Stereotyping In Space Is Numeric By Ellen Ullman

If you ever have had the pleasure of being blindfolded by someone then you know how disorienting and disconnected it can feel. Humans thrive on having and maintaining control, it is the reason we have a label for everything. Stereotyping is our way of organizing information. It allows us to uniformly categorize a behavior, appearance, culture, race or dialect. Ellen Ullman’s essay, “Space is Numeric” speaks about her need to be in control in order to function. There is a scene where she is in a meeting with her client and she can no longer restrain herself from answering. While answering she starts spouting off technical terms above the level of her audience of sponsors (pg.180). Our first opinion is she has no life outside of work because most of us have classified her as a geek. A stereotype that is associated with having minimal social skills. Although, this might be the general opinion, Ullman shows readers there is so much more to what goes into the job of a computer programmer. Another way she dispels this stigma that surrounds the idea of being a computer programmer is the detailed description of the relationships between her and her co-workers. On page 172, she alludes to the

If you weren’t able to understand someone then you might classify them as foreign or ignorant because they have not learned English. In "Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan addresses the issue of her mother’s imperfect English not being understood. Tan uses her mother’s visit to the hospital to show how people think it is ok to treat people who do not speak perfect English unfairly. Most people assume just because they do not understand it is alright to take advantage or mislead them. These kinds of people assume that they are ignorant because they do not speak English. The immigrants or people who grew up speaking another language beside English are thought of as inferior in American