Identity Stereotypes... Do you come up against stereotypes concerning any aspects of your identity – your nationality, race, gender, class – in school or out, at home or away. Describe an experience or tell a story and try to analyze it a little bit.
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Image Source: Google Images. 10/16/09.
In my opinion, stereotypes exist everywhere. They are in every city and every society. I, personally, neither like stereotyping people nor agree with those who do. I believe that the more I grow up, the more I stop trusting prejudices and start getting to know someone before I create my opinion about him. And the best thing about it is that almost every time I do it I realize that I wasn't wrong. I actually enjoy the process. For me, it doesn't matter whether the steretypes concern race, nationality, gender or any other aspect. After all, we are all part of a society, we are all connected to each other one way or another. That is the reason I come up against stereotypes. - Silvia Djambazka, ACS
ReplyDeleteThe best stereotypes are food related. For example, if you are chinese that means you eat rice ; if you are italian that means you eat spaghetti etc. The one that I hear most is that vietnamese people eat dogs. We have this vietnamese kid in school and some people tease him with that. It is not fun IMO. I wouldn't like it if someone made fun of me like that. That is why I am against stereotyping.
ReplyDelete-Alexander Simeonov, ACS-
People are used to judge about other people by their otuther appearance. The first thing when you analyze someone most commonly is his looking. I've learned that if you put people in certain categories,without meeting them , chances are that you won't create friendship with them. It's better first to know someone, vefore placing him in a certain stereotype. Sadly, huge amount of the people around the world aren't on the same opinion.
ReplyDelete-Dimitar Satchansky, ACS
When I was in high school, every student was divided into a group. There were super-cool kids, alternative lifestyle kids, sports kids, art kids, drama kids, band kids, etc. I hated it. I always tried to cross the lines. I had friends who were younger than me, friends from my tennis team, friends I liked to go dancing with, friends from church, friends from other schools. I liked this, but it was exhausting always crossing the lines, because not too many people did it. Since I left high school, I haven't run into those rigid lines as much, but they do still exist among my friends, and I still try to cross them.
ReplyDeleteBetsy Potash, ACS
Stereotypes lose their meaning as we grow up. Not that they don't exist, it's just that there are more important things for grown up people than categorization. In my oppinion, though, a big part of high school students, which would argue against stereotyping, actually feel comfortable with them being put in a specific clique. For me, it's okay for someone to talk that I'm whatever they think I am, but as long as they take the time to get to know me. Of course, being stereotyped has happened to me. I've met people, who have reacted a bit disapointing, for example, when they understood I am from Bulgaria. Some of them would just start avoiding me, because they'd think Bulgaria is an undeveloped country, so they wouldn't have any benefit of being friends with me, only because of my nationality. Back when I was a kid, I'd feel sad and a bit angry, but nowadays, I'd try to prove them wrong.
ReplyDelete~ Lora Stoyanova, ACS
It is true that stereotypes exist everywhere and it is just how our society is. Nevertheless, we can try to change that. I think that every single person in the world has a different personality and we were not born the same so no matter what "group" or part of society we belong to, we can still bring something new to the table. It is not important what the color of our skin is, or where we live, but what kind of people we are and what kind of people we have for friends. It is important how we live in the world not how we were born, so I think that we can learn a lot from everybody. We have to give everybody a chance before simply judging.
ReplyDeleteViara 10/3 ACS
Once, my Chinese friend and I had a fight with a girl who was racist. She was nice to me but was rude to my Chinese friend because she was her race Chinese, and she thought that she could use her, and be rude around her, this was such a set back to her character. This made me feel very guilty because I knew that my Chinese friend was innocent and the racist girl had no right to be rude to her. It goes to show how so many people in China these days act nice to foreigners but are so rude and stupid tempered to their own people. Once in a vegetable market in Beijing my mom bought some egg plants at this stall, the lady who worked there was so nice to my mom but not to the Chinese lady in front of my mom. This made my mother feel the same way as I felt when my Chinese friend got mocked by the racist girl.
ReplyDeleteI believe stereotypes are everywhere and that's not something that will change any time soon. In my opinion, stereotypes exist to create places for everyone to feel as if they belong and for the people on the outside to discriminate and gain a feeling of superiority and understanding. Stereotypes are something I haven't completely made up my mind about. On one hand, I oppose them because they create a new restriction on originality, understanding of one another, and freedom in society, but on the other hand, I accept them as something unavoidable and unstoppable. I, myself have found some truth in common stereotypes so I won't claim that any are dramatically off point, I also won't say that they completely define anyone either.
ReplyDeleteKathya Bello
Cesar Chavez PCHS
David from Cesar Chavez pcs DC
ReplyDeleteI have dreads and get alot of fearfull grimaces from people I pass all the time. Some peolpe think that because I have dreads that I am a malevolent person or a criminal. In reality I am not a bad person and I wear my dreads for many of the reasons the Nazerites and the Rastafarians do. I wear my dreads to represent that I am sagacious, prudent, pride and many more reasns.Yet I don't just wear dreads just to wear them; they are my life style and I will never cut them. People who oppose them will just have to get used to them.
