Have you ever looked at a person from another culture or race and believed what you heard about them? Have you ever met someone from another race whom you thought did not like your race but found him or her to be the friendliest person you have ever met? Have you ever assumed a group of people from another race was dangerous but surprised they greeted you kindly and respectfully? Have you ever met someone or a group of people who represented a negative stigma and believed everyone in their culture behaves that way? Most importantly, have you ever met someone from your own race live up to the stigma branded on your race by another race? With the knowledge of the behavior of your own race not being properly represented by the individual or even a group, does that make you realize the same misrepresentation is possible about other cultures or are your convictions so strong you refuse to set yourself free of mind controlling cultural observations that breed hate? If so, then perhaps you have been injected by the poison called stereotype.
Stereotypes; an unfair stigma imposed on a society or an individual that spans generations before any ones' time.
Although no one can really pinpoint when stereotypes originated, many cultures naturally view other cultures with a judgmental perspective.
Even if a viewpoint is favorable, it is still not wise to assume everyone in that particular culture has that favorable viewpoint.
When a stereotype is accepted, it clearly says a person or culture is not worth knowing once encountered, therefore segregation begins and ignorance rein.
A journey into the origins of stereotypes has proven to be fruitless.
My research has produced countless of opinions that vary as much as religion or politics.
So I decided to dig within myself in search of my own experience as a student from another culture.
Not necessarily to find the origins of stereotypes as a culture but as an individual, when did it develop in me and around me and what was the root cause from my personal perspective.
Growing up in India, our people are one.
Like many other cultures, our race is not mixed with other races therefore, we primarily see ourselves throughout our development.
History of various cultures is passed down to us in our early lessons, but books and class lectures do not carry enough weight to leave a lasting impression in the form of a stereotype.
Negative comments from family and friends may have some influence but eventually their opinions fade, therefore leaving no strength to leave a stereotypical stain.
The main difference between my culture and the US is, my culture have predominately one race while the US is known as the "melting pot" therefore multiple races can come together and live amongst each other and have a better quality of life, but it also breeding a ground for harsh ignorance of the races they live around and a playground for racial divisions.
With so many races competing with each other for the same thing, it makes it difficult for each culture to look each other in the eye and attempt to know one another.
A society that is a melting pot of cultures is a brilliant and loving concept, but it has to make accommodations for ignorance of one another within the pot.
Ignorance gives birth to a variety of things that everyone should be without: Complaints, anger, failure, stress as well as stereotypes, just to name a few.
When a person of any culture in any part of the world ignores what is important, they instantly display ignorance.
Therefore, when people ignore the important things about people and focus on the negative things they believe without evidence, they are ignorant because they ignored what is important about that person.
It is a fact that some people are prime examples of a stereotype but that should be based on an individual basis not as a society as a whole.
We are all ignorant about something.
If you were in a country that was underdeveloped and the citizens had no concept of decent shelter, clothing or hunting skills, could you teach them or would you only tell them about what you mostly ignored because you did not consider it important enough to pay attention to since it was provided for you? When it comes to other cultures, we are allowed to be ignorant about many things but if we choose to not research the matter for evidence of the popular claims, then we should remain silent until the truth is exposed and even then we may opt to remain silent because it may prove our original theory to be incorrect.
My eyes have seen many people from various backgrounds and cultures.
I suppress my natural instinct to incorporate my previous beliefs about the individuals' culture because that was birth from ignorance and there is a time when ignorance should be released with other childish behaviors.
Ignorance is also proof of laziness.
You do not have to know a person or believe a stereotype to know that person is lazy because it is evident in their steadfast of ignorance.
Not what is unknown, but what is believed and accepted without research for the truth.
I believe if you do not want to take time to research for the truth, then what is said is not worth accepting as fact or worth discussing at all.
If laziness is developed from ignorance and ignorance develops stereotypes, then something must be a creator of them all or an incubator of some kind.
I have found, like so many others in my research, that the media has a lasting impression above even the most influential people I have encountered because the images, coupled with the sounds, are the key ingredients to a lasting impression, a memory, an unforgettable stereotype.
It has been said that television is an "idiot box" because it does the thinking for you.
It does not allow you to imagine on your own, it shows you what it want you to learn, know, buy and believe.
Once someone believes something, the image provided gain strength and credibility.
They also say "a picture is worth a thousand words".
With the power of the television, a thousand words can be said from a two second image flash of a culture at war, therefore, sending the message that culture is a war bent culture who hate America or each other and everything they stand for when this is in fact a premeditated decision to expose only one side of that culture without regard to a balanced point-of-view.
America seems to have a variety of stereotypes that have been accepted and only proven wrong by those whom choose to seek the truth and rid their minds of negative images embedded by an onslaught of media attacks.
If television is an "idiot box" then it should not be fully blamed for doing what it was designed to do.
In fact it is smarter than most humans because we were designed to think better than stereotypes but we continue to allow our minds to be controlled by popular beliefs spoon-fed to us by an "idiot".
I enjoy meeting many people from diverse backgrounds in order to better myself as a person, but the acceptance of a stereotype will render that impossible.
I am aware of many people who may not embrace my natural acceptance of their culture, however, acceptance is better than rejection.
I may not be able to rid the world of stereotypes and the ignorance it breeds, but I can do only what I was born to do; lead by example and hope that can be as contagious as the spread of stereotypes.