Kianna Cooper

March 16, 2016

Dr. Wayne Craig
Racial stereotypes

ABSTRACT
There are several different races in the world but we are all different individually. In my research
I question other peer review research as well as use others research to help answer my questions
on racial stereotypes. This is a very interesting topic when we think about why we all use
stereotype and understand that there are positive and negative outcomes to this topic. Negative,
on how we treat each other base off the knowledge we (everyone on earth) learn from
stereotypes, and positive on giving everyone a fair base background check of a persons culture
and race. My research is mainly focused on the black and white people because I believe the
main people that are focused on in American are these two races; however, I do shed light other
on races as well.

We all sometime use the common things we see in one race as an example of how the
entire race is; especially if there is more than one person in that particular race doing the same
thing. This would be called racial stereotyping a sophisticated word to say that the particular race
is all the same. Who exactly are the most targeted race? Why do people use racial stereotypes?
What is the difference between racial stereotyping and prejudice? These are all the questions that
ponder my mind when I think of the words racial stereotypes. Having stereotypes can create
conflict on getting to know different people because we tend to use stereotype as a reference for
different races and forget the fact that we are all individuals.
The most common race that are targeted are African Americans and Caucasians.
Stereotype about black verse white as far as African American men are more likely better
athletes than Caucasian men; whereas, African American men fail or are fairly average
academically than Caucasian men (chi105). This statics may be true in some areas of the world
but lack further research on what environment each person comes from and live in. Stereotypes
like this have lead African American men to think well if thats the static then that must be true
that black men are bound to fail or remain average so why even try. As well as Caucasian men
feeling they are not athletic and refuse to try out for basketball, football, and etcetera. On the
contrary, It is believe that young children have the abilities to obtain racial knowledge and act
racist toward other children (PAU2016). This statement is completely true because the
psychological research show that the earliest learning stages of young children (ages three until
eleven years) is the peak of a childs learning ability, and are most likely to carry these ideas
learned through the rest of their life. So if a child is taught stereotype such as the example from

Lets talk about race then the outcome will pertain to things along the line of racism, and
prejudice. Which brings me to my next question; what is the difference between stereotype and
prejudice? The definition of prejudice is preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or
actual experience (pre16), where as a stereotype is any commonly known public belief about a
certain social group or a type of individual (ste16). These two words are confused because they
both share the common definition of the first assumption a person makes toward another race.
The difference is that stereotypes include a judgment off of the race and the culture. Whereas
being prejudice is base off the experience a person had with that particular individual. For
example, (the image below) try to count how many races you see. Some have believe that there
are nine people but six, seven, or eight races they see; however, there are two African American
one Porte Rican one Mexican two Muslims one Asian one Caucasian and one Chinese; that
comes up to seven races. Other than that, this image also provides each race a chance to kind of
sarcastically contradict the viewers stereotype against each person.

Finally, there were some other interesting articles that I came across like But shes not
black goes in further on how African American women are televised and portray as this mad

black woman who is always arguing with someone, being sassy, or sometimes even ugly. In the
research they understand that the show Ugly Betty audience is predominantly Caucasian so
they created a show for whites to enjoy and laugh at, but because of this, this has allowed that
door to open for many people to think African American women act in this non submissive way.
Even the title of both the article and the title of the televised show is offensive as well as
stereotyped in the world. This is an old show (Ugly Betty) but even today African American
women are challenged through beauty, intelligences, and the way they carry themselves (the way
black women act). Today African American women share several documentaries like Dark
Girls, and Skin Deep which are very popular documentaries in the African American
community. In these documentaries they discuss different stereotypes such as this plus more on
African American women as a Public Service Announcement to all. It is also psychologically
believed that we use stereotype to make one race feel better about the next found in the journal
"Age and Race Differences in Racial Stereotype Awareness and Endorsement." The human ego
and pride plays a big role in who is at the top of the food chain and who is at the bottom;
which is why the most talked about races in American are African Americans and Caucasians
(hence top and bottom of food chain).
Basically, what is here to be learned is that although stereotype may be true in some
scenario whether we perceive them good or bad doesnt matter. However, the way we treat
people in confidence of this knowledge should be taken into consideration towards anybody
(black, white, Asians, Latinos, Mexican, etcetera). Stereotypes can be so powerful that it can
turn into racism, being prejudice, and chauvinism it should not go without notice in these
situations because how serious racism, being prejudice, and chauvinism can be or lead into.

Works Cited
Childs, David Jason. "Let's Talk About Race: Exploring Racial Stereotypes Using Popular
Culture In Social Studies Classrooms." Social Studies 105.6 (2014): 291-300. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Copping, Kristine E., et al. "Age And Race Differences In Racial Stereotype Awareness And
Endorsement." Journal Of Applied Social Psychology 43.5 (2013): 971-980. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Kretsedemas, Philip. "But SheS Not Black!." Journal Of African American Studies 14.2
(2010): 149-170. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Pauker, Kristin, Nalini Ambady, and Evan P. Apfelbaum. "Race Salience And Essentialist
Thinking In Racial Stereotype Development." Child Development 81.6 (2010): 17991813. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
Peguero, Anthony A., and Lisa M. Williams. "Racial And Ethnic Stereotypes And Bullying
Victimization." Youth & Society 45.4 (2013): 545-564. Academic Search Complete. Web.
15 Mar. 2016.
Prejudice. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved March 17, 2016 from Dictionary.com
websitehttp://www.dictionary.com/browse/prejudice
Stereotype Examples. (n.d.). Retrieved March 17th, 2016, from
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/stereotype-examples.html

Racial Stereotypes (n.d.) [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/racialstereotypes