People, Their Stereotypes and Prejudices- Profiling Others is a Way of Life
Posted: Sunday, April 11, 2010
by Jon Searles
I do realized that racial, socioeconomic, religious, and sex stereotypes are considered to be outside the norm of political correctness and acceptable evaluation of those around us, but darn it if they are not still extremely accurate! True, you may not be able to lump every single person from a particular racial, monetary, religious, or sexual orientation grouping, but you will find that many will fit perfectly into the stereotypical and life clich columns we choose to create.
Standing in front of my business with a friend I noticed a shabbily dressed, ultra thin, black man coming toward me. I casually reached in my pocket to prepare for the encounter. My friend asked what I was doing and I told him that the man dragging towards us was going to ask for money under the guise of needing something to eat. I explained that I am a soft touch when it comes to those asking for money and that this experiment had been repeated many times in my parking lot. I also knew that he was more likely to go get something to drink at the liquor store less than 50 yards from where my friend and I were currently standing. My friend, feeling a little more liberally offended than he should, felt I was unfairly stereotyping the human baggage coming toward us because I must assuredly be a racist and elitist. I told him no I am probably more a realist. He was sure that the money I gave him would be the first step in the upward climb out of poverty and addiction.
My and your opinions of people are not casual observations made because we observe behavior in one individual. We are all social scientists and civilization anthropologists with the ability to process hundreds and sometimes thousands of individuals in our test group. Admittedly some test groups are too small to be statistically significant and the test group is not properly sampled giving rise to over exaggerated stereotype classifications. For example if you live next door to a Pentecostal Baptist church that uses venomous snakes during worship services you may not be able to discern them from a group of American Baptists who are more traditional Protestants. Also if Fox News is your only source of daily news and reports from around the world your world may be smaller than you think.
Just because you have put certain individuals into categories and lists that are less than savory does not mean you are a hateful person. If a young woman is walking down a dark city street on her way home and she encounters 3 young men with tattoos, loose clothing, and dew rags atop their heads walking toward her, leading with their groins with each step, I am sure a bit of fear and dread will creep into her head. Notice I did not mention any race, since race lines are drawn differently throughout the country. In my scenario, the girl is Hispanic and the young men are white. Ask yourself, what did your stereotype radar first think of when I mention a lone girl and 3 young men in dew rags?
What does your stereotype radar think when I mention Hispanic landscapers, white politicians, Jewish businessmen, female softball players, black rap artists, Muslim fundamentalists, pregnant teenagers, flamboyant gentlemen, or Right wing conservative talk show hosts? Do you find these listings positive or negative in your thoughts? Do you feel a pang of social guilt in putting each into a column of acceptable or unacceptable? Face it, stereotypes and prejudices toward groups outside of our own taxonomy are common and reasonable. Mixed with fear, hate, and loathing, they are dangerous. However, to ignore the differences in people and their propensity to roll themselves through life style choices into one of many stereotypical groups is naive. Believe me when I say we all fit somewhere in someone's stereotypical view of people and unfortunately so many good individuals are lost in their stereotypes because as people it is convenient to lump many into one.
I have hired about 10 different Puerto Rican young men over the last 4 years. All were clean cut, well built, and respectful young men. All had children out of wedlock and all had to meet with a parole officer. Eventually, all let me down and were unable to fulfill the job qualifications with the exception of one. He has since moved on to a better, more productive life by breaking the cycle of his own stereotypical living and hopefully somehow he will continue to rise above as we have seen people do throughout history. His stereotype did not grow from the island of Puerto Rico but from the inner city U.S.A. neighborhood from which he was raised.
When is stereotyping wrong? I am not sure it is wrong unless it ultimately excludes an individual or fosters hate, which it easily does but only because those that operate within the stereotypes continue to fan the flames that keep stereotypes alive. Religious fanatics, gang violence, suicide bombers, and philandering politicians perpetuate the landscape. Racial and religious profiling has its definite advantages. If police see a group of red necked white boys with bats walking through a predominately black middle class neighborhood, I would hope they would stop them and ask questions. If I had only mentioned black youths in this example, the small hairs on the back of your necks that serve as your prejudice radar would have stood up on end classifying me as a sheet wearing, shaved skin head, white supremacist. I do not wear a sheet nor am I a white supremacist, I do however have a shaved head.
After giving $5 dollars to the man who had asked for a little financial reward for his long journey across the parking lot, my friend and I watched him walk casually toward the liquor store. I was sure he would come out with a beer in a brown paper bag, and I guess my friend assumed he was going in to buy a bag of peanuts or apply for a job.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Good article Jon, makes you think. Very funny ending. I think we're all guilty of stereotyping people at some point. Me most recently when my son decided to enter into the tattoo business. I've always preached it, but now I've learned it, Never, ever judge a book by it's cover. (As hard as it may be at times.)Please log in to respond to this comment.
My son has three tattoos and is about to be sworn in as an officer in the U.S. Army. Times are different. Thanks for reading and when you get time, tell me about screambucket.Please log in to respond to this comment.
So true Jon. Many people in countries overseas view Americans as conceited, arrogant, pushy, self-serving, self important, ignorant, uncaring - and very judgmental regarding anyone who dares to be a little different from them.Best.....ePlease log in to respond to this comment.
Brilliantly written, Jon. Your kind of realism has its place indeed. Yes, it is naive to condemn all forms of stereotyping, but it stereotyping remains an ever tricky craft, a necessary discomfort or comfort, depending on the circumstances. ~mogama~Please log in to respond to this comment.Mogama,Great observation as "necessary discomfort or comfort". I guess I at time age discriminate when I help an older man or woman with their groceries to the car but do not help a younger man or woman with the same task. Thanks for reading.Please log in to respond to this comment.
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