Negative Stereotypes Essay

1013 Words5 Pages

I decided to relate one of my experiences with the discussion we had about stereotypes. On many occasions I have been categorized as loud, ghetto, or aggressive because I am a black woman. At a young age I never knew why certain people thought this way I just considered it to be something that was normal. Once I got older I realized the way some people portrayed me to be was far from who I was. Therefore, every time I came across a person that categorized me as something I 'm not I made sure to correct them. Well when I was a senior in high school I was a part of the home economics class and we learned about nutrition and cooking healthy foods. So every year different high schools are selected to attend a state event that held competitions …show more content…

It made me feel that no matter how smart you are or how many achievements you have if you are Black you will be considered a last choice. You can work your way up from absolutely nothing and still get questioned because of the color of your skin. When stereotypes became one of our discussion topics it helped me answered a lot unsolved questions at the time. For instance, knowing where stereotypes come from. I believe the media plays an outstanding part in the portrayal of negative stereotypes of black woman. Movies such as Claudine, BAPS, Monster 's Ball, New Jack City, Boyz-N-the Hood, and Menace to Society show African American women to be single mothers, uneducated, loud, and living in a ghetto neighborhood. Even with the old blaxploitation movies it was a time when black women was portrayed as street walkers with a pimp always by her side. Once I begin to understand the type of person I am I knew I couldn’t let what 's played on a television screen defined me. Not all of us are loud and struggling with relationship problems, being a single parent, or even drug addiction. Even though people have a tendency of believing what they see I know that the only way to differentiate myself from what the media displays is being a black women that doesn’t live up to those