Prejudice, Discrimination And Stereotypes

Sometimes people’s beliefs and opinions can become other’s reality. Prejudice and discrimination are different than stereotypes and misconceptions. Stereotypes are mental images of a group. Stereotypes start from a small portion of individuals that do something to cause the rest of the group to be categorized as well. Although, stereotypes are based off of truths, they can be exaggerated. On the other hand, misconceptions are formed from having stereotypes and these views are based off of untruths. Stereotypes exist to automatically set an impression on an individual, which then leads to groups of people, while misconceptions lead to false impressions towards others. For example, there are many stereotypes about bus drivers being grumpy and

For instance, because some goths wear all black should not be a reason to assume that all goths wear black. Stereotypes are passed down from one generation to another and to this day, stereotypes of all kind exist. They keep one from seeing and accepting others for who those people are. While stereotypes root from truths, misconceptions come from false information. It’s unfortunate that most people are willing to believe anything they see or hear even if it is not true; that is what leads to misconceptions. At times, teachers are misunderstood and fit misconceptions that people create. For example, if a teacher looks mean and one has a low grade in the class, the student assumes that the teacher is giving him/her a horrible grade because she is mean and may not like him/her. Many times, just by looking at an individual, misconceptions can be

Most of the time, the bus driver I had, fit some of the stereotypes that are made about these individuals. The bus driver that dropped me off at home every single day was female and a bit overweight. However, she was not grumpy, unless a student misbehaved. The last couple of my elementary years, I had another female bus driver who did not get too frustrated with kids and was not overweight. During tennis season, the girls tennis team traveled to different locations with different bus drivers; some were male and some were female. Some of these bus drivers were grumpy, while others were easy going. Some of the bus drivers were chubby, while others were skinny. Being one of the students who didn’t like to give the bus driver a hard time, it was easy to understand how he/she