Summary Of Stereotype Threats By Richard Steele

Summary: In Chapter 5, Steele examined some interesting types of stereotype threat. Ted McDougal, the one of the two white students, enrolled in the African American science class; a group of white male math students compared themselves with Asian Americans-- positive stereotype in math; and a group of lower-class students attempted on a test related to language ability. All these people under stereotype threats were trying hard to prove themselves did not align with their social identities. Under the pressure and stress, their performance was weaker in class or in the task. Besides, it was found that the performance of a group of people who had two social identities relevant to a given performance domain was largely depending on which identity
To me, it seemed like there was a harming cycle for those with negative stereotypes. People worked really hard to disprove their stereotype, but also because of these the stressful and distracting pressure, they could hardly perform well. More importantly, refuting a stereotype was a work that never ended, one had to stay smart and stay on the top all the time in order to gain respect and understanding from the surrounding people. That was also why Steele stated that black students dropped out from an elite school not solely because of bad grade, but finding tedious to disprove their stereotype. Besides, not knowing the strategy of “working smart instead of working hard” also reduced their sense of belonging as they did not gain academic support and assistance from their study buddies, and they doubted that the school they had entered would not be the right place for them. It had a long-lasting detrimental effect on them as they might think they had worked harder and longer than the others, yet still they could not obtain what they should deserve. Might the stereotype of lacking intelligence really the truth? Of course not, but this negative stereotype impacted them in an enormously unfair