Ethnic Stereotypes

The United States of America is known to be the melting pot of the world. It is known to be a place where different cultures from all over the world can come together and be themselves. People think that because there are so many different cultures here, that we Americans would be well-rounded when it came to knowing other cultures. Yet we Americans create stereotypes based on the lack of knowledge or understanding we have of other races or ethnicities. That idea or single image becomes all that we know of those races, and we tend to close our minds to anything that says otherwise. I personally have a lot of experience when it comes to being put into a single image that is far from what Hawaiian people actually are. Stereotypes seem to confine people into little boxes and have this image put into others heads that that’s all they are. Many of the stereotypes of different races are never portrayed in a positive way, which is why it offends majority of the people who are put into those boxes.

If you think about the type of exposure that people on the mainland get about the people of Hawaii it all comes down to what the media has shown about Hawaii. When moving to the mainland, I was exposed to what others thought of people from Hawaii. I often got asked questions like “Do you surf?”, “Do you dance hula?”. I have even surprised people when they find out that I don't live in a grass shack or that I don't ride a dolphin or sea turtle to school. The majority of people have this tourist image of a girl in a coconut bra and grass skirt and believe that that is all that I am. They have this single story as to what Hawaiian people are like. As Chimamanda Adichie says in her Ted Talk,  “The single story creates stereotypes,and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (Adichie). I use opportunities like this to give people more than a single story. There are many different types of people in Hawaii, and we all have many stories that make up who we are, so it is a matter of sharing more than a single story. If people take the time to learn more than a single story of a certain race, they will breakdown the idea of that stereotype in their mind and their idea of that race will no longer be incomplete.

Images that people have of these different races can cause them to make assumptions based on what they know of that race. In the book Convergences Munoz tells a story and states “The Mexican gate agent announced Eugenio Reyes but i never got a chance to see who appeared. I pictured an older man, cowboy hat in hand, but made the assumption on his name alone” (Munoz 116) We are all at least once in our life guilty of making assumptions like Munoz did . If I was to say a name that had a connection to a certain type of race you would automatically have an image in your head of who that name would belong to. These assumptions are created because of the knowledge we have to names such as those. So when it comes to things such as names we tend to put certain races to certain names.

Stereotypes of different races and ethnicities can even transfer to the education system. Stereotypes of Black and Hispanic students have comparable educational aspirations relative to whites, yet earn much lower grades and test scores. On the other hand, compared to white students, Asian youth overperform in their grades and test scores given their aspirations (Scharrer). Focus groups and interviews of high school students reveal prevalent stereotypes that link ethnic group membership to academic ability as well as other skills. Specifically, Asian youth are believed to be especially gifted in their academic abilities, while blacks are seen as less successful in academic endeavors. Stereotypes about Hispanics focused less on their academic performance and more on their occupational concentration in manual labor. These images form a type of mentality about success among ethnic youth; specifically, blacks speak of academic goals in terms of avoiding failure, Hispanic youth aim primarily to avoid factory or manual labor, and Asians focus on keeping up with high expectations of their academic pursuits. Hence, I argue that adolescents define their goals primarily in terms of the stereotypical images attached to their ethnic group. There is a great example of this in How it went down by Kekla Magoon, the character Jennica seemed to be okay with her lifestyle before the incident. She was okay dating a guy who didn’t respect her very much and was content with working as a waitress for the rest of her life. In the story Jennica states, “I put on my waitress uniform, the short, tight cream-colored dress and the irond apron” (Magoon 56). Specifically, minority youth focused on avoiding failure defined by group stereotypes such as Jennica had a mindset based off of her stereotype.

Although there is so much evidence to show that the stereotypes we create are incomplete, some may argue that these stereotypes are exactly what those races or or cultures are. It is true that many Mexicans or Latinos do end up working in manual labor, and that many Hawaiians do surf and dance hula, but not everyone of the people who are that race take part in those things. Going back to what Chimamanda Adichi talk about in her Ted Talk, people who have these stereotypes in their mind have stories that are incomplete. They lack different experiences and stories that will change their perspective on the race and not close them off to seeing them as a single thing.

We cannot allow our lack of knowledge to control the way we view other races or cultures. It is out of respect to people around us to not confine them into these certain images that close us off into thinking otherwise. We may end up making conclusions about a person that could affect our relationship with them. I know from experience, I have lost a little respect for people who have put me in those certain stereotypes whether they Identify me as a Hawaiian, Asian, or Puerto Rican, they can’t seem to wrap their heads around the idea that I am more thn just a single race. I am who I am not only because of my race or races but because of the experiences I have gone through and the people I surround myself with. I take as many opportunities as possible to educate people on how diverse Hawaii people can be. Also I try to educate myself and be open to learning about other races and ethnicities and not letting a single story be my only story of that race. By putting people in categories we assume that they are all the same, for example that all Hawaiians surf, or that all blacks have had a rough childhood. I believe that these stereotypes can be broken by educating not only ourselves but others on the many different stories that all races and cultures have.

Works Cited

Adichie, Chimamanda. "The Dangers of a Single Story." Ted Talk Global. July 2009. Speech.

Scharrer, E. and Ramasubramanian, S. (2015), Intervening in the Media's Influence on

Stereotypes of Race and Ethnicity: The Role of Media Literacy Education. Journal of Social Issues, 71

Magoon, Kekla. How It Went down. New York: Henry Holt, 2014. Print.

Munoz. "Leave your name at the boarder." Convergences: Message, Method, Medium. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. 289. Print.