Stereotypes and Prejudice

Stereotypes and Prejudice

Stereotypes and Prejudice

Some of us have been taught about stereotyping and prejudices all of our lives while others have not. The one thing I do know is that you should try your best to keep your initial thoughts at bay before you have actually met and get to know the person you are stereotyping. I was raised to accept people for who they are and do not pass judgment on them. When I think about stereotyping it is those first impressions that we all have when we first see someone or hear someone speak. You think to yourself “oh they sound like this so they must meet this stereotype” or “well they look this way so they must always get into trouble.” Stereotypes like these are harmful and toxic to not only yourself but those that you inflict your stereotypes on. I am going to talk about these stereotypes; South Carolina has the worst drivers, people from the south are stupid and all Middle Eastern people are terrorists.

The first stereotype I want to talk about is the one I have heard since moving to South Carolina. This stereotype is that South Carolinians are the worst drivers. I will have to admit that the divers here in South Carolina are not the best. You do have to be more aware of everyone around you driving. You can hear it every day on the radio heading to work in the morning that there are several accidents daily just in the mornings. Divers always drive slower in the fast lane, cut you off, run lights etc… You have to be incredible diligent being very cognizant of all the drivers on the road. There is of course an argument to the contrary. You could do some research and really find out which cities across the country truly do have the worst drivers per capita. Just because there are a lot of accidents do not mean that the accident ratio is not normal. I used to live in Memphis and thought we had bad drivers, but I do feel that it is worse here. However, I am sure that there are many other places that have worse drivers maybe in larger cities or more metropolitan cities. Once you get to an area and are comfortable there you can always start making your own stereotypes about the people there. You can say well I am not from South Carolina so all these people here are terrible drivers. The fact is that most of the people on the roads may not be from South Carolina either. They may be from other states and have brought their bad driving habits here. I will say that I have never seen more people that drive slower in the fast lane than in South Carolina.

My second stereotype and one that I grew up with because I am considered being from the south is that all people from the south are stupid. This stereotype does not limit itself to merely a person’s race or ethnicity, but it is a demographic stereotype of a very large group of people. The idea is that