CONNECTING THE DOTS

When I first saw this assignment I only thought why, why does it have to be that long? So I knew right from the start that I would not do anything that weekend. After writing the paper I realized that I went on and on about things I really didn't care for. Maybe I could've related it to some passions in my life, such as music/dance. I put the two together because starting with music I listen to it, I feel it, then it flows through me, then I let it out by dancing. Are there problems considering racism in that area? Heck yes. People assume that blacks and Asians can dance or are born to dance. Not only does it suffer with racism but it also isn't allowed to be expressed. The freedom to express who we are doesn't exist with dance. There are PUBLIC places where it is prohibited. So they give it limits which is unfair. Maybe I could relate my paper to that. Just maybe. 

RESEARCH TERM PAPER

Jorge Garcia

Dr. Preston

Expository Composition

10 November 2013

Stereotypes: Racist or not?

Stereotypes, as Saul McLeod said, is a fixed, over generalization belief about a particular group or class of people. Now this can be seen as a good and a bad thing. Many problems with this is that many people have different views on the line between fun and racism. Nowadays saying stereotypes to people you know is considered signs of affection but saying them to the wrong crowd creates many problems. Where do stereotypes cross the line and become racist? Can stereotypes really be a good thing? How do these groups see themselves and how do they see others?

  First off what is a stereotype? How is it defined? Well in the Oxford Pocket Dictionary and Thesaurus a stereotype is define as: a person or thing that conforms to a widely accepted type. This was a strange definition because it claims the stereotype is the person. Going further however I looked up the word stereotype on two other websites. On the urban dictionary it is defined as: a term used to define all people of a certain belief into a mostly negative category that may only reflect a selected few of the racial demographics. This appears to be more accurate to the common knowledge of a stereotype. Finally I looked up stereotype on thefreedictionary.com and there it was defined as: a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. Again seems to be a better definition to the common knowledge of it. Now as far as examples go it should be obvious to what a stereotype is, but I did find several good examples on yourdictionary.com and this includes: 

• Mexican stereotypes suggest that all Mexicans are lazy and came into America illegally.

• All Arabs and Muslims are terrorists.

• All people who live in England have bad teeth.

• Italian or French people are the best lovers.

• All Blacks outside of the United States are poor.

• All Jews are greedy

And the list goes on. Really good way to put all the stereotypes into the minds of others. Now are they good or bad?

  Stereotypes can be seen as both good and bad, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. In the article by Saul McLeod he mentions both an advantage and a disadvantage for stereotypes. For an advantage he lists that it enables us to respond rapidly to situations because we may have had a similar experience before. Now I was very unsure about this as an advantage, it basically says we would be quick to judge anyone of a certain group that we’ve had an experience with. For example if you have worked with an African American and you’ve heard stereotypes that they were lazy you would quickly assume that that particular African American is also lazy. Which leads me to the disadvantage stated, which is that it makes us ignore differences between individuals, making us think things about people that might not be true. To me these are both the exact same thought, and in reality they are both a disadvantage. Overall it says that we need stereotypes to be quick to judge and that they are a supposed bad thing because we think of any group as a whole and don’t recognize the individuals. Well if that is the case then couldn’t we just stop being quick to judge? Would that not solve both those problems, since we wouldn’t be quick to judge we wouldn’t think of people as a group and therefore recognize them as individuals. It seems simple but it truly isn’t. 

Stereotyping serves another purpose, it helps us simplify our social world. That is still under the article by Saul McLeod, he claims that stereotyping reduces the amount of processing we have to do when we meet a new person. This is a bad thing but let’s face it we all do that. We can all deny it but honestly it happens, it’s the way we now all think. Whenever we see a person of a certain group we do stereotype and assume something of them, literally can be anything but we all assume something of them. In fact as I am writing this the reader will notice that I am using words like ‘them’ and referring to a group. Well like I said it makes classifying easier and even though I had not mentioned it before any reader knew exactly what I was talking about when I said ‘them’. We as a society are so use to that that we do not even notice it when we classify people. For the most part all of these stereotypes have been negative. In the Katz and Braly report they have gone to white students at Princeton University in 1933 to perform this questionnaire regarding other ethnic groups. What really surprised me was that few students there expressed any difficulty in responding to the questionnaire. Not surprisingly they all came up with similar results, so even back then there were certain stereotypes about groups. The flaw I found in this experiment I that only white kids were questioned about this, why only them? Was it because they were at Princeton? Was it because they were white? Why not give this questionnaire to a group of a high diversity? Would that not give better results? The reason I ask is because the white students who took the questionnaire described themselves as industrious and intelligent. I’m wondering, if each group was given the chance to describe themselves would they all do the same? Towards the end of this questionnaire they do point something out, that the questionnaire isn’t a good way to test stereotypes because people can lie. They can simply do that because they would love to see their ethnic group as the top of the charts. 

