Stereotypes: Why do they exist?

[LSN80]

Short answer: Because enough people from a certain class, culture, race or gender has behaved in a certain way for a period of time, allowing those to develop. Does it make them any less wrong? No. But the above, however politically incorrect, is the opinion I've held to over a period of time in life.

When you live long enough, you generally experience enough in life that helps confirm or deny the stereotypes you have. When I was growing up, any stereotypes I showed towards others were as a result of what I learned from my family. My parents didn't feed into a mindset of being generally critical of other people, for the most part. Religion was always a major issue in my household, as my parents, mainly my mom, acted at times that friends of mine couldn't possibly be anything but bad influences if they weren't Christians. And I didn't dare bring home a girl who wasn't of the same religious mindset as my parents!

Dealing with my grandparents and friends were another story. It baffles me and impresses me how my dad became who he is today, one of the most non-judgmental, tolerant people in the world today. From a young age, my grandfather and grandmother on his side were quite vocal about their dislike of "the blacks", and didn't hesitiate to share why. The music they listened to, the way they treat women, the clothes that they wear, their athletic prowess, and of course, they all do or deal drugs, and fought the law!(And the law won!) Some of my closest friends were raised by parents or their grandparents with similar attitudes towards African Americans. I went to a high school that, out of 1500 people, had MAYBE ten African American students, and ten is being generous. So what I learned of that race through my formative years came from my grandparents and family, as I was reared in the years before the Internet became a force in life.

In time, as someone who went to college and beyond, I'd like to think I was more enlightened and became more tolerant of others. Taking classes such as multicultural therapy helped gave me an understanding and perspective I hadn't gained before. In that class, we were challenged to undertake a variety of tasks that stretched our horizons. For example, those of us who were straight had the assignment to hold hands with someone of the same sex in public for at least 20 minutes. We were challenged to attend a religious service that held opposing views to our own. There were more, but I think you get the picture. And it really challenged me to look at my views toward others, especially since I was doing things that out and out made me uncomfortable.

Stereotypes, in their most basic form, are the generalizations we make of other people. It's our way of feeling valued and secure about ourselves through the trivialization of others. It's the well "I may do this, but at least I'm not as bad as them", type of attitude. We see it in comedy, on our television shows, and it's pervasive on the internet. But even after saying all of that, stereotypes do exist for some reason or another. Be it popular or not, enough people of a certain group have behaved in a way to confirm the belief.They do come from truths, in some fashion. However, what most people are failed to be taught is that those truths are highly conditional, and simply cannot be applied to an entire sector of people. But we stereotype people by class, gender, race, where they live, and even by the jobs that they perform.

Will we meet people along the way who re-enforce stereotypes we were raised with? It's inevitable. Post-graduate school, I got my first job as the director of an agency a few hours away from where I grew up. Having to find housing quickly, I took the first apartment I could find, which happened to be in an almost all-black area. On my floor of the complex, I was the only white person.

For awhile, that wasn't a problem for me. I liked my neighbors, and had good relationships with all of them. I worked so much that i never developed friendships with any of them, but we were on good terms. Then, one night, I was driving home from the gym after work and my normal route was blocked by construction, so I had to take an alternate route. One that was, well, blocked as well. As I drove around an unfamilar corner, I found myself driving on a road at 11pm at night, straight into the middle of a drug deal between several African AmericansThey shouted obscenities at me for "driving too fast" at 25 mph, and as I was driving past, I heard a big thud on my back windshield. One of the gentlemen had thrown a brick at my car. I drove away quickly, but my attitude in that one night changed vastly.

I started looking at my neighbors as threats instead of friends. I kept my head down when I left my building for work as opposed to my previously friendly attitude toward my neighbors. I feverishly began looking for a new place to live, wanting to get out of my "bad neighborhood" as soon as possible.

