Stereotypes play a role in achieving this ideal. Stereotypes can be learned innocently enough. We hear them as children, we see them used in movies, etc. We may assume they are true if we don t have firsthand experience which proves them wrong or puts them into perspective. Since bias, prejudice and discrimination are usually based on stereotypes, questioning our assumptions about individuals and groups becomes a very important learning process.
Perceptions also have a lot to do with stereotypes.
How we perceive others will influence how we interact with them consciously or unconsciously. If we perceive humanity as a family, there is hope that we can learn to treat every human being as a sister or brother with the respect we ourselves would want rather than as others who are less worthy than ourselves. This text was extracted from the publication, GT336.