Racial Stereotyping: Noticing the Unnoticed

Noticing the Unnoticed 

Imagine you and your friends are walking through the candy store and you soon realize you're being followed by the manager. Your friend gets kicked out of the store because the manager believes he/she is stealing. However, the manager has no proof of this and only makes this accusation because of your friend's race. How do you think this accusation would make your friend feel? Unfortunately, this happens a lot throughout many individuals' daily lives, and these accusations are known as racial stereotyping. 

Native Americans in Peter Pan 

Racial stereotyping is when someone over generalizes or makes negative assumptions about a specific group of people because of their race. These assumptions occur throughout our daily lives whether we notice it or not. For example, in the popular Disney film “Dumbo,” from 1941, the crows that help Dumbo learn to fly are portrayed with exaggerated black stereotypical voices (1). Also, the lead crow’s name is “Jim Crow,” a term that describes a set of laws that legalized segregation. The stereotyped language given to the crows, the voice casting of African Americans as the crows they’re playing, and the role they play in the film’s plot all pose large problems which can’t be overlooked (3). Another example is in “Peter Pan,” from 1953, within the film there are exaggerated imitations of the Native Americans which are also seen as stereotypical as well as offensive to the Native American culture (Figure 1).  

How Is It Harmful? 

Figure 2: Racial stereotyping/bullying 

Racial stereotyping is harmful in many ways. Imagine not fitting in because of who you are as a person, wouldn't that make you feel many negative emotions? These stereotypes can hurt the community we live in as well as those who're being stereotyped. These racial stereotypes are very similar to bullying and have the same harmful effects because that person feels a sense of not belonging (figure 2). However, just like bullying can be brought to light and hopefully lessened, so can racial stereotyping. As the University Counseling Center says, "as we change ourselves, we can elicit change in others through our examples and quality of our conversations" (2). In other words, it is important to accept others for who they are and work on changing these negative racial stereotypes by setting positive examples for others and by encouraging a diverse community. 

Figure 3: Accepting others 

Overall, these stereotypes aren't very positive and encourage hateful accusations all over the world. It is important to be aware of these stereotypes and to accept others for their differences in order to make our world a healthier and happier place for everyone (figure 3). The next time you see someone making negative assumptions about another individual because of their race, step up and let them know that what they're doing is wrong and hurtful.

References 

(1) Ewert, J. (n.d). Analysis of Negative Stereotypes in Disney Princess Movies. Undergraduate Research Community. Retrieved from https://www.kon.org/urc/v13/ewert.html

(2) McLeod, S. A. (2015, Oct 24). Stereotypes. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from
https://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

(3) Anderson, A. (2019, Nov 14). Racist Movie Stereotypes. ABC News. Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/disney-adds-disclaimer-racist-stereotypes-67020530