The incident I went through was a scary one. But it didn't excuse my reaction to it. Instead of calling the police and recognizing it for what it was, I grouped an entire race of people together. I allowed the actions of a few to influence my actions towards an entire group of people. Because of genuine fear, and insecurities that developed, I generalized my thinking and treated alot of people unfairly for some time. Sadly, this attitude was pervasive in me for about a year, and didn't truly change until I supervised and became friends with a great African American guy.

But isn't it funny how stereotypes work? At their worst, we can allow the actions of a few to influence our beliefs towards the whole in a negative manner. At it's best, we can allow people who act differently from what we expect to change those negative perceptions. We "learn" things about others from family, friends, and in this day and age, the Internet and television. In reality, the best way we should learn things is simple: By getting to know people as individuals.

What stereotypes did you grow up with?

How did you learn them?

Was there an "ahah!" moment, or moments, that changed a stereotype of you? What happenned?

Any other thoughts, general or others regarding stereotypes, are more then welcome.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

What stereotypes did you grow up with?

Religion, race, sexism, you name the stereotype I grew up with it. When I say this I'm not saying my parents actually believed any of it but when you're five and you constantly hear them from that day on you start to believe what you hear, or at least think that's what your parents believed.

For example, my uncle and dad (the 2 big parental figures I had growing up) would often spout racial slurs (car rides got entertaining quick because of it). It wasn't uncommon for them to talk up men and talk down women and they both despised religion with every fiber of their being, but I guess when you grow up with your grandfather who fought for Germany in WWII stuff like that could happen.

As years went on I came to learn they didn't really buy into it and believe it but they certainly bought into certain stereotypes, all Asian's can't drive is a good example of this. Even though they aren't really racist or sexist you can still hear their grandfather in them (For the record he was really racist and sexist).

How did you learn them?

If anything I learned to call a spade a spade, but at the same time I learned not to buy into all the crap that comes with stereotypes because mostly, that's what they are crap. Because my dad and uncle were so big on stereotypes and acting stereotypical it either affects you in a negative or positive way. For myself I at least learned that all stereotypes are for the most part bullshit and to never judge a book by its cover.

Was there an "ahah!" moment, or moments, that changed a stereotype of you? What happenned?

Not really one moment in particular, it mostly just came from learning through experience slowly but surely.

 

[Paralyzer Z]

What stereotypes did you grow up with?

The most common stereotypes such as race, and religion never really played a huge factor in my life. That's not to say I never saw any, for example my grandmother who is VERY religious (catholic) would always say that atheist were soulless and didn't care about anything. That really was never backed up by anything I actually saw until middle school where a few of my peers claimed to be atheist but never exhibited any personality or belief features that my grandmother had taught me to believe. Race on the other hand as crazy as it may sound coming from an ethnic minority has never impacted my life nearly at all. My grandparents live in a decent area that has since become a place of drug dealing. One day my Uncle came home with a few African and Mexican Americans who didn't from the outer appearance, seem to be very civil or mannered. My family being Hispanic ourselves surprised me when my grandmother said that is what all Mexicans look like and do drugs as well (said it in Spanish). The next month a Mexican family rented a room in my grandmother's house and they seemed like very nice people, albeit knowing very little to no English. Their son was mute and mentally challenged toddler who made very good friends with my little brother while at the same time managing to be the craziest child I have ever met (scratch that FUN child).

That being said neither of those minor stereotypes ever effected my opinion of a group as much the stereotypes about homosexuals. I have spent the majority of my life around anti-gay sentiment, particularly the overwhelming majority of my family. From when I was little I remember my father strictly and firmly telling me "Boys like Girls, and nothing else is right". An example of this coming into play would be this one time I was at a friend's birthday party. We were participating in some sort of dance game and my friend's cousin started doing these crazy moves. He was wearing earrings and according to my father he danced like a girl would. My father told me "That boy is gay, I feel sorry for his father" who didn't seem to be upset at all. At Walmart some other time my brother and I saw these two tall men walking shoulder to shoulder, and just by their posture my father assumed that they were homosexuals, I believed he was right. From then on I was afraid of homosexuals until middle school when I observed these guy who had all the characteristics needed according to my past to be deemed non-heterosexual. I found him to be a great person and from then on I ignored everything told about me form the anti-gay opinions around me. Though my siblings still have that belief in them, and it once again came into play last year when I think New York passed a gay marriage law which came at the disapproval of my parents.

