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Racial stereotyping and its effect on society
The impact of racial stereotyping
Racial stereotyping and its effect on society
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In this reflective essay, it displays the honest truth of how African Americans are treated in America. Many people base their perceptions towards black men or women because of incidents that they have seen in the media. When white people or any other race commit violent acts, most don’t even care or change their views. Stereotypes can also affect the way that we see people. If we have never met or been friends with someone that society talks down on then we will believe everything that we hear. This is why Staples was treated as a criminal.
Everyone just assumed that since he was black and walking in an impoverished part of downtown, that he was automatically the bad guy. Growing up in some families it is common for parents to tell their children that black people are dangerous and you should always be cautious. I didn’t get brought up that way, so I don’t understand how people can naturally put someone in a box with a label on it. It doesn’t matter what race you are, if someone wants to commit a crime then they will do it.
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When it comes to walking down the street or anywhere at night, it's true that I feel uneasy around any male; not just African Americans.
It's really nerve-racking for mostly women but some men whenever you are all alone and appear defenseless. We have to be constantly aware of our surroundings because there's always a chance of being raped, mugged, or captured. Sadly this happens more often than it should. Men in general may just have to accept it and not take women running or walking faster in the wrong way. Most likely we will continue to be afraid, not to personally victimize someone, just to be cautious because we have
to.
Lynching of black men was common place in the south as Billie Holiday sang her song “Strange Fruit” and the eyes of justice looked the other way. On the other side of the coin, justice was brought swiftly to those blacks who stepped out of line and brought harm to the white race. Take for instance Nate Turner, the slave who led a rebellion against whites. Even the Teel’s brought their own form of justice to Henry Marrow because he “said something” to one of their white wives (1). Flashing forward a few years later past the days of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, several, but not all in the younger generation see the members of the black and white race as equal and find it hard to fathom that only a few years ago the atmosphere surrounding racial relations was anything but pleasant.
In Brent Staples’ "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space," Staples describes the issues, stereotypes, and criticisms he faces being a black man in public surroundings. Staples initiates his perspective by introducing the audience in to thinking he is committing a crime, but eventually reveals how the actions taken towards him are because of the fear linked to his labelled stereotypes of being rapists, gangsters and muggers. Staples continues to unfold the audience from a 20 year old experience and sheds light onto how regardless of proving his survival compared to the other stereotypical blacks with his education levels and work ethics being in the modern era, he is still in the same plight. Although Staples relates such burdens through his personal experiences rather than directly revealing the psychological impacts such actions have upon African Americans with research, he effectively uses emotion to explain the social effects and challenges they have faced to avoid causing a ruckus with the “white American” world while keeping his reference up to date and accordingly to his history.
America have a long history of black’s relationship with their fellow white citizens, there’s two authors that dedicated their whole life, fighting for equality for blacks in America. – Audre Lorde and Brent Staples. They both devoted their professional careers outlying their opinions, on how to reduce the hatred towards blacks and other colored. From their contributions they left a huge impression on many academic studies and Americans about the lack of awareness, on race issues that are towards African-American. There’s been countless, of critical evidence that these two prolific writers will always be synonymous to writing great academic papers, after reading and learning about their life experience, from their memoirs.
Fueled by fear and ignorance, racism has corrupted the hearts of mankind throughout history. In the mid-1970’s, Brent Staples discovered such prejudice toward black men for merely being present in public. Staples wrote an essay describing how he could not even walk down the street normally, people, especially women, would stray away from him out of terror. Staples demonstrates his understanding of this fearful discrimination through his narrative structure, selection of detail, and manipulation of language.
It is impossible for anyone to survive a horrible event in their life without a relationship to have to keep them alive. The connection and emotional bond between the person suffering and the other is sometimes all they need to survive. On the other hand, not having anyone to believe in can make death appear easier than life allowing the person to give up instead of fighting for survival. In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, Aminata Diallo survives her course through slavery by remembering her family and the friends that she makes. Aminata is taught by her mother, Sira to deliver babies in the villages of her homeland. This skill proves to be very valuable to Aminata as it helps her deliver her friends babies and create a source of income. Aminata’s father taught Aminata to write small words in the dirt when she was small. Throughout the rest of the novel, Aminata carries this love for learning new things to the places that she travels and it inspires her to accept the opportunities given to her to learn how to write, read maps, and perform accounting duties. Early in the novel Aminata meets Chekura and they establish a strong relationship. Eventually they get married but they are separated numerous times after. Aminata continuously remembers and holds onto her times with Chekura amidst all of her troubles. CHILDREN. The only reason why Aminata Diallo does not die during her journey into and out of slavery is because she believes strongly in her parents, husband and children; therefore proving that people survive hardships only when they have relationships in which to believe.
Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...
Being a resident of South Carolina, African-American Culture was chosen as part of the applied learning project for the Intercultural Nursing class, because African-Americans make up more than a quarter of this state’s population. According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau, the total population for South Carolina (S.C.) is 4,625,364, with 27.9% being of African-American descent. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding and sensitivity to issues and cultural variances or phenomena that are unique to the African-American Culture. Another goal is to identify nursing interventions that are important for the nurse to consider in caring for this population. These phenomena’s include variances in social organization, communication, space, perception of time, environmental control, and biological variations associated with the African-American culture. (Giger, 2013 and South Carolina minority, n.d.)
In “Black Men in Public Spaces” the author talks about multiply situation where he was treated different for being an African American. Staples said,” I entered a jewelry store on the city’s affluent near North side. The proprietor excused herself and returned with an enormous red Doberman pinscher straining at the end of a leash” (161.) Then there is “Right Place, Wrong Face, which is focused on and African American man that is wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. White said, “I was searched, stripped of my backpack, put on my knees, handcuffed, and told to be quieted when I tried to ask questions” (229.) The two articles have many similarities. Both articles have two educated African America men who get treated different because of their race. Staples and White both have situations where they are being stereotyped by society because there black
Next is John Henrik Clark, who refers to African America Studies as Africana Studies because he believes that Black tells you how you look, not who you are. He goes on to state that he calls African American Studies “a dilemma at the crossroads of history” (Clark 32). This is because European people knew history well enough to distort it and use it, as well as political weapons such as the gun and bible, to control the world. This is the reason why a look at African culture will show what Africana Studies are about or should be about. Africana Studies should embrace the Africans all around the world, in places like Africa, North and South America, the Caribbean Islands even those in Asia and the Pacific Islands. Clarke states that Africa is
In From Slavery to Freedom (2007), it was said that “the transition from slavery to freedom represents one of the major themes in the history of African Diaspora in the Americas” (para. 1). African American history plays an important role in American history not only because the Civil Rights Movement, but because of the strength and courage of Afro-Americans struggling to live a good life in America. Afro-Americans have been present in this country since the early 1600’s, and have been making history since. We as Americans have studied American history all throughout school, and took one Month out of the year to studied African American history. Of course we learn some things about the important people and events in African American history, but some of the most important things remain untold which will take more than a month to learn about.
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
The two answers that I found most surprising from the quiz, resulted from these two questions: Blacks are better runners, and Asians are better at sports like gymnastics, for example, due to their size and reflexes. The reason I found these questions most surprising was because I expected those two questions to be somewhat false, since they seemed stereotypical to an extent. For the first question, it was surprising because I thought it was more of a myth that African Americans were the better runners; I thought it all had to with the person themself and their stamina. I was surprised to read that it was all in the muscles. It was interesting that the quiz mentioned that African Americans have more ‘fast twitch’ muscle fibers that helps them
Through taking Introduction to African and American Studies, I have come to understand as to why it is crucial for people to have knowledge of African American Studies. The reason being, many past events in Black history, still have an impact on the societal structure we all live through today. However, this thought of the past still being relevant in the future is usually dismissed. This is a form of cognitive dissonance that people have where they are so fearful of confronting the past, and are ignorant to the repercussions we all must face due to past mistakes. Entering this course, I already possessed a sufficient amount of knowledge regarding Black studies. Though I have enrolled in higher level African American Studies courses in the past, taking this introductory course has still been effective in increasing my understanding of African American Studies.
I have a great drive to attend the seminars because many high school students are not able to take a college level classes that will help further their education and feed their intellectual curiosity. These seminars will expose me to the rigor of a college level class and introduce me to things that are outside of my high school. Which is important in the growth of a student.
As we begin our term for African-American studies course, I will like to incorporate encouraging interaction between the students, their peers and the instructors. I will create an introduction session, making students feel welcome and comfortable. During this introductory session I will ask students to write short descriptive stories about themselves because this is one of the easiest method of getting students to open up about their lives. We as individuals can relate to each other more easily and quickly if we have something in common. Stated by Bender, T. (2012), Jack A. Cummings said “it is also advantageous to the students as they too become familiar with each other quickly, and it eases their comfort level in participating in discussions