Stereotyping is when there are unreliable generalizations about all member of a group that do not take individual differences into account. Prejudice refers to negative judgments or views about a group formed without reason, thought, or knowledg. A stereotype(often a negative one) is generalization about a group based on samples that don’t represent the group, in which the generalization becomes so well-known, it becomes a “conventional image” for the group in question, often accepted as truth by the illogical bunch. Discrimination is the act of excluding a group from some right, privilege, or service *based upon* prejudice and stereotyping. Stereotypes could be a form of prejudice if they are negative generalizations.
In Brent Staples’s essay “Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Ability to Alter Public Space”, Staples explains how black men are discriminated against in public through the events that happened in his own life and the lives of others. Brent Staple says that stereotypes usually mislead and have bad effects. He says that stereotypes affect the stereotyper. People perceived that Staples was - a black man - as a mugger or sometime even a rapist just because the color of his skin, especially white woman with well dressed, and in her early twenties. The author was known as a night walker.
The author of this context has used different techniques to suck the audience into believing about this newspaper article. He uses ways of scaring the readers by telling them the truth about what is happening in the very place they live at. He tells the readers that their very teenaged children may be a part of organised crime by buying drugs and getting into a lot of debt to very dangerous people. They may start at about 100$ for a ‘point of methamphetamine’ and then get addicted to the drugs and end up getting into very huge debts. He also states that you may get a knock at 2am at your door with a thug demanding money, and the only way to pay them without getting killed is to sell businesses to pay back the mounting debt that their children have gotten into.
I have witnessed an employee get fired over a loaf of banana nut bread, while a manager was stealing cash from the register by voiding checks on a daily basis. Which would be the offense that is worth terminating a long term employee? I feel that the manager who is stealing cash from the business is actually committing a crime where the employee who gave a customer a loaf of bread was wrong but not necessarily an offense worth termination. Theft in the workplace can happen in any type of business and can involve employees at any level. Managers have been known to steal also, I had a General Manager steal food products just to set up another manager at one point.
Prejudice is a feeling of dislike towards a person or a group of people based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and anything else that might set a person or group of people out as being different. Discrimination is the denial of opportunities and equal rights to people and groups of people because of prejudice. Stereotypes are a generalization of a group of people, usually an inaccurate generalization. (Schaefer, 2013) Prejudice and stereotyping are not actions. Discrimination is different because it is an action against a person or a group of people.
Discrimination is defined as “the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons” (Schaefer, 2012, p. 61). Discrimination is throghout the United States. It results itself by prejudice and stereotypes by individuals (Schaefer, 2012). Prejudice is the attitude an individual has towards a group or groups of people and stereotyping is unreliable generalizations of a group of people (Schaefer, 2012). Prejudices and stereotyping are the ideas and thoughts people have about other groups of personss without regard to individual differences.
Staples emphasizes that “Black men have a firm place in New York mugging literature” which has been instilled by the dominant culture who act as victims by stating they recall “growing up in terror of black males” (465). Thus, otherness in society, in terms of color, is almost always looked down upon and perceived as dangerous where as the dominant culture is rarely looked as in such way. People of color are frequently accused of doing wrong even if they are clearly doing no such thing. In fact, Staples explains about an incident in which he was unreasonably accused of being a mugger at a jewelry store. Staples’ skin color immediately caused the “proprietor [to] excuse herself and return with an enormous red Doberman Pinscher” (291).
Jim Crow Laws promoted the idea that blacks were naturally mediocre to blacks in all important ways, including intelligence, morality, and civilized behavior. Whites believed that sexual encounters between blacks and whites would produce a mongrel race that could destroy America; treating blacks as equals would encourage interracial sexual unions; any activity which suggested social equality encouraged interracial sexual relations; if necessary, violence must be used to keep blacks at the bottom of the racial hierarchy.Failure to abide by these laws meant you could be beaten, jailed, or even killed! Brutality was influential for Jim Crow. It was a technique of social power. A black person could be lynched for even demonstrating their intelligence!
He is almost completely shunned from the town because he is trying to help a black man accused of rape. Mayella had told Tom, “I said come here, nigger, and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I gotta nickel for you.” (p.241) She had tricked him to coming over to her. Then that’s about the time when she accuses him of rape. He had felt sorry for her, which is why he was falsely accused in the first place. Courthouse segregation was one of the biggest bits of racism I found in this book.
The malicious acts committed by Malcolm X reflect the idea that people ignore truth to conform to society. Known for having strong opinions, Malcolm X seems to be an unlikely victim of blind conformity. However, as shown in his essay, “My First Conk”, Malcolm X was victimized by this need to conform. Changing to look or behave like another because it is more desired by the public is due to a disregarding of self-claimed morals and values, an over emphasis of the media and outside opinions, and an insecurity. In “My First Conk”, Malcolm X assured that black people were being brainwashed to believe that they actually were inferior to white people, thus they conked their hair; which was a hair straightener gel made from lye popular among African-American men from the 1920s to the 1960s.