How did you learn them?

From my family, a very old school type family with stern beliefs I might add. Again throughout my early childhood I saw many occasions of verbal slurs against homosexuals coming out of the mouths of various family members. I had never known a non-heterosexual before that and those thoughts of stereotypes where drilled into my belief system. Eventually I unlearned it these beliefs by researching and gaining more knowledge on homosexuals through the internet. I saw a side to them that I had never thought existed: that they were not wrong people simply due to their sexual orientation. As primitive as that sounds I had truly never thought about it that way before.

Was there an "ahah!" moment, or moments, that changed a stereotype of you? What happenned?

Observing the peer who'm I mentioned had all the "gay character traits" would be that "aah moment" if you could even consider it a moment even though it happened over a span of 5 months. If I were to pick one moment it would the start of some documentary that I viewed a couple of years back showing the life of LGBT people in a community. I forgot the name of it and at this point I don't care anymore, the information got where it needed to.


Any other thoughts, general or others regarding stereotypes, are more then welcome.[/QUOTE]

 

[Dagger Dias]

I grew up having constant reminders of what the stereotypical gender roles were. My parents were very old fashioned and very judgmental. Every act I ever did and every decision I ever made would be frowned upon if it did not fit the mold of what a male was supposed to do in my parents eyes. The older I got, the more it bothered me to hear either of my parents tell me I had to do certain things certain ways "because that's how guys do them". I hated it and wanted to be my own person. They still to this day seem to resent me and my wife sometimes, with my older sister being the obvious favorite in the family after she grew up to more or less be a clone of my mother. They were also rather racist towards other races or anyone who disagreed with their way of life, trying to brainwash both my sister and myself about negative stereotypes for most of our lives. I did not want to end up like them.

The main other stereotype I ran into was that of the judgmental fundamentalist Christian. In college I made friends with a very diverse group of people. Two in particular, a pagan and a buddhist, were shocked that I took them in as friends rather than judge them like most other Christians did. I helped show them that I was not like that, not all Christians force their way of life on people. They in turn helped me see that I could retain my beliefs without having to fulfill the traditional choices my parents demanded. This was an important time in life because by helping my friends understand one stereotype's falsehood, they helped me overcome my own in turn.

 

[Fuel]

I was born and raised in Quebec, so when I moved to Ontario, the "frog" knocks were... well, they still haven't gone away, some 14 years later. In fact, my older brother still uses it as a nickname. "Phrawg", as it were.

Gangsta muh'fucka that he is.

 

[SalvIsWin]

Stereotypes exist because we've evolved in a way in which being able to make snap decisions based on limited experience is beneficial. Stereotypes are a remnant of our past evolution that I feel mostly inhibit our progress as a specie at this point unfortunately. Most of us I presume don't have much use for stereotypes anymore, I feel they serve to bias our decisions and cloud our judgement in situations more than anything else at this point.

The good news is that our cognitive ability has progressed to the point where we can actively manipulate and change our instinctual reactions. Take homosexuality for example, there is evidence to suggest that disgust and revulsion of homosexuality is an evolution that served us well in the past. Any evolution that kept individuals away from sexual acts that didn't result in procreation and pushed us towards propagation of genetic material would be beneficial. That being said, now we're in a society where that disgust and revulsion no longer fits the type of society that most of us would prefer, one of peace, tolerance, and happiness.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I started looking at my neighbors as threats instead of friends. I kept my head down when I left my building for work as opposed to my previously friendly attitude toward my neighbors. I feverishly began looking for a new place to live, wanting to get out of my "bad neighborhood" as soon as possible.

