Stereotypes Of Racism In America

Racism represents itself in society every day. Every time I turn on the news it seems like there is something new about some sort of violence against African Americans. It seems like the police are always quicker to go against people of color, a lot of the time with no evidence or reason, because of the stereotypes they hold in their heads. There is zero hesitation when they take out their guns to shoot or use any kind of weapon to inflect pain and violence towards people because of the color of their skin. 1 As said by Trevor Noah in the Daily Show, “It seems extremely easy to get shot by police in America”. I find it absurd because you would think after the past that America has everyone would come together and try to put an end to all this chaos.
People usually associate racism with more obvious topics such as the KKK or Skinheads but there is racism in everyday life, whether one realizes it or not. Explained by Cynthia Parker in the first video shown in the presentation, “You can see racism sometimes in the single decisions of an individual.” For example, just applying for a job with a certain name can stop you from not only getting the job, but just getting called in for an interview. A hiring manager is more likely to call in someone named John in for an interview opposed to other men by the name of Juan, Jamal, or
Vin. All four men could have the exact same resume but it would not matter just because of the name that is on the top of the paper. Also a lot of shootings have been occurring with no reasoning or evidence behind it. For example, the cop that gunned down Terrence Crutcher in Tulsa, OK. It is hard to understand how an unarmed black man, who was waiting on the side of the road due to car trouble, ended up being in a situation where he was “not cooperating” with a policeman that led to him being shot dead.
Racism happens all over the world, not just in America.
There are a lot of stereotypes that people find amusing and some do not realize that it does indeed hurt other one’s feelings. Even though those people do not say anything or stand up for themselves it does not make it okay to point a big metaphorical finger at those people’s faces. For example, “Oh, you are Indian? You must eat with your hands because Indians are poor” or “Oh, you are Asian? You must be really good at math?” Anyone can be any of those things, it does not matter the race. 2 “Jokes on him, I’m bad at math” an Asian American stated in “Asian Americans Respond to Racist
Comments”.