Stereotypes: Fact or Fiction

Hello, my dear readers! I hope you all had a good week. :) So, I guess its not too hard to guess what my post today is going to be about.  We’ve all heard a few before and we may even believe a few of them to be true. Stereotypes are a daily part of life that we all have to sadly deal with. Recently, Michelle Obama was interviewed by Gayle King about the book “The Obamas.” In the book, Michelle’s feelings about being the First Lady are discussed. The author basically says several times in the book that Michelle Obama hates being the First Lady, that there is tension between Mrs. Obama and many of her husband’s advisers, that she is actually the one running Obama’s discussion with his advisers and more. In her interview with Gayle King Michelle repeatedly says, “Who can write about how I feel? Who?” She denies these accusations and says that people are trying to paint an image of her as some angry black woman that just isn’t true. After reading this article and watching the interview, I felt that I could kind of relate to Mrs. Obama on the whole angry black woman point and that’s where I got the idea for this post. I’ve had several incidents where people have fed into this stereotype. The best example I can give is when I was hanging out with some male friends after class. They were discussing the type of girls they liked to date and their preferences when it comes to race. None of them were really that into dating black women, but I remember one of them saying explicitly, ” I don’t date black girls because they’re always ghetto and aggressive.” This feeds into the whole angry black woman stereotype. It’s right up there with people who say black women sleep with their fists balled up because they’re so angry. Of course when my friend said this my jaw nearly dropped since not only am I black but he is too! To me he said, “Well, except you, you’re not like that.” His statement made no sense. He lays these traits on black women as a group and then points out one and says you’re not like that. This just proves how false stereotypes are and also how they can play such a big role in our lives. I personally feel as though these stereotypes have affected me to an extent, especially at my college where its majority white ( my high school was majority black). Most of the kids at my school are from small towns where everyone is white like them and due to several factors when they come to college and see black people they have some preconceived notions about us due to their lack of knowledge and experience. Some of the white male students may not pursue a relationship with a black female because of stereotypes like “angry black woman” and maybe some friendships never even form due this stereotype. I am not accusing people at my school of being racist or hateful, I’m just saying that I feel in some situations there is a culture gap and a lack of knowledge. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling like this when it comes to stereotypes and how they affect our lives.

Now don’t get me wrong some times people can make stereotypical jokes and one can laugh it off thinking that the joker doesn’t really believe these stereotypes to be true. Also, some stereotypes are just so plain ridiculous that no one can take them seriously or they can’t offend anyone. For example,all black people love fried chicken or all white people are bad dancers. These ones just roll off with no affect and can even be laughed at. However ones like all black people are violent, all white people are racist, all Mexicans ( actually all Latinos and Hispanics aren’t Mexican though some people seem to think so) carry knives or are in gangs can really hurt people’s feelings (yes we should care about how people feel. call me sensitive if you wish) and majorly affect how they are perceived. Now, I don’t think stereotypes will ever be abolished (I definitely wish they would though) and I myself can laugh at a stereotypical joke here and there ( when they aren’t carried to far and become really offensive), but I just think we should all start thinking about how we perceive people when we first meet them and why we perceive them that way. We should take a step back and actually view the individual as who they are and not what we may believe true about them based on a stereotype. So, my final word is stereotypes=fiction. And just as Michelle Obama said, “Who can say how I feel?” and Kelly Clarkson says in her new song, “You don’t know a thing about me,” remember that if people judge you off of a stereotype they don’t know who you are as person and they’ll never know how you feel so their opinion doesn’t matter. Until next time! See ya then my dear readers and feel free to follow me on twitter (Natasha Lane) and comment on this post! ;)