The Prevalence of Stereotypes

One of the points that was really highlighted for me while reading Angry Black White Boy was the feeling of how America is full of stereotypes of all kinds when you think about people of different races. Whether you like it or not, stereotypes play at least a tiny part in the average person’s life. It may only affect us in miniscule ways that we fail to notice, but when people think of a (insert race here) person, the first things that come to mind are generally stereotypes. Now you may think “That’s not true! I’m not some racist person like that!” I’ll fully accept your denial of listening to the stereotypes that the media has highlighted and even promoted at times. But do remember: the population of Uni students and faculty are considerably more cultured and open-minded than the majority of the world.

But there’s no denying the fact that when you think of people of race X, the experiences we’ve had with people of race X heavily influence our ideas and preconceptions of the person before we even meet them. When the average person thinks about a typical white American male, they think of blond hair and blue eyes; a skateboarder, or a surfer type dude. On the contrary, they may have a considerably different paradigm of the average white American male: some overweight dude clutching a burger (think the people in WALL-E). They may have never met the person a single time in their life, but they already begin to categorize them into one of these categories that American media has popularized.

On a similar note to “white American male”, people think the typical white American female is relatively slim, living in Starbucks, and forever clutching their phone to take the next selfie or send the next text. “Middle Eastern people” are (very sadly) often shoved into the same category as terrorists involved in the nation of Islam. Media made us think black males automatically like rap music, are in a gang of some sort, and are often criminals. Black females on the other hand are often portrayed and perceived as being promiscuous, loud, unapologetic, uneducated, and ghetto in many ways.

I could go on and on about the stereotypes about people of certain races that have been laid down through various kinds of media in America. I won’t though because all of these examples are to make the point that racial stereotypes in the world end up giving unbeknownst ties into people’s identities and promote racial ignorance. People judge others without getting to know them first, which is a problem Macon is trying to highlight and should’ve been fixed many years ago.