UHS Discusses Stereotyping
Everyone has heard a “blonde” joke or a “terrorist” joke from some comedian somewhere. Many of their acts are based on jokes like these. The degrading subject matters of these cheesy comedians’ acts are called stereotypes.
A stereotype is an image of a group of people that is exaggerated and used to classify the people of that group.
The “blonde” stereotype is based on the idea of a woman relying on her looks rather than her intelligence. Apparently, blondes are associated with bimbos. A bimbo is an attractive woman who has little or no intelligence.
This is not an accurate association. In the movie Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon stars as a blonde sorority girl—based on this blonde stereotype—but she ends up a very successful lawyer, blond all the while.
When it comes to “terrorist” jokes, they’ve become common ever since the Twin Tower Bombings in 2001. The attack was allegedly performed by a group of Middle-Easterners—Arabs and Muslims. Ever since this happened, people assume that all people of this decent are terrorists.
In reality, just because a person is of this decent, does not mean that they are a terrorists, or even know of anyone that is. A terrorist can be of any race, any background, any religion, etc. The alleged Anthrax Killer—who murdered five people and infected 17 more—was a white man of the catholic religion.
There are many stereotypes today. Some other common ones are of an interfering mother-in-law, a nagging wife, and a lazy husband. Those aren’t the only ones; many stereotypes are also based on things such as race, appearance, or background.
There are assumptions about African Americans, Jews, Asians, Latinos, and even Caucasians. One stereotype that you see a lot is that all Latinos play soccer.
Urbana High School Sophomore, Jesus Olmedo said, “I play soccer because I’m Mexican; I’m Mexican because I speak Spanish. Not everyone who plays soccer or speaks Spanish is Mexican.”
Forty four students here at UHS were surveyed about stereotyping. Eighty nine percent said that they had been a victim of stereotyping. From the same 44, 75% said they had stereotyped too.
Many of the people who stereotype do it as a joke, rather than–or in addition to–trying to hurt someone’s feelings. UHS Freshman, Makayla Perkins said, “I’m not really fazed by stereotyping, because today, it’s really hard not to [do it].
There is stereotyping everywhere, despite the fact that most people know how it feels. Sadly, this will most likely continue for years to come.
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