Stereotype and Seemingly Positive Stereotypes
We have heard them all. African Americans are lazy and incompetent workers. Hispanics are all drug-dealers. The Irish are heavy drinkers. These are all stereotypes. Stereotyping is a problem that refuses to go away. It recurs, across various contexts and discourses, as a divisive and troubling issue, and remains a central source of contention in the politics of representation. Many stereotypes exist: different ones towards racial groups, women, the elderly, the mentally ill, fat people, homosexuals, the physically handicapped, and individuals with AIDS, to name just a few. Stereotypes can have negative outcomes both for the individuals who are the target of prejudice and for society at large.
Stereotypes are a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people. It was journalist Walter Lippman who first coined the term "stereotype" to refer to our beliefs about groups. He borrowed the term from the printing process in which a "stereotype" literally was a metal plate that made duplicate copies of a printed page. Lippman believed this term aptly describes how we continuously reproduce the "picture in our heads" that we have about a group whenever we encounter members of that group. In other words, Lippman recognized the human tendencies to categorize people into groups, and then to see individual members as a reflection of that group, rather than as the unique person they are.(Pickering, p.16-21)
Although stereotypes may be products of individual cognitive processes, they also maybe consensually shared within a society. Collectively held stereotypes may be especially pernicious as they are often widespread in a society, As an example of this important distinction between individual and collective stereotypes, suppose you are a member of Group X who has been denied employment because the employer assumes that your group is intellectually inferior to the dominant group. While this world undoubtedly be a frustrating experience for one, one may
Stereotypes are a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people. It was journalist Walter Lippman who first coined the term "stereotype" to refer to our beliefs about groups. He borrowed the term from the printing process in which a "stereotype" literally was a metal plate that made duplicate copies of a printed page. Lippman believed this term aptly describes how we continuously reproduce the "picture in our heads" that we have about a group whenever we encounter members of that group. In other words, Lippman recognized the human tendencies to categorize people into groups, and then to see individual members as a reflection of that group, rather than as the unique person they are.(Pickering, p.16-21)
Although stereotypes may be products of individual cognitive processes, they also maybe consensually shared within a society. Collectively held stereotypes may be especially pernicious as they are often widespread in a society, As an example of this important distinction between individual and collective stereotypes, suppose you are a member of Group X who has been denied employment because the employer assumes that your group is intellectually inferior to the dominant group. While this world undoubtedly be a frustrating experience for one, one may
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