  Now switching gears a bit when are stereotypes a problem? It seems that many people believe it is one of the top problems in our society. In a blog created by Eric SCT there is a post where he argues that stereotypes and racism are really bad and should be stopped altogether. I’ll admit this post is not written well at all, it has too many mistakes and does not give any real evidence of anything. Although one interesting point given was that he compared racism and stereotypes and concluded that both had different meanings but were both generally the same. Now this was interesting because I always saw them as different, like stereotypes lead to racism. Saying they are the same brings about a whole new perspective of things, what if while you are messing around with your friends and start mocking them with stereotypes you’re actually being racist towards them and don’t even know it. What if there is no real line between stereotypes and racism, is it possible they could be the same thing? I can ask many people about this and probably get a wide variety of answers. Going into my perspective I do believe that there is a line between the two, but the line is in different places depending on the person. If the person is easily offended then the line is very thin, if the person is okay with it as long as the person knows you were kidding then the line is pretty far. From my experiences I can say that I am one to tolerate all of it when it comes from friends that are close to me. Now when it is someone that doesn’t know me then I get offended. There was one day where I was with my uncles and his cat got out and went into someone else’s yard. I went to the house and knocked on the door, a white middle aged women opened the door and smiled. I greeted her and she instantly said, “Oh good you’re here. You guys did an excellent job in the backyard and I have your money here.” She walked back and grabber her purse and handed me money. She smiled waiting to see what I’d say and I looked at her smiled and said, “Thank you ma’am, I’ll see you later.” Yes I did take the money, for two reasons. One she assumed that I was her gardener just by the way I looked, and two why would I correct her when she handed me money? I’m human, and I can say that many people in my position after being offended would have done the exact same thing. 

  Now after asking several peers if there is a line between stereotypes and racism 100% of them came back and said that there is a line there. From what I got from them, they say that stereotypes are pure assumption of groups of people, it’s what we think they are capable of. Stereotypes could be right or wrong but they are still all noted when we meet a new person. Now what was also noted was the way we use stereotypes, the type of tone we give when they are being used. A bad enough tone gives off the impression that they are being used to provoke racism and then a bad impression is made on your character. That came as a whole new idea to me because I never expected the one saying it to intend it to be racist, I always looked at it as the person hearing it taking it the wrong way. Also someone mentioned that it could be seen as racism being taken as the joke and stereotypes being seen as offensive. One pretty good point, can racism really be seen as a joke? Or would it really just be the stereotypes? This can be seen as confusing but we all think in different ways.  This is why we need to ask questions, your viewpoints are not going to be the same as everyone else’s. 

  So where does all this thinking come from? When did we all start thinking this way? According to the article by Kanatiyosh@aol.com all infants are boring pure, so we all must learn the stereotypes and about racism at some point in our lives. The beliefs are that the world today focuses too much on the individuals and should be more concerned about the children. Since children are the future it is believed that if we are to teach the children about racism and stereotyping we have failed. She has gone back and described many experiences her grandmother went through as well as her friend regarding dolls. Now the grandmother was always told that her kind (being Native American) was always going to be less important that the others who were white. Most of this went back to her doll, the grandmother owned a blue-eyed and blond haired doll, it was told that that doll was beautiful. When that was mentioned the grandmother only felt worse about her own appearance. Now on the other hand the friend mentioned here was never allowed to play with dolls like that, only ethnic dolls. Both situations are considered racist, one is saying that the blonde doll is the only beautiful doll and the other is saying that the one blonde doll is prohibited. The main point of that was to say that we should give every child dolls representing all races and show them that all of them are beautiful, not some but all. Dolls in this whole scenario represent people, and showing children at a young age that they are all beautiful is one great idea. Although from the grandmothers experience we can see that even with us teaching them that they are all beautiful won’t stop others from teaching them they are not. It is from others that children learn about racism, and others learn it from actual people that are racist. It is a never ending cycle and they will in one way or another learn about stereotypes, just be sure they don’t learn it from you. 

