During my son's senior year I was asked by a coworker if my son played basketball, my response was “no.” I was then asked if he played football, again my response was “no.” I was asked these questions when college scholarships were being discussed. I told him that my son has never been interested in sports and has always been into computers and electronics. He received an academic scholarship based on his grades not his athletic ability. My coworker told me that most black boys get into college on sports scholarships. I was so taken aback all I could say was WOW! In my heart I do not feel he was being racist but he was prejudging my son and thousands of other children of color based on what the media has shown him.
Prejudice is an unfair, negative perception or attitude towards another person or group based on group membership. (Kirsh, 2014) The media portrays black youth as athletic, thugs, uneducated, thieves, or rapist. Very rarely does it show that young back males are educated, bright, hard working, and productive. With this perception being shown it is hard for other races to believe that our boys are destined for anything other than jail, the grave, the NBA, or the NFL.
Black women are thought to be baby making welfare queens not CEO’s, doctors or lawyers, yet Caucasian women are thought to be great business women and bred for success. This stereotype has caused women like myself to have to work ten times harder than my counterparts no matter if I was more qualified for a position I have still had to prove myself while all they had to do was apply for a role and received the position. I have been asked how many “baby-daddies” I have. To say I was appalled at the question, but proud to say “none”! It baffles me that other races can have multiple children by multiple men and I would never think to ask them if they had a baby-daddy, let alone how many. Why can’t my children be born out of love and have fathers just like their children do? Major and Eccleston states that the reason why is people hold prejudices to enhance their own self-esteem and others of their group superior to those out of their group. (2005)
Stereotypes are something we deal with daily. It can actually effect the way we view ourselves and truly effect our self-esteem. I believe that we all have the tendency to stereotype or prejudge others based on what we have seen in the media or a particular situation involving others outside our own group. (Plous, 2011) That perception could be positive or negative. We can be prejudice against people of our own group. For example, within my race I have been told I thought I was better than someone because I was lighter skin. I have been told that lighter-skin black women are prettier than darker-skin black women. This was told to me by an older lady that was black. I know that this mentality has been passed down through the generations and find it extremely disheartening.
If we as the human race would stop for one second and look in the mirror and treat each other the way we want to be treated all of the prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination would end. If we would quit assuming that the teenager with the dark hair and black nail polish is depressed and planning on killing his classmates, stop assuming that the tallest black kid in school can dunk, or the overweight man in the drive-thru is obese because he overeats and doesn’t care about his health, we would be a much better race of people. We need to start focusing on each other as individuals and love each other like Christ loves us. At the end of the day we all bleed the same, we all want to wake up and go to bed knowing we are loved and accepted. We have to stop focusing on the differences and focus on the things we all have in common which is a heartbeat and understand that we are tearing each other down not building each other up.
