Library Home: Critical & Creative Thinking Resources: Stereotypes &amp; Race

What is a Stereotype?

The less you know about something, the more your mind has to guess.

Guesses are often based on prior experience, or other people's stories.

Prior experience may be so limited that it is not an accurate indicator of future interactions.

Stories are often distorted for entertainment.

Theoretically, stereotypes should be replaced with actual knowledge. Realistically, stereotypes are seldom challenged unless something happens to create a reason to change the initial assumption. Challenging stereotypes is hard work.

Verywellmind.com

Jane Elliott on Her "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise" and Fighting Racism

VIDEO Link:Jane Elliott on Her "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise" and Fighting Racism

Anti-Racism Educator Jane Elliott: ‘There’s Only One Race. The Human Race' | NBC BLK | NBC News
Known for her “blue-eyed, brown-eyed” experiment, where she ran her class as though the children with brown eyes were superior to children with blue eyes, educator Jane Elliott has spent the last 50 years fighting racism.

Understandingrace.org

Race as Biology Is Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem Is Real

Race as biology is fiction, racism as a social problem is real: Anthropological and historical perspectives on the social construction of race. ( A Smedley, BD Smedley American psychologist, 2005•psycnet.apa.org
"racial groups are not genetically discrete, reliably measured, or scientifically meaningful ...This article reviews the origins of the concept of race, placing the contemporary discussion of racial differences in an anthropological and historical context."

Food for thought: How are class, cultural, and "like-me" indicators used to justify selfish actions?

"I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one 'race' - the human race - and that we are all members of it."
TOP 12 KOFI ANNAN QUOTES EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW
“We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race.”
Class discrimination - Wikipedia
Cultural racism - Wikipedia
Types of discrimination - Wikipedia

For Discussion

Chapter 5: Race and Ethnicity
Race: A Discredited Concept in Human Biology..." the overwhelming majority of genetic diversity in humans (88–92 percent) is found within people who live on the same continent"
Video & Transcript: Black Skin, White Masks: Racism, Vulnerability & Refuting Black Pathology (aas.princeton.edu)
The African American Studies; Princeton University

Critical & Creative Thinking Resources: Stereotypes & Race