It's a question of seeing people as individuals, rather than grouping them together, as the OP learned. His experience reminded me of a girl from high school named Elaine. At an all-school dance, a black guy stole the wallet from one of our friends, a guy named Matt. While Matt was fuming, Elaine made this impassioned speech in front of all of us saying that Matt shouldn't be upset because his wallet undoubtedly went into the hands of a poor person who needed the money and probably wouldn't have stolen the wallet had his need not been so pressing. Needless to say, Matt was ready to go after Elaine!

A few months later, at another school function, this time it was Elaine's purse that was stolen by a black person (he was later apprehended with it). Not surprisingly, Elaine was singing a different tune, somehow not sympathetic with the robber's economic status or his motivations. You should have seen her railing against "all the black bastards in this town." When she was the victim, it became a different story, huh?

Stereotypes come from our upbringing, as the OP says. They also come from our fervent desire to fit in with everyone else and also, like Elaine, from the sum of our personal experiences and the experiences of our families and friends.

In Elaine's case, seeing someone else's property stolen led her to proclaim that all black people are good. Later, when her experiences hit closer to home, she speculated that all black people are bad.

Neither is true. Like whites, black folks are individuals. Some are good, some are bad......and most have good and bad qualities that need to be looked at individually in order to determine whether he (or she) is a person you would want to know. Just like whites, Asians, and everyone else.

As long as man remains such a social animal, stereotypes will exist as people attempt to fit in with everyone else. That means a hodgepodge of opinions, good and bad, informed and misinformed.

Keeps things exciting, that's for sure.

 

[Alex]

Being of mixed race I tend to deal with it quite a bit somewhat, heck my friends make jokes about it all the time.

Since I was a kid people seem to find it strange that I don't fit the mould of what they believe I should be. For example my main taste in music is rock, branching into metal etc. When people find this out they always seem surprised, because they expect me to listen to loads of rap and RnB. I do listen to them as well, just not as much. Also my appearance seems to get a few stares. Generally looking like the bastard child of the 80s and 90s (skinny jeans, converse, band t-shirts and big hair) people seem surprised that I don't wear pumps/ the big hi-tops, chinos or baggy jeans. I get annoyed with it but I don't find it to be a big deal.

On the flip side I've been known to assume things based on apperance, there's a guy on my uni course who looked like Eminem's younger cousin and I assumed he was just some wannabe gangster prat. But after talking to him I realised he was a sound guy.

The thing is with stereotypes even when you know you should give people the benefit of the doubt you automatically make a judgement.

It's basically a put down by certain groups. Its like the groups you see in these high school films (jock, nerd, alternative, cheerleader etc) one set will assume things about the others based on what they've been told by their group without finding the information out for themselves

 

[ABMorales787]

Well for the most part, stereotypes do have foundation on reality. You see on the street a guy wearing baggy clothes, a chain and cap, there's hardly any doubt the guy is a rap listener. With that territory comes the fixation with cars and their stylized presentation and performance. A fixture of the rap community. But since not everyone is alike even if they look alike, it's not good to judge on looks alone.

I've learned why the stereotype of why Catholics (or any other major religion) are seen as snarking, self-righteous people exists. It's the biggest religion on the planet and if you're jumping into religion in order to justify your actions (it's common), that's going to be the one you jump to. Most people that join a religion at a later age aren't used to it's moral upbringings and just follow them without understanding the "why's" behind them.

There's also the stereotype for older people being ignorant. The world just evolves at a faster speed than what most people are able to adapt. When your grandpa thinks soda has chemicals that kill people and beer doesn't or your grandma can't pronounce "stomach" properly (she says "estogamo" instead of "estomago") you know the world is passing them by.

I also get ribs around here about living in a hut and shit.

 

[Trill Co$by]

What stereotypes did you grow up with?

Black people have to be good at sports. Granted, I am... but it didn't come natural to me at all. I had to spend countless of hours with my team and my dad (also my peewee football coach) learning drill after drill. Later, I had to work my ass off to learn just the basics of wrestling be able to take up indy shows. It's not like I was born and then instantly able to play sports.

