Racial Stereotypes Essay

In an experiment performed by the popular ABC TV news show 20/20, pictures of two men were shown to several children; one of them was black, and the other one was white. The children were asked to comment on pictures. When commenting on the photograph of the black man, the children made such statements as, “He looks mean.” Another referred to him as “FBI's Most Wanted.” Another one added, “He is looking like a basketball player.” When the white man's picture was shown, one child said, “He's nice.” After that when the children were asked which one was a criminal, most pointed to the black man. Conversely, when they were asked which one was a teacher, most pointed to the white man. The white man in the picture was Oklahoma City bomber
Their comments were undoubtedly the result of conditioned responses brought about by the stereotypes, in this case the racial stereotypes, they have learned thus far in their young lives. And it does not end there.
Stereotypes are present in all age groups and are at work in all aspects of social interactions, which are too numerous to count. They can be positive or negative. True or not true. They can be based on a person’s race, social class, gender, the way a person is dressed, involvement in a certain organization; the list is endless. One thing is for sure, stereotypes have a strong influence over the way people think and consequently, the way they act and it is unlikely that they will be going away any time soon.
So what are stereotypes anyway? Where did they come from and how did they come to be such a powerful, influential force in our society? Stereotypes are “over-generalized beliefs about people based on their membership in one of many social categories.” Stereotyping is a way of categorizing things and has both psychological and cognitive roots. From a cognitive standpoint, “quick and ready categorizations, even from momentary encounters, help us process huge amounts of information we receive about the people we