Stereotyping Case

In American society we look at people and instantly make judgments about them based on their personal appearance or background. When most people look at rappers they instantly start to think that the rapper is a bad guy who curses a lot and does not respect woman. The rapper could be a guy who loves and respects woman but because of his occupation he is stereotyped instantly as a bad guy. Is it right to stereotype people? Stereotypes have been around for years and they always seem to get worse and more degrading. I have been stereotyped in my life many times. I have been stereotyped because of my sexuality, my race, and because I am considered a convicted felon.

Stereotypes are generally considered to be "beliefs about the characteristics, attributes, and behaviors of members of certain groups"(Hilton & von Hippel, 1996, p. 240). I keep my sexuality a secret from a lot of people that I know because I am afraid of being unfairly judged. I have a lot of heterosexual friends who are extremely homophobic from either crazy experiences with gay men or word of mouth type of situations. Naturally all gay men are not the same but you can't always stress that to other people to keep them from putting you in a category that you probably don't want to be in. I recently came out to an associate of mine because he had heard rumors and decided to just ask me. I admitted my sexuality to him and he instantly thought the reason I didn't tell him was because I had some kind of man crush on him and was slowly trying to make him gay. I had never been so insulte in my life. I explained to him that I don't always disclose my sexuality to people because it really isn't any of their business. Needless to say he and I never actually developed a friendship because to this day he still thinks that because I am gay that I want to date him. The same as heterosexual people aren't attracted to everyone they meet the same thing goes for gay people. Gay men have been known to be a bit outrageous and overbearing at times. You have the gay men who want to be a woman so they wear woman's clothes or talk very flamboyant. How can you expect people to feel comfortable with something that they are not accustomed to encountering.

I have been stereotyped all my life because of my race. Being an African American man is not the easiest thing in the world. It is a sad thing that in the year 2012 we are still dealing with foolishness such as racism and believing that black men aren't smart. Awareness of self-relevant stereotypes about academic achievement or aptitude has consequences for academic self-concept and performance (Kiefer & Shih, 2006; Kellow & Jones, 2008; Kurtz-Costes, Rowley, Harris-Britt, & Woods, 2008). I have been told many times that being black is my biggest set-back. Ican't change my race therefore I have no control over the color of my skin. I grew up in an upper class suburban area. Most of my school mates were Caucasian. I wasn't allowed to play with certain kids after school because their parents didn't approve. My third grade teacher once accused me of cheating on a spelling test because I was the only one that got a hundred percent correct. As a kid you can only imagine that I didn't understand why I was being treated so unfairly. I feel that certain cultures look at African American men as some kind of detriment to society. I try my best to not let other peoples predjudices