Stereotyping In Slavery

Historically, there has been a power imbalance of cis, white, heterosexual able-bodied men ruling over the people. They have forced their ideas and beliefs onto those around them, and normalized their thoughts to benefit themselves. Whether they enforce the idea that all different races are below them, the other sexes are inferior or that other sexualities are unnatural, they constantly oppress those that have even the slightest chance to overthrow them and change the way the world sees those groups. Not to say that there are not men who fall into the category of oppressor yet are subjected to the actions of them because they do not fit the physical appearance or the stereotype that has been set out. Stereotyping has made it easier for oppressors

When it first took off in America in the 17th century, slavery was a way to degrade an entire race and also get necessary work done. Patricia Collins says in her article Prisons for our Bodies, “Slave owners relied upon an ideology of Black sexual deviance to regulate and exploit enslaved Africans.” (Ferber et al, 2013, 69). Collins then refers to the point that a key feature of American slavery was the sexual predation of African women. Slave owners partook in these actions as a power display to scare the slaves into being obedient and

Navarro discusses that the assumptions of her future were negative and derogatory towards her and her race. There was a relationship that she had with a boy and explained that “He thought I looked ugly because my skin was too dark. He [didn’t] want to take me to the beach or lie down in the park in case I [got] tan again. Another time, he [told] me to shut up because I sound ‘too Mexican’” (Ferber et al, 2013, 128). This boy is stereotyping Navarro’s race and trying to oppress her heritage in order for her to be more like