Construction of racial stereotypes

“Stereotypes, when reinforced often enough,

have been shown to affect how we view others,
how we view ourselves, and what we think we
know about other cultures.”
Virginia Mclaurin, Phd in Cultural Anthropology

Racial stereotyping is the act of classifying individuals or putting them into imaginary
boxes based on their nationality, ethnicity or skin colour. It is the oversimplification of a
person of a particular race. The problem of racial stereotyping occurs when one person’s
behaviour is ascribed to a group’s tendencies instead of the causes of an immediate
situation. While complicated, there are a few processes that you can look out for to help
you determine whether the act of reducing individuals to racial stereotypes is occurring.
These include: the ‘us and them’ dichotomy, caricature, metonymy and others. Read
one or two of the articles below to find out how racial stereotypes are constructed:

● Constructing Racial Stereotypes (handout)

● Repressed Brits, Evil Mexicans, Arab Villains (Guardian Article)
● Confronting Chinese-American Stereotypes (PBS Article)
● The Myth of the Savage Indian (Sapians.org)
● The Media’s Stereotypical Depictions of Race (American Progress article)

Representation of Africa

Those of us who have lived in Africa and travelled elsewhere have come across many
statements about Africa. These articles offer interesting insight into how Africa is
stereotyped.

● 15 Reasons Why…
● Our Image of Africa is Obsolete (Guardian Article)
● How to Write About Africa (Binyavanga Wainaina)
● An Image of Africa (Chinua Achebe)

Representation of Americans
Portrayals of Indigenous American people tend to fall into two categories: a negative
portrayal in which indigenous people receive benefits, operate casinos, are untrustworthy,
and are suggested to be “fake”; and more positive portrayals suggest native peoples are
poor, live on reservations, are honest, in touch with nature, traditional in behaviour, and
have supernatural sensitivities. For the purpose of our study it is important to realise that
any portrayal – whether positive or negative – involves stereotyping Indigenous people as
‘outsiders’. In this section you’ll investigate texts that portray Native American people in a
certain way, and discover the methods used to create an ‘us-and-them’ barrier between
people of different races and ethnicities.

Examine this collection of texts, which breaks down some common ways in which racial
stereotypes of Indigenous American people are created. Then, study a scene from
Disney’s Peter Pan (1953, embedded here), in which Peter and Wendy visit a Native
American tribe. How many ways of creating racial stereotypes can you identify in this
scene?

Discussion Points
After you’ve got your head around the material in this section, pair up, pick a question,
spend five minutes thinking and noting down your thoughts – then discuss your ideas with
a partner and report back to the class:

1. Does the categorisation of people into certain groups (Black, White, Swedish,
Asian, female, school students, and so on) always rob people of individuality? Can
people gain something from being categorised? Can people be categorised in a
positive way – does positive categorisation also result in prejudice?
2. Is it preferable, in certain situations, to be ‘colourblind’ about people’s race and
ethnicity? Do the goals of colourblindness and multiculturalism support each other
or conflict? How can we celebrate multiculturalism without calling attention to the
differences between people?

Source of this lesson:

https://dougslangandlit.blog/2019/08/13/constructing-racial-stereotypes/