I really enjoyed the class: we had to “silently interview” our classmates we knew nothing or little about. The questions offered by Dr. Steward varied from political preferences to personal issues (addiction, problems with police ctr.); our assumption were made upon observation. After the discussion (we didn’t really go into whether our assumption were right/wrong, close of far from being true, but rather talked about it in general), we realized how people’s assumption/perception put labels on people. We also agreed that we all were at some point a part of a “polite conversation”: should have the survey been done anonymously, the results could have differed. The result of such labeling that people have to “walk” with the identity we stereotype them. Lots of great examples were given of how each and every of us was “labeled” or experienced being stereotyped at least once in our life: our group is vey diverse! The Chinese and Indian students were saying that their classmates always wanted to seat by them as those ethnicities are considered to be very good at science when in fact they both said that it was not true in their particular case. Me, as a Russian, was once in a while asked a question if bears really walked down the street in Russia, and so on. In my country if one sees someone with the darker skin and certain complexion, much more dressed in a traditional clothes (typical to certain areas) one may behave awkward in term of trying to get away as soon as possible: what if that person is a terrorist? I came across an article that describes how women tend to label one another based on weight: the comments were sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes legitimate, mostly based on personal experience: for those who is interested: http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2012/05/weight-stereotyping-the-secret-way-people-are-judging-you-based-on-your-body-glamour-june-2012
Where do we see the consequences of labeling without getting to know? Jobs. Some places would have certain expectations; they will never tell you that you were not chosen because of certain factors simply because it can cause serious problems, but the discriminative element will still be there, although hidden, so no one can accuse the hiring agents in being biased. Social places: I have heard of a Pakistan family (acquaintances of someone I know) were purposely ignored on plane in term of any kind of service, just because they were dark-skinned. Schools: kids can bully those who are different than them. That’s why it is important to teach our kids, students to think out of the box. There are interesting tips I found http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Labeling-People
that help you not to label people.
olgamartinez1977 