Brown people smell like curry, Asian people are good at math, and white people can’t dance. At its worst, stereotypes are derogatory, offensive, and just plain wrong (Heather Morris, anyone)? Perhaps we should be glad, then, that stereotyping – particularly racial stereotyping – has been hailed as the mother of modern racial slurs. However, is ignoring racial differences really the best solution? Or is it possible that pretending that we’re all the same is actually detrimental to equality and fair-treatment? Maybe we all need to be a little more frank and open in talking about race and race-related issues; maybe doing so doesn’t make you a racist, but rather just a realist.
Most racist stereotypes occur when people use skin colour to make judgements about an individual’s personality, actions, or values. While the knee-jerk reaction would be to condemn such judgments, it would be equally ignorant to assume that races don’t have cultural implications. In fact, we would argue that the only thing worse than having racist stereotypes is assuming colorblind uniformity. Sure, it’s nice to pretend that all white people are like black people are like yellow people are like brown people – living in the exact same country, with the exact same set of laws, cultural norms, belief systems, and family situations, with not a whit of difference but the amount of melanin in your skin. But that ain’t realistic.
Take the stereotype, “Asian people are good at math.” The stereotype is not necessarily implying that being born with so-called ‘yellow’ skin predisposes you to mathematical abilities. However, oriental countries place a greater emphasis on academic successes (especially in the maths and sciences) than western countries, and when parents who grow up in oriental countries bring their children to western countries, the values transfer over. Another example is alcohol and drinking. Drinking has a large cultural significance in western society (especially in university). Many cultures, such as Middle-Eastern “brown” cultures, have rules and regulations that expressly forbid drinking. Without being aware of these cultural implications, one could assume that the shy, non-drinker in your class is actually a stuck-up snob who hates alcohol and doesn’t know how to have a good time, rather than the product of a very teeter-tottery culture clash.
So when is stereotyping a good thing? Stereotyping is a good thing when it helps us be aware of group differences. We commit the sin of non-racial ‘stereotyping’ all the time, but just under a different guise. We assume that young children are too dumb to understand Adult Talk; we assume that people in different professions (doctors, lawyers, teachers) are at least somewhat passionate about their respective fields of study; we assume most mentally handicapped people can’t take care of themselves. Whether or not the aforementioned stereotypes are true is up for debate, but the point is that stereotyping helps us understand that not everybody is like “me.” And although one could argue that racial stereotyping is more “bad” because it uses skin color as a basis for differentiation (as opposed to age, career choice, and disabilities, which are somehow perceived as being more suitable), the end truth is that we live in a society where race and culture still have a very strong correlation. Perhaps, in time, humanity will blend and become “tan,” and the link between race and culture will erode. But that time isn’t right now, and it would ignorant to believe it is.
However, racial stereotyping is detrimental when we use it as an unquestionable law. If you realize that the sixth grader you met is actually a politics whiz, you might take a moment to be impressed, but you probably wouldn’t blink twice – and that’s how it should be. It’s okay to believe in a stereotype and then accept that it doesn’t hold. However, if we adamantly refuse to believe that said teenagers don’t have the intellectual forte to understand anything beyond how-to-text-in-class-and-get-away-with-it, then stereotyping becomes a problem. If we don’t let ourselves be challenged of our assumptions, then we will never fully grasp how individually different each of us are.
Racial stereotyping should also not be used as an excuse to discriminate. Discrimination, which is the use of stereotyping to give or take away advantages or opportunities from people, is not something we promote or believe in. Consideration of people’s races should open your mind, not close it.
At the risk of sounding like Jim Crow, we will emphasize that races are different, but equal. Race is a major force in the world, for better and for worse. When we choose to embrace our racial and cultural differences, we can celebrate multiculturalism in cuisine, music and art. But when we forget that race is only one part of who we each are, we can encounter the ugliness of eugenics, segregation, and bigotry. The danger of racism is when it leads to ignorance; to try and fight this with more ignorance, by assuming that all people are equal irrespective of cultural and racial differences, is nothing more than a farce. Stereotyping in and of itself is neither helpful nor harmful; it is just a tool, and one that we should use to embrace racial differences, rather than using it as a weapon to enforce false sameness.
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