  The image here was used in the article by Ta’Chelle Nichollete Ashley Jones titled Stereotypes Exist for a Reason. This article mentions how stereotypes are seem as a joke and are used as comedy for the most part in the United States. The examples given were very popular television shows such as Family Guy or South Park, which I in fact have seen a lot and laughed at the racial jokes they made even if it was about me. This leads me to the most interesting part of this article, it was not the article itself but one of the comments by the user fefefe made on July 6, 2013 that said, “I’m Spanish and this makes me laugh. We should have a little sense of humor.” This got me thinking YES somebody actually gets it the same way I do. Yes sometimes stereotypes go too far but listen to that sentence alone, SOMETIMES. Which means other times they are not a bad thing. Everyone has their own sense of humor and that could include taking stereotypes lightly in the right crowd but still can be offensive when under the wrong crowd. Going back to the actual article it does have this same main point, it simply depends on the viewer. Whatever the viewer sees as okay is okay only to him/her, what is offensive is the same way. Only the individual can decide what’s offensive and what isn’t, it’s a pure opinion. 

  In the NY Times there was an article published by Annie Murphy Paul titled It’s Not Me, It’s You that talks about feeling better and worse than other people. This one can connect to just about everyone because we have all been in these kinds of situations where we feel superior over some people and feel like we don’t even compare to others. It continues to mention how social factors play a role in all of this, since we have ideas (or think we have ideas) on many different groups of people we already have ideas of what they will be like even if you have barely met the person. This causes our own abilities to be suppressed. The example given in this article is that they gave a test to white males that have a good mathematics background and before taking the test tells them it was intended to investigate, “why Asians appear to outperform other students on tests of math ability.” With that in their minds they do worse because they get that little thought of, “why try if Asians are going to do better than me anyways” which is what suppresses their true abilities. This is what I think starts the whole idea of social factors becoming a bad thing, this goes back to an earlier idea mentioned, and should be taken out of our heads. Since we almost immediately judge people based on how they look we instantly start ranking ourselves and comparing the things we expect that person to be able to do to the things we do. Once we start that process we become competitive and even at times begin to hate that other person because we believe that they are better than us. During my sophomore year there was a new kid in my math class and I did not like him even though I did not know him. You see I was one of the top of that class and then there’s a new kid coming in and just suddenly gets to be right there with me. It seemed to come so easy to him that I was actually just mad that he picked it up so quickly. Now what about this goes with the current topic? He was Asian, and that was the kicker of it all. 

While still on the topic of the NY Times we covered an article that mentioned racism still being part of the way we judge which was called Racial Profiling Lives On. This is the case where they claim that we accuse people just based on their color. For example if a policeman were to see a dark skinned man placing things into a car he has the right to go up to him and start investigating him having no proof of anything but what he’s seen. Stuff like this has happened to me as well, about a good month or two ago. I was at practice with my crew and we were packing up to leave the school. I began to pack our speaker in the trunk of my car when a cop pulled over behind me. He began asking me many questions and was curious as to what I was doing and where I was going. I could tell he didn’t believe me when I mentioned that the speaker was mine and that I was about to head home, that is until my friends came up to me. It wasn’t until then that the cop concluded his little investigation and left. So I can say that yes racial profiling does still exist and yes it is racist. Racial profiling shows a lack in communication on the accusers part because they merely go based on intuition, unless the actions of the person are truly suspicious and seem to be going somewhere bad then yes by all means go ahead and accuse them of something. Still people should really think first. 

There have been many different perspectives about racism and stereotypes, and for the most part they all say the same things. There stereotypes are a bad thing, the differences we’ve seen have to do with when are they a bad thing.  Some have argued that they are always a bad thing, that simply starting to make fun of friends instantly leads to a social crisis in this word. Others however believe that every person is different, that they all have their own lines and their lines will always be different. That to me personally has made more sense than saying that all of it is bad, and thinking of it isn’t saying that all stereotypes are bad simply a stereotype itself? It sure seems that way, and that is why I believe that saying everyone is different is a better way of putting things. Stereotypes will always be around, and they will change, but only you make them to be racist. It is truly what you think and how you use your words that create a racist tone. How will you use your words then? 

Works Cited

Abate, Frank R. The Oxford Pocket Dictionary and Thesaurus. New York: Oxford University

            Press, 1997. Print.

Carbado, Devon W. “Racial Profiling Lives On.” New York Times 2013. 14 August 2013. 10

November 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/opinion/racial-profiling-lives-on.html?smid=pl-share

Cardwell, M. (1996). Dictionary of Psychology. Chicago IL: Fitzroy Dearborn.

Katz, D., & Braly, K. (1933). Racial stereotypes of one hundred college students. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 280-290.

Grobman, Gary M. "Stereotypes and Prejudices." Stereotypes and Prejudices. N.p., n.d. 

            Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://remember.org/guide/History.root.stereotypes.html>.

