Stereotype -Chun Han

People don’t have a lot of stereotypes against me, maybe it’s because I look like Korean. However, when I tell people that I’m Chinese, they began to have certain stereotypes against me. Once, when the taxi driver heard me speaking Chinese, he asked me whether I was Chinese so I replied yes. Then he told me that I should be rich because there’s a stereotype that many Chinese are very frugal so they end up saving quite a lot of money.
As for me, I don’t try to have stereotype about other people because I know stereotypes are most of time untrue and it can be offensive. However, it seems natural to have certain stereotypes about people. Even though I try hard not to have stereotypes, there are stereotypes all over the world, from television, movie, advertisement, and daily life. For example, when I see African American, the first impression is that they are good at basketball and they can rap as well. And whenever I see white people, I always believe they are American even though they could be European.
Overall, I believe that stereotype is harmful in many ways. First of all, our stereotype allows us to make judgments of other people before we even know that people. Another thing is that our stereotype actually molds our perspective on that person. For example, if I have stereotype on Jews that they are all good at making money, then when I see a Jew that isn’t really good at money management, I still perceive that person as a typical Jew. Stereotype also offends a lot of people because stereotypes may not always show positive side. For example, stereotypes that Jews have big nose and Asian have small eyes are all offensive stereotypes.
Chun Han