Fighting the Stereotype

English 300

03 March 2014

Fighting the Stereotype

        A stereotype is an unrealistic expectation and category that is purely made up by people. It is degrading and unfair to people to be categorized in such ignorant made up ways.

The most out of date and common stereotype you will see taught while growing up is that the men make the money, and the women stay home to take care of the children, house, dog, and so forth. Girls are meant to play with Barbie dolls, be nice and clean, wear dresses and be sissies and love the color pink; boys are meant to be rough, tough, and messy, play sports and love the color blue. But that is not what life is really like, and Jo Yin Shih tells about her stereotypical experiences in the book “Rereading America”.  

         In the book Rereading America, an author by the name of JoYin Shih writes about “the difficulties of growing up Chinese in America. She resists identifying with the stereotype of the good student — the polite, passive nerd.” (517) Shih writes about her life growing up as a Chinese girl that wants to have her own identity. Growing up in a stereotypical world amongst the white people who put her in to a stereotypical category, and with the expectations to be able to live up to said “stereotypes”. And because of the experiences she faced, she hates the fact that she isn’t like everyone else.  She admires the fact that the African American kids around her can be opinionated and free. So she befriends an African American girl named Chyna who she admires. As Jo Yin grows up she realizes that she will be ok being Chinese American and it is ok to like your culture and embrace what it has to offer.

        I related to the writing by Shih, because I know what it feels like to be stereotyped and to feel different about your own race. But one thing I have never thought about is how another minority felt about my race, because I am a minority as well. And I know that the African American race isn’t the only race in the minority class, it just didn’t cross my mind for another minority to see another race any higher than them. Shih says, “At the university I envied the hip, independent black women whom I befriended on campus. Through my eyes they were soulful, strong, and spoke their minds, like my childhood friend Chyna.” (522). The simple fact that she actually admired the fact that African American people voiced their opinion was very refreshing.

 I was raised different than a lot of my friends and family that is African American. My dad would tell my brothers and I that he moved us to a better neighborhood because we deserved to have a successful future. And that ultimately we were cut out for the way he was raised growing up in Los Angeles, CA. So growing up in the suburbs and the ONLY African American child (besides my brothers) on my street I was naïve to what others actually thought about my race. And ironically I always hung out with Asian and or Caucasian people growing up. So when I looked at others that are my race, I just thought of them as loud and obnoxious. They were always on the news and getting in fights in the streets. But that’s what other races saw as well, thus forming the stereotype for a large part of the African American culture. Like Shih said, “I had bought into believing the stereotypes of my background” (519). So after reading and analyzing what Shih was experiencing, I think that might have been what I was going through as well but in a different way.