Reflective Essay On Stereotypes

When you are a child, you do not really understand that people are different. My elementary school had children of all different cultural backgrounds, but all that mattered to me is whether or not you wanted to play jump rope with me at recess. I knew that people looked different, but I did not know that the way you looked and the background you came from affected your standing in society. My first trip to visit the Philippines was something I will never forget. It was my first time in a foreign country, and on top of that, a country that spoke a language I had no idea how to speak. At the end of a trip to a local market, my mother waved down a tricycle, a motorcycle with a side carriage attached for passengers to sit in, to take us home. As the
You are categorized by the place you are from, what you look like, and how you speak. At the time I did not know this, but this incident was my first encounter with stereotyping. My looks and way that I spoke stereotyped me as a “rich American.” On the other hand, my mother was wrong in assuming that the man would charge us extra. That too was a stereotype that my mother had placed upon her own society due to similar experiences. Through this experience, I realized that these stereotypes stem from a lack of understanding of the diverse nature of a society. Similarity between individuals cannot be assumed to be a definitive trait. As we reached my grandparents’ house, I remember stepping out of that tricycle and being aware of my own differences and how this society perceived me as an outsider. In the same way, I knew that to Americans the Filipino people were just as different to them as I was to the tricycle driver. In the end, maybe it would not have hurt if the driver did charge us a little extra for the ride; he probably needed the money anyways. After all, a little extra change is nothing for a man who changed my views of the