Breaking Sterotyping

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We do tend to stereotype people, cultures, men, women, the elderly, the young. We all have preconceived notions of what others are like. We read books, see movies, TV shows, hear popular music and that is what a certain people or nation are like. The Internet has made it possible for us to exchange different opinions and different cultures. It makes it possible for us to visit with people around the world, people we would never have a chance to meet in what we call real life. To me the Internet is very real and very important because my chances to travel to lands far off is now very limited. It has expanded my horizons and also brought me a few unpleasant clashes.

This thread is not about our various governments but about us as human beings.It is about our cultures and how we view the rest of the world. I keep hearing about the American culture and to be honest I have no idea what that culture is. Our culture begins with our family and may change or expand as we grow and experience new things. As children we are taught there are certain things we may or may not do. We also learn by example.

I was born in the backwoods of Kentucky yet my family is very cosmopolitan. Our friends included people from different nations. I was raised on both classical music and the folk music of the mountains. We had many artists in the family and as friends, musicians, painters, authors. I have lived long enough to see TV become common, personal computers become household tools, The Wide World Web join us together.

Is it possible for us to break the stereotypes we hold so dear, to reach out to each other and find the things we have in common? Can we share our difference in peace and friendship?

On a slightly less serious note we do have ice culture in the USA. I happen to be one of those weird, for the USA, people who doesn't like things extremely hot or extremely cold. To be the extremes of temperature ruin the taste of the food or drink. I do like my summer iced tea but that is about it. I remember being asked in England why we needed ice so much. All I could do was stare at the person and say I didn't know that I guessed it was simply because we were used to it. Little things but interesting I think.

 

What would a Nakia posts be with out an error like that. Thanks, I have edited it.

Thank you for the post. I think the tendency for humans to prejudice and stereotyping may be a built in means of protecting themselves, their cultures and their societys from unwanted influence. As the world grows small I do think we need to rethink these things and learn to be more understanding and accepting of what other people think and how other people live.

Ice is great in moderation.

 

Yeah I know this is offtopic, but drug resistant TB is absolutely roooaaring back, it's a bit of a worry...

Anyway, yeah, stereotyping is powerful and automatic by design, and overriding that thinking can take mental effort as well as cause discomfort, depending how how strong the stereotypes are. But it isn't something that often happens in a short space of time, however with prolonged exposure, familiarity can breed comfort.

 

I'm 5/8 or so I tell myself, bald (not balding, that was 10 yrs ago...), turning 40 this year and gradually getting a belly. I am definitely one of those knuckleheads who, when in his younger, thinner, more muscular days, thought of himself as the man and everyone else as the stereotype that society and media points us toward.

But now that I am what I described above and married with kids, change is definitely on the table. It has been for me anyway. Life and it's experiences change people in many ways. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. My point is change is possible, so moving away from stereotyping is IMO a possibility. I still suffer from the occasional lack in judgement when meeting someone for the first time, but I do try my best to move past that.

 

I couldn't agree more. And we're just about the same age Blades - I'll be 39 this year. And all the stuff about being married, having kid(s), balding, even down to being 5'8", applies to me too, and sadly, so too does the development of a belly. I weigh about 20 pounds more today than I did 10 years ago.

But yes, experience changes your interpretation of just about everything. Hell, I notice that even one's perception of TIME changes as you age. If I break my life down into two 20-year chuncks (ignoring for a moment that the second chunk is technically only 19 years for a moment) I cannot believe how much longer the 1st 20 years seemed to take as compared to the 2nd 20 years. I don't know why this is so.

Just this past week I purchased tickets for my dad, myself, and my son to go see a baseball game this summer. The game is at the end of June, and I told my son we're going in 3 months. He said, "That's a REALLY long time!" I thought about it for a bit, and I came to realize that for him, this is true. Three months represents 5% of his total life span to this point, but comparitively, it's only about 0.6% of my life span, so for him it does seem to be a lot longer.

The larger point here is if even one's perception of time changes as we age, our perception of others - and ourselves - can change as well.

 

From Up in the Air:

Ryan Bingham: [on getting through airport security] Never get behind old people. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip on shoes. Gotta love 'em.
Natalie Keener: That's racist.
Ryan Bingham: I'm not racist. I'm like my mother, I stereotype. It's faster.

 

I think it has a lot to do with upbringing. When I was little, my mom told me that some people didn't like other people with dark skin, but that they were really just people. I ended up applying that statement to just about every person/group I heard about. I was in fifth grade when a political guy came to our house and said that his candidate's opponent was against gay marriage. It thought that was absolutely ridiculous. I didn't know anything really about gays, but if they were people, they should get to marry like other people.

I told this to my dad, and he said, "But that's unnatural!" I was really shocked that my dad could feel that way on that topic, while still thinking that Blacks were people. It seemed so contradictory to me.

Since then, I've actually had interactions with all sorts of people in different groups, and I've come to the conclusion that while all people are people, there are cultural differences. And that someone doesn't have to be from a different country in order to have a different cultural background. The U.S., for example, has a lot of different cultures in it. This is partly due to the geographical size of the country, and partly due to our past immigration policies of pretty much letting people in.

Finally, there are individual inclinations. For example, I'm an American, but there are parts of the French culture that fit more with who I am than American ones. One is the ice: I really don't like ice in drinks. It's fine for cooling things without actually being in the drink. But it's either too cold, or it starts diluting the flavor of the drink. I also don't have a need to do things fast all the time. I kind of like just sitting and reading. I don't feel guilty for doing that. I like how in France, people are much more relaxed about that kind of thing. I also like the meals, and how you spend a long time eating a good meal rather than rushing through an okay one. I like having a one and a half hour lunch and working later rather than having a short lunch but being done earlier. I'm still more American than French, of course, but those are a couple of characteristics where I feel in tune with the French culture, and that makes it more accessible to me than say, the Russian culture, where they're even faster paced than Americans. Knowing that allows me to understand when I have frustrations with people of different cultures. It's easy for me to realize it's a cultural difference, and that the other person isn't "bad" or something just because they do things differently.

So I still believe that all people are just people, but that doesn't mean that when they act in a way that's strange to me I think that they are "bad" people. I realize that it comes from cultural difference. I'm not sure I'm making sense, but basically, when I thought all people were just people, I expected them to all be like me and the people around me. Now, I still think they're people, but I also understand how deeply culture can affect people and don't expect everyone to be like me.