Journal on Race

In today's society, and most likely tomorrow's, people have always been curious about diversity. It is almost in our nature to question those that are different from us, even if we do not intend for that questioning to be negative. Today more than ever, people are extremely aware of the differences that surround us, and most people are making efforts to accept and embrace these differences, but we as a human race are still a long way coming to accepting one another. The terms ethnicity and race are often used interchangeably. There are many factors that can help to define ethnicity; culture, nationality, ancestry, languages, and beliefs. Race on the other hand, describes more of a physical appearance that identifies the similarities and differences like skin color, hair type, eye shape, and sometimes even body stature. Taking into account these factors I will be discussing racial stereotyping and racial prejudice.

Racial stereotyping is so common that sometimes it goes unseen and can be done subconsciously, but what is it exactly? Racial stereotyping is a way for people to classify certain race groups to be intelligent, athletic, brainless, etc. When people participate in this, they are making generalizations about a certain group based on defined characteristics easily seen in this group .What people do not realize is that these stereotypes can offend .Everyone tends to categorize others based on looks, likes, and beliefs. With these thoughts in mind my example as follows I was at secondary school whilst there one of my good friends was of Chinese descent ,one day my friend an I encountered some bullies trying to intimidate us whilst on our home from school. From what I perceived of my friend I was of the opinion him being of Chinese descent he knew karate to my astonishment the lad had no skills of that nature, we both had to run for our lives .It can be understood from the above example I stereotyped my friend due to his descent that all Chinese knows karate, when in fact it was the opposite my friend was not acquainted with that skill.

Racial prejudice affects everyone. As  much as racial prejudice manifests itself in that people are “pre-judged” based on superficial characteristics, we must honestly conclude that all people “suffer” from this on various levels. When we don’t know an individual well, we consciously or unconsciously begin to characterize him or her based on what we see. This is due to our ignorance of the person’s real character and personality. We will form opinions, often based along stereotypical lines: “all people of such and such race are...” We can fill in the blanks with such expectations that certain races are intellectually superior, others are more artistically or athletically inclined, still another has members who are apt to be dishonest, etc, etc. . . These ideas have been formed from society, media, and our own upbringing. My example as follows i being a student at a tertiary level school I had group assignments, this is something I absolutely detest. My group consisted of both ethnicities East  Indian an African, from my first impression of my colleagues I was of the view that Africans are not intelligent. This statement was brought on my own perception based on beliefs passed on by society. As time drew closer to the presentation I soon found out my perception was flawed about my African colleague, my teammate was very diligent in providing material for the assignment. From the above example it can be seen that I put my colleague in the category of not being smart based on the group an not on the individual.