African American Stereotypes Research Paper

Every human being belongs to a specific type of race or possibly multiple races depending on his/her background. As a population, society views their fellow citizens according to their certain race. For some, culture and traditions of their own race means everything to them and these people are proud of who they are and where they come from. However, for some races their background and pride carries burdens. Although every race is known for distinct stereotypes, a few are worse than others and usually these stereotypes are not true. African Americans have suffered through discrimination for an extremely long time and even though it is not as severe as fifty years ago, stereotypes and racism still exists today. It becomes a fact that others

Over the span of hundreds of years these stereotypes have developed and now help define groups of people. A stereotype is not necessarily a true statement or it may not describe every person in a race but due to popular belief it has become this way. Some people tend to believe that stereotypes are correct and they judge races according to them. When a person is asked to describe someone from a specific race, they will most likely state multiple stereotypes that for most are not even true. This becomes the reason for most racial profiling and increases the barrier between people. For African Americans, the typical stereotypes include: they are responsible for majority of crime, they are all addicted to drugs or belong gangs, uneducated and constantly attempting to cause trouble. Other examples of stereotypes could be that Asians are extremely smart when it comes to math, all Muslims are terrorist, people from England have bad teeth or Caucasians are all lazy and obese. These stereotypes or judgements of communities of people are only relevant because the term ‘race’ allows them to be. People only view their fellow citizens a certain way due to the term and the negativity behind it. Erasing the term in this sense would be beneficial to society because it would help destroy these stereotypes. If there is no group of people to categorize then the judgements towards them

This provides information about his/her past and allows them to understand what makes them who they are. For the majority, culture and race becomes a part of a person and they take great pride in that. Certain aspects of a person’s life contains traces of their culture such as traditions, festivals, family gatherings and lifestyle. These traditions become the positive side of the term ‘race’. If one takes the time to look past a race’s stereotypes they may discover that these people are simply trying to enjoy their own life and culture. Citizens may choose to ignore the judgement placed on them from other people as they go about daily tasks due to a large amount of pride in themselves. Therefore, if the term ‘race’ becomes retracted, an enormous amount of the population would be upset that they are just another person rather than declaring their background. Along with upsetting people, ‘race’ highlights the amount of diversity present in this world which is another positive aspect of the