Heilbroner's Essay 'Breaking Free From Generalizations'
English 1101
21 January 2014
“Breaking Free From Generalizations”
In this world, we all have a predisposed opinion on people based on their race, sex,
Religion, or whatever creed they might have. It comes from how you were raised, or maybe even where you might have grown up. Needless to say, these predispositions that we have come from the stereotypes you have collected from your family, friends, television, media, and now a days even the internet or the social network while growing up. Generally, most people use these generalizations in order to discern how they feel and or how we act when dealing with others in this world. In Heilbroner’s essay “Don’t let stereotypes warp your judgments” he says, “Most of the time, when we …show more content…
typecast the world, we are not in fact generalizing about people at all. We are only revealing the embarrassing facts about the pictures that hang in gallery of stereotypes in our own heads” (Heilbroner). In this statement, everyone in this world should really stop and hear what it is he is saying because when you realize how we sometimes have these misguided feelings and or opinions on people we don’t know, that should help everyone see how we are letting these misinformed and foolish thoughts of others actually denigrate ourselves and who we are as human beings.
People do judge others and treat someone they don’t even know according to the stereotypes they have embedded in their doctrine or their unconscious minds.
We are not aware of it most of the time, but it is to some degree how we know to act around those we might not identify with or understand fully. Then in some cases it can be useful when trying to be familiar or recognize how you should interact with someone you might not know. In Heilbroner’s essay he states how people act in this circumstance by declaring “They classify the infinite variety of human beings into a convenient handful of “types” toward whom we learn to act in stereotyped fashion. Life would be a wearing process if we had to start from scratch with each and every human contact” (Heilbroner). Even though that is how we as people go about how we act around someone we essentially don’t know, couldn’t you agree when we do this we are assuming we understand who others are and we’re not considering how this could be offensive to them in the least. If we continue without any second thought with these traditional conventions, it in most cases it is just another precursor for prejudice, and then what it does mainly is just cause more hatred for those who are being type casted. I feel as though if we allow ourselves to do this and act so irresponsible within our society, we’ll only cause more injustice for others and even
ourselves.
In conclusion, I feel as though we should strive to not carry on with allowing outdated or idiotic notions of others be how we decide to treat someone, but to allow someone to prove to you who they really are first. Then you decide how it is you’ll view that person, and not by whatever their nationality, gender, or faith might be. If you think about it, if you can break free and allow yourself to be open to someone new, you’ll always accomplish so much more than compared to restricting yourself to only seeing the world and the people in it a certain way.
Bibliography
1) Heilbroner, Robert L. "Don 't Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments." Steps to Writing Well: With Additional Readings. By Jean Wyrick. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2008. 356-59. Print.
21 January 2014
“Breaking Free From Generalizations”
In this world, we all have a predisposed opinion on people based on their race, sex,
Religion, or whatever creed they might have. It comes from how you were raised, or maybe even where you might have grown up. Needless to say, these predispositions that we have come from the stereotypes you have collected from your family, friends, television, media, and now a days even the internet or the social network while growing up. Generally, most people use these generalizations in order to discern how they feel and or how we act when dealing with others in this world. In Heilbroner’s essay “Don’t let stereotypes warp your judgments” he says, “Most of the time, when we …show more content…
typecast the world, we are not in fact generalizing about people at all. We are only revealing the embarrassing facts about the pictures that hang in gallery of stereotypes in our own heads” (Heilbroner). In this statement, everyone in this world should really stop and hear what it is he is saying because when you realize how we sometimes have these misguided feelings and or opinions on people we don’t know, that should help everyone see how we are letting these misinformed and foolish thoughts of others actually denigrate ourselves and who we are as human beings.
People do judge others and treat someone they don’t even know according to the stereotypes they have embedded in their doctrine or their unconscious minds.
We are not aware of it most of the time, but it is to some degree how we know to act around those we might not identify with or understand fully. Then in some cases it can be useful when trying to be familiar or recognize how you should interact with someone you might not know. In Heilbroner’s essay he states how people act in this circumstance by declaring “They classify the infinite variety of human beings into a convenient handful of “types” toward whom we learn to act in stereotyped fashion. Life would be a wearing process if we had to start from scratch with each and every human contact” (Heilbroner). Even though that is how we as people go about how we act around someone we essentially don’t know, couldn’t you agree when we do this we are assuming we understand who others are and we’re not considering how this could be offensive to them in the least. If we continue without any second thought with these traditional conventions, it in most cases it is just another precursor for prejudice, and then what it does mainly is just cause more hatred for those who are being type casted. I feel as though if we allow ourselves to do this and act so irresponsible within our society, we’ll only cause more injustice for others and even
ourselves.
In conclusion, I feel as though we should strive to not carry on with allowing outdated or idiotic notions of others be how we decide to treat someone, but to allow someone to prove to you who they really are first. Then you decide how it is you’ll view that person, and not by whatever their nationality, gender, or faith might be. If you think about it, if you can break free and allow yourself to be open to someone new, you’ll always accomplish so much more than compared to restricting yourself to only seeing the world and the people in it a certain way.
Bibliography
1) Heilbroner, Robert L. "Don 't Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments." Steps to Writing Well: With Additional Readings. By Jean Wyrick. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2008. 356-59. Print.