Do You Feel That Stereotyping Nationalities Is Necessarily Wrong? (page 4)

StinkyPantz

as long as whole cultures and races aren't judged and weighed by them.

To misquote Shakespeare, "therein lies the rub".

BrendaCloutier

Very difficult question. Can you judge all JW's by their brainwashing, er, training? At least JW's are generally passive, and of mixed racial backgrounds, albeit with homocidal/suicidal tendencies.

The tough one is ***please I do not intend to insult ANYONE exept maybe a JW*** rabid Jihad supporting people, most commonly of middle eastern descent, and not stereotyping a man of middle eastern descent with a fuse dangling from his shoe, or trying to sneek a boxcutter on board an airliner, or taking westerners hostage and beheading them.

However, that's not to say that EVERY person on middle eastern descent is a rabid Jihad supporting idiot. There have been pleanty of rabid christians and jews in history, too. Isn't Dubya a christian?

IMHO

Brenda

czarofmischief

I am scottish and American. If I can't shoot it, I'm going to headbutt it into submission.

CZAR

BrendaCloutier

I am hispanic and my tortillas come out like the shape of Florida

That's why they have tortillaria's. I buy mine. But I have yet to find really good tortillas mais in Portland, Oregon. So I stick with harina....

Bren

Englishman

Anyone ever noticed how much Welsh women can rabbit?

Englishman.

Satanus

Two of my nieghbors are part welsh. Ah, don't ask

S

jwbot

Hmm depends...

some sterotypes have a little truth in them...but not because someone is born this way...they will act this way...etc. But people grow up in a culture or sciety with certain moores...and they will probably hold those ideas and act accordingly.

Someone mentioned Asian women being more submissive...that might be true because in a lot of Asian cultures, they are taught to be. Does it mean that an Asian American born in the US and growing up here will be like that simply because they are Asian? Mostly likely, no, because they are not exactly growing up in that type of society.

Another example: 1/3 (I am not sure of the specifics of the statistics) of black men will at some point in their life have been arrested...does that mean they comit more crime? Absolutely not. But some police officers might think that...pull them over more...thus perpetuating a bad sterotype. In addition, it would show racism in the system...not that they commit more crime (because that is simply not the truth).

jws

Its definitely something to be avoided. Sociological studies have shown time and again that people of the same socioeconomic class have more in common in regards to behaviours/outlooks than with people of their own ethnicity/race but different class.

However you divide it, groups tend to have similar characteristics that could be called stereotypes. It doesn't have to be ethnic or racial. Like saying southerners like NASCAR. Many stereotypes are based on truths or trends. If a lot of people in a certain group tend to do a certain thing, then there is some truth to it.

Advertisers use this. Why do they advertise beer during football games and not Barbie dolls? Is it stereotyping to say guys watching football like beer or wise marketing?

As long as you are aware that, although many members of a group may exhibit a certain trait (a stereotype), that that trait does not apply to every member of that group. I would try to avoid negatively stereotyping anyone at first glance until you get to know them. Like saying all elders are power-hungry blue-collar workers. Until you get to know the guy and know whether that's true or not, give him the benefit of the doubt.

Stereotypes are not all bad either. There are good stereotypes and negative ones. For example, saying people from a certain city or state are friendly is a positive thing.

Midget-Sasquatch

Alot of good points. I can't acknowledge them all without insulting someone I leave out.

I agree there likely is some truth behind stereotypes because our pattern seeking trait actually needs to perceive something before it goes about its business of making connections. And like it was mentioned, one can choose to put a positive or negative slant on the 'patterns' they make out.

I think its wrong to automatically stereotype by nationality because you'll always have individuals within a group that go against the grain to varying degrees and that could be unfair. Also it seems nationality has less of a bearing on how people behave than on other factors like social standing and economic means, so we could be very wrong.

Profiling can be turned into a positive though when it focusses mainly on behaviours and not on what country or race you're from. The stereotypical attributes of serial killers to help zero in on suspects for instance.

minimus

Funny thing is----we stereotype JWs regularly.

Do You Feel That Stereotyping Nationalities Is Necessarily Wrong?

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