Also, with black women I've heard that they're always "gold diggers" and whatnot. Sure, some of them are through nurture, but that's not to say all of them are. A lot of them can be quite easy to deal with when it comes to money.

How did you learn them?

Stupid is as stupid does. No, seriously... Once everyone that went around saying "You're black so you're naturally talented" saw how much practice I had to put into my football, they understood that naturally I sucked at sports. I had to literally work on everything I did to get better, which I did. I think it's more of them being insecure with their own abilities, so they reach for excuses by saying stuff like that. At the end of the day, I don't mind them.

Was there an "ahah!" moment, or moments, that changed a stereotype of you? What happened?

Well, I once started getting the unfortunate pattern of dating the "Dumb blondes" where everyone of them would have their "blonde moments". It was kind of funny for them to ask standard questions but be completely serious about them. And of course, we all dabble in a few "fantasy" based stereotypes.

You know... blacks are bigger, red heads are more fun, brunettes like experimenting, blondes are easy... that kind of stuff. But really, everyone later learns that when you find the right person, they'll be as experimenting as you are.

 

[AndThat'sTheBottomLine]

I grew up with all sorts of stereotypes. Racial, sexist, homophobic. I was taught that all blacks are gangsta, drug dealing, wanna be rappers. I was taught that any woman you see on sportcenter had to spread her legs to get her job. I also was taught that gays act like women. I got all this mostly from my dad. He wasn't racist per say, but his dad was to an extent because my dad's grandfather was a mean, full-blooded German. he hates the mixing of races and calls anyone white person who dates blacks a "****** lover". He also likes to say "She don't know a damn thing about sports all she did was spread her legs and they gave her a job." And he hates gays with a passion. It offends him to see gay people walking around. He once said, "We should put em all on an island and blow the some bitch up." I whole heartedly disagree with him. While I do live in a neighborhood full of black and hispanic drug dealers, I know that all of them are not bad. Heck I have more black friends than I do white friends. A lot of the white people I know are pretty stuck up but most of the black people I know are sensitive and easily offended. I also know a lot of women like my mother, who worked hard for her teaching job and is a very independent woman who is far from being subserviant or using sex to get anywhere. I also believe that gays are people to and while I may not agree with being gay, I also don't hate and believe they should be able to live their life the way they choose. I grew up in a very christian household but I refuse to tell someone they're going to Hell because of how they live because I'm far from being a saint. I didn't really have an "ahaaa" moment I just realized over time how ignorant these stereotypes are so I ignore them and try to refrain from grouping people together based on the actions of a few. But stereotypes will always exist until we start being more independent and stop trying to fit in.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

To answer the OPs questions

What stereotypes did you grow up with?
The two main ones I grew up with were that blacks and Mexicans were bad. Now mind you it was just Mexicans, not Hispanics. Most of them I grew up with were racially based, with the those two being the main ones.

How did you learn them?
It was just being around it from such a young age. No one ever sat me down and told me "Black people are bad" but when your grandparents throw the N word around casually you pick up on stuff.

Was there an "ahah!" moment, or moments, that changed a stereotype of you? What happenned?
There never was one specific moment, it was a process. When I was a wee little panda I heard about how blacks were bad, but when I started being around them and nothing bad ever happened I started to see differently. The only difference was they had darker skin and usually had hair that felt like a sheep. We both bled the same color and I found out thats all that really matters.


Now to share a story. My freshman year of college I had a sociology professor that argued that stereotypes exist as a survival tactic. He argued that if you have your wallet stolen by a black guy then you will probably be mad but not hate blacks. You get it stolen a second and third time by a black person, you start to develop a distrust of blacks and go out of your way to avoid them because in your mind you associate black people with wallet stealing. At first I thought he had a point until he made the same examples with Jewish bankers, Chinese laundromat owners, and Mexican construction workers. Deep down I think he was trying to justify his own prejudices