From: cqk5188@acf5.NYU.EDU (Chien Kwok)
Newsgroups: misc.kids,soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: Stereotypes in School (Re: BARBIE DOES IT AGAIN!!!!)
Date: 15 Oct 92 03:58:28 GMT
Followup-To: misc.kids
Organization: New York University

dtwei@acsu.buffalo.edu (Danielle T Wei) writes:

>In article <1992Oct13.221422.16875@tcsi.com> gwu@nujoizey.tcs.com (George Wu) writes:
>>In article <1421@ncrclm.ClemsonSC.NCR.COM>, hruo@ncrclm.ClemsonSC.NCR.COM (Hiro Ruo) writes:
>>> 
>>     I'm afraid I must disagree.  Sure, it's possible to use one
>>particular stereotype to your advantage.  However, anyone willing to hold
>>one stereotype is willing to hold others, and those others may not be so
>>favorable.  If he thinks Asians/Asian-Americans are better in math, then
>>he just might also believe all the women are hot sex toys and all the men
>>nerdy geeks.
>>     In the long run, it's better to dispel all race based stereotypes.

>Well, this is IMPOSSIBLE.. We're all human beings with the ability to
>think/reason, and one of the most important factors of our intelligence
>is our ability to recognize patterns.. For this reason almost all I.Q.
>tests have some sort of pattern-matching questions in them.. On the same
>note, we can all notice race-related patterns (asians are good in math?)
>and our intelligence forces us to form this stereotype.. If you're asking
>us to abandon our stereotypes, you're really asking us to abandon one of
>the most fundamental aspects of our intelligence!!
>Now, back to your first paragraph, since an abolition of stereotypes is
>impossible, it is always "better" to use them to your advantage.. Thus,
>if an American (white?black?) finds all his Asian classmates smarter than
>him, let him form his stereotypes!! As for the negative stereotypes, we
>cannot just sit here and ASK people to abandon them, we must act and
>abolish them ourselves! If that same American looks around and doesn't
>see that pattern anymore, he would eventually "forget" that stereotype..

>>							George

>N

George:

While it may be true that if that American looks around and doesn't see
that pattern anymore, he will "forget" that stereotype, you are making a 
big assumption.  Your assumption is that he will have the opportunity and/or
even the desire to meet a large (meaning thousands or millions) number of
those people to make that stereotype go away ("forgotten" as you put it).

But the way the world works is that white America has very limited opportunities to actually meet even a small percentage of those different from them. A common
occurence in large cities in America is white flight, the mass migration of 
whites to suburban areas where the good white folk can live with other good
white folk.  When they go to work or school they may meet the handful of
people who aren't white.  There they make a judgement on that small sample.
When they get home and turn on their TV sets they watch the news and see
images of blacks or Asian drug gangs being arrested.  The President may be
praising the model minority in achievement.  They make another judgement.
When they watch a movie and the drug dealer is Hispanic, the servant black,
and the karate expert is Chinese, more judgements are made.

When will that American see beyond his little world and how will he ever
forget that stereotype?

Chien Kwok