychology, 69, 275-298

Fiske, S. T. (2017). Prejudices in cultural contexts: Shared stereotypes (gender, age) versus variable stereotypes (race, ethnicity, religion). Perspectives on psychological science, 12(5), 791-799Fiske, S. T. (2017). Prejudices in cultural contexts: Shared stereotypes (gender, age) versus variable stereotypes (race, ethnicity, religion). Perspectives on psychological science, 12(5), 791-799

Hill, C. G., Haag, M., Oleson, A., Mendez, C., Marsden, N., Sarma, A., & Burnett, M. (2017, May). Gender-Inclusiveness Personas vs. Stereotyping: Can we have it both ways?.In Proceedings of the 2017 chi conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 6658-6671).

Koenig, A. M. (2018). Comparing prescriptive and descriptive gender stereotypes about children, adults, and the elderly.Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1086.

Lei, R. F., &Bodenhausen, G. V. (2017). Racial assumptions color the mental representation of social class. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 519.

Mandalaywala, T. M., Amodio, D. M., & Rhodes, M. (2018). Essentialism promotes racial prejudice by increasing endorsement of social hierarchies. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(4), 461-469.

Mudrick, M., Burton, L., & Lin, C. A. (2017). Pervasively offside: An examination of sexism, stereotypes, and sportscaster credibility. Communication & Sport, 5(6), 669-688.

Shih, K. Y., Chang, T. F., & Chen, S. Y. (2019). Impacts of the model minority myth on Asian American individuals and families: Social justice and critical race feminist perspectives. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 11(3), 412-428.

Tameryan, T. Y., Zheltukhina, M. R., Sidorova, I. G., &Shishkina, E. V. (2019).Stereotype component in the Structure of Ethnocultural Archetype (on internet-blogs).In The European Proceedings of Social &Behavioural Sciences EpSBS (pp. 1716-1722).

Vang, Z. M., Hou, F., & Elder, K. (2019).Perceived religious discrimination, religiosity, and life satisfaction.Journal of Happiness Studies, 20(6), 1913-1932.

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