The causes, effects, and cures of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination

In the ages between to and five, a child’s brain grows at a very high rate. At this stage, the child learns much more about themselves and the world around them. This is also the stage that a child develops attitudes and by extension, prejudices. The child is able to identify physical attributes such as the color of their skin, the texture and color of hair, eye color and shape, among other visible features (Kassin et al 2011). At the age of two to three, the child also starts to be aware of gender differences and starts to emulate behavior with the gender within which they fall. This comes in terms of emulating gender roles. For example, a boy as they continue to grow up will refuse to cook because of gender differences he or she witnessed as a child and grew up internalizing. At this stage, the child also becomes aware of physical disabilities in others and even in themselves if any.

The child at this point makes judgement about itself based on physical attributes and motor performance. A child for example may say that they have long hair or they can run fast. At this stage, a child may also become aware of ethnic identity. They may notice that other children are speaking a different tongue or are eating different foods from different cultures. It is at this age that children also present pre-prejudices. These are feelings in the child that if reinforced may become full-fledged prejudices because of the inherent biases existing in society. In this sense, it is possible to find children playing with children who only look like themselves (Kassin et al 2011). At the age between three and four, the child starts questioning their origin with a special interest of where they came from. At this point, they may start to question racial skin color. For example, they do not understand why they are referred to as black yet their skin is brown. By the time a child is five, they may have already developed a group identity, in terms of ethnic identity.

The question as to whether certain majors are more racially tolerant depends on the socialization of the individuals. The more lucrative educational opportunities go to the rich or the more economically empowered communities most of who belong to the majority race. In this sense, the children are brought up to be more confident in pursuing whatever academic qualifications they seek (Constantine & Flores 2006). This is coupled by the fact that these communities are accorded with better educational environments and career advice that may lead them to make better professional choices.

Now, low-income areas are characterized by poor educational facilities that make it impossible for most children in these areas to get tertiary education. In addition, when they manage to get the chance, they limit their choices to professional options that are considered lesser to others. The choice for pursuing certain professional goals through education has to do more with community rather than race. It is unfortunate however, that communities tend to align themselves depending on racial orientation. To alleviate the fear of pursuing ones educational goals to maximum potential, it is important that equal opportunities in education be offered so that there can be no educational disparities in the education system.

It is possible that some gender stereotypes are true despite the fact that early research claimed that stereotypes were wrong representations of what was true. In Implicit Association tests posits that males are associated with math and science while females are seen to be associated with arts and the languages. Young girls have been found to hold assumptions that boys are better in math. Women therefore have negative attitudes toward math than men do. In this sense, women have been found not to pursue careers in which math is a key object. This is the threat of stereotypes in which certain attitudes have been generalized to a particular group of people making these generalizations true in society. The stereotypes are very strong. In a study carried out in 500000 respondents, about 70 percent believed that men were better at math related subjects than women were.

The male category has been found to be associated with the character of strength and high achievement. In both male and female subjects, males are believed to be better performers than their female counterparts are. The physical strength that characterizes men have been used to determine the gender stereotypes of men overpowering women or men seemingly being better than women in most things. It is true that men are physically strong thus giving them an edge over women on certain activities such as sports. However, the notion that superior intellectual capabilities also being assigned dominance to men is inaccurate.

The invisibility in women leadership has been because of defining leadership roles in terms of masculine features. In this regard, women do not hold very many positions of leadership because they have simply been denied the chance. Their invisibility in leadership roles is therefore an aspect their being non-existent. In the American Civil Rights movement, Sothern women played significant role. Women contribution like Diane Nash, Thelma Glass, JoAnn Robinson among others has been ignored, not because they were not important but because leadership roles have always been assigned masculine traits (Einwhoner 2007).

Women efforts in leadership then go unrecognized because of such gender stereotypes. Women have also been perceived to have a lower tolerance to taking risks because the have been the object of criticism because they are not risk takers. A Wellesley research concluded that women despite women’s dislike of risk, they would be effective in taking risk especially if there was some form of social injustice being perpetrated (Einwhoner 2007). The denial of women being in power leads to negative effects in which companies and the community lose talented individuals with the ability to bring about necessary developments and making the community and businesses a like better and more efficient. Society therefore has to break loose from no-progressive stereotypes that hurt us more than they help.

The racial stereotypes have not changed to where it should be. People still think in terms of race. One of the major stereotypes that have continued to endure is the notion that white people are more privileged than people of other races are. This stereotype was brought about by the racial tensions in American history and the economic situations within which minority groups often find themselves. In this regard, minorities who belong to poor economic background feel marginalized and underprivileged. However, racial stereotypes are not only found among the minority races but also in the majority and privileged social elite. The issue of crime has always been attributed to the minority races in to a point where investigations are designed to target ethnicities. For example, the practice of racial profiling enhances the notion of that certain communities are more likely to commit crime than others are.

To alter racial perceptions, it is important that there be a complete overhaul in the kind of information disseminated in the society both in the media and culturally. The kind of reports the media gives create preconceived ideas about different ethnic groups (Kassin et al 2011). The massages that come out of this media should be aimed at building a cohesive community that embraces each ethnicity without form prejudices. Another way to eradicate racial stereotypes is by raising children to accept each other despite of their races, or else whatever preconceptions and prejudices adults will obviously be trickle down to them (Feldmeyer & Ulmer 2011). As the common culture and societal norms evolve to accommodate equality and diversity, individual perceptions about the world can change for the betterment of society.

References

Kassin, S. M., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2011). Social psychology. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Einwohner, R. (January 01, 2007). Leadership, Authority, and Collective Action. American Behavioral Scientist, 50, 10, 1306-1326.

Feldmeyer, B., & Ulmer, J. (January 01, 2011). Racial/Ethnic Threat and Federal Sentencing. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48, 2, 238-270.

Constantine, M., & Flores, L. (January 01, 2006). Psychological Distress, Perceived Family Conflict, and Career Development Issues in College Students of Color. Journal of Career Assessment, 14, 3, 354-369.