Racial Stereotyping Research Paper

Stereotyping is very common throughout the world, and is sometimes overlooked, but it can place a harmful effect on students. With the mix of multicultural, people are usually been categorized and placed into a certain group. As a foreign student in English speaking country, we are often been categorised into group because of the racism and racial. One of the stereotype is people place that the nerdy student who wears suspenders, has a funny accent, and gets straight A’s in a group. Other than that, the other stereotype is racial stereotype. In this racial stereotype the “black student” will always been categorised into the bad student group by most of the people. Then with these stereotypes, we usually apply them to the race in general.
Instead of just believing that one person fulfils this stereotype, we believe that everyone from this group have this characteristic of their external look or inner personality. Stereotypes, like these, can have an indirect impact on today’s young adults and can hinder their ability to perform their chores. Racial stereotyping is so common that sometimes it goes unnoticed and can be done subconsciously, but what is it exactly? Racial stereotyping is a way for people to classify certain race groups to be smart, sporty, nerd and others. When people participate in this, they are making generalizations about a certain group based on defined characteristics easily seen in this group. What people do not realize is that these stereotypes can hurt students. Some Muslim students always get anti because of their religion and they start to have religion war with others that have a different religion. These stereotypes hinder a student’s ability to socialize or achieve their academic or other curriculums. Students can easily get hurt because people have preconceived ideas about how the student should behave. Everyone tends to categorize others based on looks, likes, and beliefs. What people do not realize is that racial stereotyping can affects others. Several researches have shown these negative effects of racial stereotyping. The studies show that negative stereotypes raise doubts and anxiety in a student daily life. In one experiment, the stereotype that African Americans are intellectually slow was challenged. African Americans and white college students were tested in this experiment. These students were aware of the idea that African American students do not perform well on exams. To test this, the experiment examined students in a no stereotype threat condition and a stereotype threat condition. In a no stereotype threat condition, researchers told students that the task had nothing to do with ability and was just an activity. As expected for this condition, the African Americans and the white college students showed similar results. However, in a stereotype threat condition, students were told that the test will diagnosed intellectual ability. The results of this experiment showed that the white students performed better than the African American students (“Stereotype Threat Widens Achievement Gap”). Even the minimal awareness of a stereotype can have detrimental consequences on an individual and the experiment helped to prove this. There have been many experiments that also show that students who are aware of the certain type of stereotype, can be the ones who place the hands on themselves. The experiments have conclude that students know that these stereotypes and society wants them to act in a certain way, so many actually try to validate this stereotype. Students are going through a process called self-actualization to help them find out who they are. Some students try to obey to these stereotypes to try to fit in the society and see if this is who they are supposed to be. As seen in one experiment, white student athletes would try to cope with the stereotype that blacks are better than whites at sports by self-handicapping their performance. People would have lower expectations for them in sports so these students would only aim for the lower standards that were set for them (UA News Services). With society believing in these stereotypes, it becomes hard for students to realize that some stereotypes are not true. However, some people argue that racial stereotyping is good for a person; it can have positive benefits for a student as well (Rigoglioso).
For example, racial stereotyping for an Asian student says that they are smart and excel in school, so with this in mind the student will more confident and more determined to keep this stereotype in place. Though many people believe that there are many good stereotypes, but the negative stereotypes always outweigh the positive stereotypes. One stereotype would be against African-American students who are stereotyped as being adept in sports but slow in intellectual activities. Research has shown that negative stereotyping can temporarily decrease memory capacity (UA News Services). With this stereotype and a student’s awareness of it, the student would perform poorly knowing that he or she is expected to be lacking in intellectual ability. The student knows that this is what society expects out of him or her and that also explains why the Asian student would do better if they knew about the racial stereotype. Sometimes it is not the student who is at fault, but society for accusing the student to be something they are not. Racial stereotyping shows the student what others expect out of them, so many would try to uphold this stereotype instead of acting against it
(Rigoglioso). Racial stereotyping has many damaging characteristics that hurt students. To prevent these stereotypes from occurring, people need to be educated about what is happening. By educating people about racial stereotyping, it can be prevented or terminated. Also, by explaining to students what racial stereotyping is, it may hinder and explain why they have some anxiety and stress. Although racial stereotyping can be seen as something comical at times, it can have a harmful effect on students. Racial stereotyping can cause students to have poor academic records, and be socially and athletically inept due to its ability to judge people without even knowing what they are capable of.