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The True Effect Of Stereotypes

Decent Essays

The True Effect of Stereotypes
Stereotypes are an official representation of a community. That’s an obvious fallacy, but stereotypes are a concept that are seen as the unofficial, yet the official view of a certain community. Stereotypes are a complex yet simple concept that can either reinforce or dismantle someone’s view on another individual. Specifically, cultural stereotypes that are broadcasted on a basis. In today’s world, cultural stereotypes are used as a means of categorizing an individual or community without truly knowing them. Cultural stereotyping can negatively affect the individual experience by minimizing their value, differentiating how they’re viewed in society, and affecting how they’re treated.
To begin, in Kristen …show more content…

The concept of interracial dating is highly looked down upon by some people, so for Lee to be in public with her partner of a different race is seen as ‘wrong’ by some people. This mindset leads to both Lee and her partner’s value as individuals being minimized to the stereotypes that are attached to their races and/or ethnicities whilst dating. This mindset also shows that no matter an what an individual’s race is, they can still be minimized as a person solely based on who they associate themselves with.
Likewise, in Chimamanda Adichie’s TedTalk “Danger of a Single Story”, Adichie talks about how a single story, or a stereotype, of someone, can lead to them only being seen as that stereotype, which then results in that person being treated differently within society. Specifically, Adichie explains how her single story about a family helper led to her viewing him solely based on that single story, “It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them is how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.” (Adichie). Adichie’s view and a single story of a family helper led her to view him only as that stereotype. This then led to her treating the family servant

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