Salem High School Stereotypes

A stereotype is a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. I, luckily, have not been grouped into any bad stereotypes as far as I am aware. We have quite a few stereotypes here in Salem high school. They are often bad. They also can affect people. Stereotypes often play a huge role in high schoolers’ lives.
We have quite a few stereotypes in Salem. There are the nationwide ones as well as the ones that are brought on by the fact that this is a more rural area. However, there are also the ones that don't spread beyond the high school. Like in The Outsiders, we have groups within our high school, and each have their own set of stereotypes. For example, there is possibly the largest group
They often speak of groups of people being more violent, incompetent, helpless or lazy than other groups of people. These are mainly targeted at people of color, people who practice different religions than one’s own, and people in many other communities. These are often used as an excuse to separate certain groups of people from the rest of society. In the past, they were used to reason away the guilt of manifest destiny and the slave trade. Even seemingly good stereotypes can have many negative connotations. For example, the stereotype that all Asians are smart seems harmless at first. However, it is often used by others to explain away any personal achievements and ignore the fact that they worked hard for whatever they earned. Overtime these accusations will start to weigh on
Bullying and stereotyping can make students and adults alike develop mental illnesses such as depression. It is often made worse by the fact that people with mental illnesses are often called lazy, quitters, and are even accused of faking it. There are even more ways stereotypes have been proven to affect people's mind. For example, a research at Stanford University showed that African American students performed worse than white students on an exam when they were told it was a test of their intelligence. However, they took the test again being told it was only a problem-solving exercise and they performed just as well as the white students. A similar study was performed by the University of Arizona with female students on a math test and Hispanic students taking an intelligence test. The experiment found the same results. It's not because they were less intelligent than their white or male counterparts. It was because the constant reminder of these negative stereotypes temporarily decreased their “Working memory capacity,” something that is vital in solving complex problems like the ones on those