The problem with stereotypes is that we all use them although most of us wouldn't want to admit just how much. They represent a sort of a shortcut for most people - we don't have to make up our minds when we got stereotypes to use about most groups of people. Sometimes I think we all just use them automatically. It's really easy to judje someone or something when you have stereotypes and you are too lazy to actually think about it. It's a time saver in its own way and we all know how much people like to avoid wasting time and energy on thinking about stuff...
ReplyDeleteGoran from ACS
I agree with Goran, because in my opinion Stereotypes are for narrow-minded people and people who can't or don't want to build up their own opinion. It is true, however, that we all have used them at some point in our lives. I admit I have used them, too, and not once, but in 99% of the cases they turned out not to be right and I regret having stereotyped a person.
ReplyDeleteAndrea ACS
Stereotypes really exist, especcially here in ACS. I had never seen another school where people are stereotypes so much. You know where every person belongs and unfortunatelly students had built their own societies. And this is not concerning only ACS. Unfortunately, it occurs everywhere. But why do we stereotype people? Whe had gotten used to stereotyping. We do it all the time, even if we do not actually want or mean it. I hate it when I see this "differents societies", because I feel at the same time that I belong everywhere and that I belong nowhere. I have friends from all these different stereotypes(I hate that word) and I actually concider them as one whole. They are not different from each other. They are all people...and they are all my friends. That is why I neven ever discriminate anyone, because I think that discrimination is not right!!!
ReplyDeleteIva Dikova, ACS
What I really hate is the age stereotypes: "If you are a teenager, then you aren't responsible, then you are always high, then you're the most degenerate." But it's not like that. We are sooo different, even closest friends are very different. My parents don't know me well - they never look at the acts I do, they just think I am a teenager so I MUST be reprobated. The phrase I hate the most to hear when I am sad or depressed is "show me your veins! I'm sure that you've just taken some drugs!" and then start to scream to me that I'm high even that there're no scars. The thing is that I never get drunk or use any drugs, I always do whatever they tell me (I clean my room, I go home befor 10 p.m. and so on) even if I don't want (and believe me, I'm not the person who'd like go back from a party at 10 o'clock). But those things I do won't change their opinion, it whon't show them that I'm not the same as all of the teenagers they watch on TV who are killing each other. They'd never open their minds and see that everyone has his own personality or way of thinking, they'd never give me a chance to react in a way I feel it - they think everyone is the same, and if he is different, then he MUST MUST MUST change. It's like that with all of the people, and this thing won't change. ~Mariya, ACS
ReplyDeleteStereotypes exist everywhere and unfortunately they will always do, especially in high school. People are classified into different stereotypes by the clothes they wear, the music they listen to, the people they are friends with, etc. This is the thing I hate the most - having an opinion about someone without even knowing him. I guess that's the easier way - relying on what everybody says instead of getting to know the person first. The truth is that people are actually divided into good and bad, not into some stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteKarina Atanasova, ACS
I do not really agree with what Lora Stoyanova said. Stereotypes do not actually disappear. We do not actually get some of them until we grow up. Think about races - Jews, for instance. People usually say that Jews are stingy and not hostile at all. I personally know couple of Jews who definitely do not match the stereotype definition of a Jew. It is all about identity and personality. Not a single community or society should have a tag saying something general and in some cases untrue.
ReplyDeleteJulia Georgieva ACS
Stereotypes are everywhere and there are much of them for every single type of person. There are stereotypes for races, color of skin,even for people that listen special kind of music. For example, those who listen mostly to metal - some people say that they don't wash their hair :) or something, but I know many that are just ordinary people with good hygiene.
ReplyDeleteMy parents have a lot of stereotypes. Probably this suggests that I have been raised believing in stereotypes too, but I think I have managed somehow to build my opinion of people without paying attention to stereotypes. Even though I love my parents, when I see them judgung people they do not know due to society's labels it makes me sad. There is so much more to each and every one of us that make us unique, than some general characteristic that can be applied to everyone
ReplyDeleteStereotypes are created to "help" people. As someone before me mentioned, people are too lazy to get to know each other, but it gets a lot more easier to stick a label at a person's forehead and to believe that he/she can be described with just one word - nerd/goth/jock. However, stereotypes' purpose is not only to spare time. Sometimes they can be even useful, if one knows how to use them. Since a stereotype is usually created around a specific distinguishing feature of a person, it can help him/her make a lot of new contacts as it functions as a huge, illuminated arrow pointing toward him/her and saying "I listen to ____ music and my hobbies are ____. If you have the same interests, why don't you talk to ME?" Nonetheless, as I said, stereotypes must be used properly. They can never explore the depths of one's personality - this job is left to us.
ReplyDeleteMila Daskalova, ACS
Often times people stereotype me in various ways because of my many talents. When people read some of the things I write, they believe that I may be a "geek/nerd" and some wouldn't want to hang out with me; mainly because they are intimidated by my intelligence. The other way I am stereotyped is the complete opposite. Some people that see me hanging around with my friends, outside of school who aren't blessed enough to receive an education as good as mine, believe that I'm some sort of "hood rat" that is good for nothing, and a "waste of a future" all because my personality can adapt to just about any kind of group of people. I honestly can't say that I am totally upset with the stereotype because I get a kick out of proving people wrong but, at the same time I hate it because sometimes I don't get the chance to prove others wrong.
ReplyDeleteP.S- Danae: Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy.
ReplyDelete