Jones, Ta’Chelle Nichollete Ashley. “Stereotypes Exist for a Reason.” Social Constructions

Deconstructed. Wordpress. 15 June 2010. 10 November 2013. http://tachellejones.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/29/

McLeod, S. A. (2008). Stereotypes - Simply Psychology. Retrieved from

            http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

Nittle, Nadra Kareem. "What Is a Stereotype?" About.com Race Relations. N.p., n.d. Web. 10

November 2013. http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/WhatIsaStereotype.htm

Paul, Annie Murphy. “It’s Not Me, It’s You.” New York Times 2012. 7 October 2012. 10

November 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/opinion/sunday/intelligence-and-the-stereotype-threat.html?_r=0

SCT, Eric. “Stereotyping and Racism.” The Blog of Memories. Blogger. 24 March 2012. Web.

10 November 2013. http://thecommoneric.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-research-stereotyping-and-racism.html

"Stereotype." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

            <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stereotype>.

"Stereotype Examples." Stereotype Examples. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

            http://examples.yourdictionary.com/stereotype-examples.html

"Stereotype Threat." Stereotype Threat. Social Psycology/ Miami University, 18 Apr. 2002.

            Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/primetime/threat.shtml>.

"Urban Dictionary: Stereotype." Urban Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.            

            <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stereotype>.

Webster’s Dictionary. USA. Kappa Books Publishers, LLC. 2013. Print.

Yosh, Kanati. “Racism & Stereotyping: The Affects on our Children on our Future.” 25 October

            2000. 10 November 2013. http://www.tuscaroras.com/graydeer/pages/racism.htm

7 TIMES

1. Ericas tone was very emotional, and somewhat confused. She became emotional when she began to talk about when the kid was shot, it was like she was there watching it all happen. She seemed confused however when the shots were fired. She repeatedly asked why 7 shots? That it was not necessary and was too quick of a reaction to do on that kid.
2. The facts given to us that are for sure facts are that the young boy was shot 7 times, he did in fact carry a fake gun that looked realistic from a far, but did the young boy really point the gun at the police officers? Or was it simply him turning around ad the police overreacting?
3. Erica makes her conclusion really clear and obvious to anyone who reads this response. She believes that the actions of the police officers were understandable but shooting the boy 7 times is outrageous.
4. To me a good tactic used by Erica was repetition. If you notice through out her entire post she would repeat the question 'Why 7?' This showed her main points of view and completely eliminated the question 'what side is she on?'
5. The two posts are very similar, but Javier's post gives one clear image that Erica's doesn't the picture comparing the fake gun to a real one. That alone gave us an extremely clear image of what this whole situation really looked like.

RACIAL PROFILING LIVES ON

• as the title says racial profiling is still taken into account
• it is taken into account when enforcing immigration laws
• Fourth Amendment plays a big role in this
• the amendment applies even when being chased
• the courts rely heavily on the the policeman's judgement 

Overall the main message I got from this is that racial profiling can still happen pretty easily, I mean it seems to say that police officers can do this to African Americans or Latinos very easily.

Vocabulary #9

ultimate- being or happening at the end of a process
The ultimate aim she had was to get into college.
interactive- influencing or having an effect on each other
In order to be sane every human being needs to be interactive with other human beings.
principle- fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning
He must learn that one of the basic principles of this class is to actually do your work.
guidance- advice or information aimed at resolving a problem or difficulty
We all look to an adult for some inspiration and guidance.
collaboration- the action of working with someone to produce or create something
In order to finish a project she had to collaborate with her partners.
formative- serving to form something, esp. having a profound and lasting influence on a person's development
His formative years were the best of his life, he did exactly what he needed to do.
summative- the process of adding things together
The summation of numbers of small pieces of evidence were finally put together.
racism- the belief that all members of each race possesses characteristics or abilities specific to that race
Anywhere you go there is more than likely some form of racism.
intelligence- the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills
His intelligence level is through the roof, he learned how to play the guitar in 2 weeks.
hyperbolic- exaggerated
He was very hyperbolic when he says he could eat a horse.
consent- to agree to do something
No changes could've been made without the consent of the others.
doctrine- a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church/political party/other groups
Have you ever heard of the doctrine of predestination?
hunch- a feeling or guess based on intuition rather than facts
I had a hunch that the lady was stealing makeup.
predominant- present as the strongest or main element
By the looks of the picture, the predominant color was white.
discretion- freedom to act or judge on one's own
He was very discrete in saying that the teacher was wrong.
provision- providing or supplying something for use
There were new contracts for the provision of services.
seizure- the taking possession of something by legal process
There was another seizure of power by the military.
warrant- a legal document that authorizes the police to make an arrest, search premises, or carry out some other action relating to the administration of justice
They had a warrant for his arrest.
infraction- a violation or infringement of a law, agreement, or set of rules
The policeman gave the women a ticket for her driving infraction.