My favorite response to my facebook status is as follows:
" i dont think it necessarily is all about race. there are a wide variety of stereo types. i think we all have the tendency to judge. i thinks it is human nature to a degree. when it becomes a problem is when we let it control our actions and we dont give a person a chance to prove our first impressions wrong. much like you said your first impressions can be totally off."
In the paradigm that is my world, it is less about racism.. and more about stereotypes. Although race plays a part, I am more likely to judge a person on the clothing that accompanies their skin tone, than by their skin tone itself. For example, if I walk past a guy that I conclude must be in a gang, it is because of his tattoos, bandanna, brand of clothing, and piercings that would have led me to this conclusion, not his or her skin color. However, their skin color may be an added factor upon the previous factors, or maybe even the tipping factor. I am sure I am a little bit racist I grew up being exposed to so few variety of races that I think I believed everything I saw on tv, which usually regards people of all races intermingling happily. When I do encounter a racist thought, I quickly attempt to shut it down.
10 comments:
I agree, i think that i would be more of one to judge people according to how they dressed, where they lived, etc.. I do think that it has changed over time from color of skin to different factors that we as a generation care more about than color.
I would have to agree as well. I loved the insightful comment. Stereotypes are so powerful though.
So which is it? Are we a little racist or not? I think we keep tiptoeing around the subject and never coming to any definitive answer. Could we possible be rationalizing our racism?
I understand how you see it more as stereotypes within the appearance of people. My mom grew up in the Philippines, with basically no diversity. I've noticed that because she is in America, she is really judgmental towards those even the slightest different than her. We grew up in Virginia Beach, Va. that has a ton of diversity! She was and is automatically turned off when she sees someone with a tattoo, or shaggy hair, or baggy clothes. She didn't like a lot of my friends in high school because of their image. But I can guarantee that my friends were good people, hard workers, trusting friends. I served my mission in San Diego and I met a lot of people that had tattoos, shaggy hair, and baggy clothes, and they turned out to be great people and some were converts.
I think that the main reason for these racist thoughts coming was mentioned, with that being that he just was not exposed to other races as a kid. Exposure is what I feel is most needed as it helps people realize what others really are like.
I agree with what you said about looking at other indicators (tattoos, bandana, excessive piercings) for judging if someone is in a gang. I think color is one of the last things I use when making those kinds of evaluations of a person.
I find at times the stereotypes we begin to label ourselves with end up becoming bias to the labels we've given others. I do believe it becomes more about stereotypes than about race nowadays.
I think stereotypes do drive most of the judgments we make nowadays, but race still has somewhat of a hand in our judgments.
that comment was really insightful to human nature and our predisposition to misunderstand and judge what we don't understand.
i think that most of our ideas comes from our parents and their views obviously not as extreme as theirs but we all know the stereotypes that other races have and those ideas pop up in our mind without even thinking about them.
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