A Question about Racial Stereotypes?

Question

why do people get offended when racial stereotypes hold SOME form of truth to them? although they are cruel, some are true; i speak from being black, which, in my opinion, is subject to some of the harshest and most primitive stereotypes...but unfortunately, some of them are true and thats a fact i have to live with...
Do you get offended about stereotypes of your race? what steroytypes have you identified are true about your own race?

Answer 1

I'm Southern and White and therefore the assumption is that I'm either a redneck or white trash. As much as I mind these two stereotypes, the thing I resent even more is that I'm also considered a dullard. True, I may speak with a Southern twang, but I grew up around people who speak the same way and to me, it is not something I should be ashamed of. I also hate the fact that I am immediately hated by certain groups of people because I'm white. I am blamed for every atrocity that has ever occurred or is occurring today. I have no rights because I am white. I can't express my opinions because I'll be labeled a "racist". The only thing I can do is die and pay taxes. As a white person, everyone assumes I have money. I am constantly being bombarded by monetary pleas for help for every cause there is. I've got News...I work as hard as anyone else (of any color) and I've got just as less.

I've tried all my life to be my own person and ignore the whole racial issue and I'm a fair-minded person, but sometimes it really gets on my last nerve that someone hates me for no reason other than I'm white. It does no good to complain. Who would listen?

So, yeah, I know about stereotypes. The thing to do is to take race out of the equation, but until everyone agrees to it, it will never happen. I'll just go on being white and being hated.

Maybe in my next incarnation, I won't be human....

Answer 2

I never really thought about it, but then, I am not a minority, so it probably is not as much an issue for me as it is for you.

I do, however, hate it when people just make blind assumptions about me based on my looks or something stupid like that. I live in a city, and for some reason that I can't figure out, people I have met since I moved here always seem to assume that I am some spoiled rich kid from the suburbs... I am not.

To the contrary, I came from a very large, dirt-poor farm family. We did not even have indoor plumbing until I was like 5 years old (I am only 30 now, so this was just back in the late 70s to early 80s,) and I never owned a pair of shoes in the summertime until I was old enough to start earning money and buy them for myself. I had my first steady job in the 8th grade.

It just pisses me off when people ***** and moan about how hard they have it, and then assume that I was just handed everything I have. Give me a break... I have worked very hard for everything I have, and so have my parents. They have managed to make a very nice life for themselves now, and I have never heard either one of them ever complain about how hard it was. Life is hard, and you either work at it, or you allow it to work at you.

Do you feel offended when you see other black people perpetuating certain distastful stereotypes that do not apply to you? Does it offend you when other black people use those stereotypes against each other?

Answer 3

Because not all people of a race are like a sterotype. Thats why people get mad at them. Stereotypes I have to deal with is we all live in teepees and are all drunks, which is not true. I don't believe any stereotypes are true about any race, thats not to say that I don't think about stereotypes when I think of people of a different race-I once asked my Asian friend for math help and he got all upset because not all Asians are good at math. Its not only racial stereotypes that upset people its any kind of stereotype.

Answer 4

My bf who is venezuelan, (i'm white) points out stereotypes against me alot... he often points out that before he ever came here, he was told that americans are: lazy, messy, no good at disciplining children and they often complain. The ones that are true about me: i am lazy most times, i can be messy, I am the soft one when it comes to disciplining our child since he always behaves for daddy and sometimes for me, and i do complain when i find something to complain about.... LOL, i guess i fit all of them! It depends on where you come from and how you were raised what stereotypes you hear of, and of course they had to stem from something, so even though it can be cruel it does always have some truth in them- Great question!! really got me thinking... ♥

Answer 5

Not with my race but I am a blond and they are always stereotyped as STUPID...but, I go with the flow. Blacks have always suffered from the ignorant people who refuse to accept them into the human race. All the slavery etc. was not me....it was long before me. We are all humans in Gods' eyes and free to love one another the best we can.

Whitey's are cruel, selfish, vindictive peoples ....but not all of us...some are thieves, murderers etc,,,,but not all of us. Some throw racial slurs at all races that are not considered white....but not all of us.

Answer 6

This isn't a racial stereotype as much as a regional one. I come from Southern Pennsylvania, and when I travel, at least one person, no matter where I go, hears my thick Appalachian accent and starts talking to me as though I've just fallen out of the back of a pickup truck.

Answer 7

That most white people had plantations in the south and owned slaves. There were plantations but not as many as people think there was. And a lot of white people came over as slaves to. The deal was if their way was paid to America they could work it off. Most times that didn't happen.

Answer 8

Because when you watch shows like "Flavor of Love" or "I love New York" you start to believe the stereotypes. That includes white people. So when someone sees it on tv, they assume all black people act like that, all black women wear weave, all black people like fried chicken, all black men are violent, all black women are confrontational, all black people use the "N" word, and all black people speak like that. If a white person never been outside their neighborhood or around black people and was to watch those shows that is what they would think we are all about.

Answer 9

there's a saying that's like "all stereotypes are there for a reason, because there's a grain of truth in them."

i'd say a stereotype of being a white person, especially if you don't look like trailer trash, is that we're all rich. that's not true at all of my friends.. all of them are barely making rent, working constantly to survive. sometimes i see a black person driving a lexus dressed nice and i'm like.. damn.

Answer 10

I tend to ignore them -- all of them. I do not resemble my race. I am very pale white, had red hair originally, now blonde. I have a black ancestor, and my daddy's family is rom.

Kind of leaves me open for all sorts of them, doesn't it?