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This is my essay on the problems by the streotypes... I need help on revising.. so please help me out!!
The Eyes Around Us
To begin with a definition, Heilbroner remarks that stereotypes are one of viewing the world by the one¡¯s conventional conception (411). Have a moment to look around; you will see some people are looking at you in someway. They look at you just as one of your classmates, however some of them might look at you by committing their eyes with harmful thoughts. By the definition, Heibroner and Cofer have picked out the problems occurred by the stereotypes. In addition, I, myself strongly agree with their negative position about the problems. The problems generated by the stereotypes are, prejudgment, type casting, and racism.
The cause of the prejudgment is a lack of confidence to make a judgment. The prejudgment is simply means ignorance. This is because the stereotypes feel vex to realize that their prejudgment was wrong. For example; Heilbroner has brought from the paragraph 11; ¡°they¡¯re all like that,¡±(411). By the quotation, it formed a rigid preconception on all the Latin women. The people prejudge others by meeting only random numbers of them or the gossips about them. For example: the Latins are excitable or all teenagers are wild (411). However, these aren¡¯t accurate because there are obviously some Latins are not excitable nor the teenagers aren¡¯t wild. But most of the stereotypes of prejudgment desire to stick on one point they have prejudged, and ignore the other side. Heilbroner supported that if the stereotypes encounters someone who is oppose to what he have been previewed, he stands triumphantly vindicated (411). They will hardly accommodate that they were wrong of judging them as all the same. Furthermore of my experience of prejudgment: when I went to high school, I saw some of the skateboarders. At the time, I thought they were the one of the ¡®stupid¡¯ students in our school. The reason is there were gossips dripping around the school that all the skateboarders don¡¯t have study habit. And also when I see them wearing torn pants with their boxers, which barely hangs on their butt, they seem morally unstable. By the gossip and what I preview on them, I thought of that not even one person could be smart among the skateboarders. However, I misjudged them by encountering my friend named, Matt. He was one of the smartest kids in our school, but I never knew that he was a skateboarder. I felt that way that how Heilbroner stated, which is I was wrong on them. The stereotypes of prejudgment lead us to misjudge others.
Consequently, the prejudgment constructs a bridge to type casting. During the childhood, we hammered an idea of characteristic of villain and hero; this is called the type casting. Since we have stored the characteristic of villain and hero, there is no longer reconsideration acquired to exchange the idea to alternative categories. In same manner, Cofer recalled the stereotypes of ¡®Latin Women¡¯ in her essay. She viewed the Latin women were stereotypically type cast as a sex object or domestic worker. The author¡¯s culture and traditions were obviously not the same with American culture. For that reason, the Westerns typecast these Latin women as the ¡®hot tamel¡¯ or sexual firebrand¡¯ (416). She also viewed women as domestic workers (417). Cofer gives an example from her own life. When she went to restaurant to read her first public poetry, an older woman motioned Cofer to her table, assuming that she was the waitress (418). An older woman precisely thought of her as a waitress because she believed that all the Latins women with their unique look or name indicate them as lower class. Obviously, Not all the Latin women are easy access of man¡¯s lust neither the domestic workers. When we take a look around the society, random numbers of Latin women placed in professional career. They were surely the women work in the restaurant, but it¡¯s inappropriate to typecast total Latin women as sex object and domestic workers.
At last, the reason for the racism is based on the incidents happened by the people with different ethnic backgrounds and history. From my previous experience, I have practiced racism. My country has been overruled by Japan for 36 years. This incident had been happened before I was born. My history teacher, from my elementary school, has told us that Japanese are wicked. The reason is they have done such villainous deeds to our Korean people. They have destroyed our language, forced to use Japanese language, took our troops to die for them, and also raped many virgin women. When I heard this history, my first impression on theses incidents was that Japanese are bad so I hate them. Until I got into sixth grades, I couldn¡¯t rip off my conception on them. It was very rare to see Japanese in our country at that time. However, when I saw some of the Japanese people in our town, I potentially stared at them because of an old history. Basically, I once was a slanderer. I spoke ill of the Japanese people with my friends. If fact I was a racist, but not now. I realized that hating some people by just hearing is meaningless. This is because they don¡¯t look at you the same as you are looking at them. However, I still feel awkward when there is competition between Japan and Korea. Recently, there was soccer match between Japan and Korea. I watched it even though it broadcasted 3:00 in the morning. I enthusiastically cheered our Korean team with my brother. The result of the game was Korean team won, but what if they lose? I believe that there would be lots of insults will come out from the Korean people. Although I¡¯m not a racist now, I have carried the wrong conception of Japanese for a long time: so it¡¯s hard to get rid of them clearly. But, I try to look at them as a human being. The reason is when I connect them as the descendants of villains, so I have to hate them. It¡¯s all complicated, because they practically haven¡¯t done any harm to me.
Consequently, the stereotypes can conclude as a harmful habit. This is because it follows the negative influence on other people. The society is associates with an interaction of different people with different ethnic backgrounds. However, when we keep perform the prejudgment, we will never reached a point of who they really are. Perpetuating stereotypes could give an impact on person who performs it, because by doing it, they eventually won¡¯t be an advanced person.
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Submitted by ANNAbanana
Posted on Sat Oct 11, 2003 at 7:43 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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