Saturday, September 24, 2011
Identifying Stereotypes
When people have limited experience with other cultures, they often form stereotypes. What stereotypes do you think other people have about your culture? Are these stereotypes true, somewhat true or completely false? Explain, giving details from your experience to support your response.
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Growing up in Nepal I feel that I was distant from a traditional American childhood and not familiar with stereotypes formed about countries foreign to the United States. Over the years, I have found that many people form their own stereotypes about Nepali culture and Nepal itself. Oftentimes, people will assume all of Nepal is a barren arctic wasteland in the mountains. On a much smaller scale than what is assumed, parts of Nepal are in fact desolate and frozen thousands of feet above sea level, but the majority of the country is not. In my opinion the misconceptions are formed based on the small amount of information people possess. For example, if the only thing someone knows about Nepal is that Mount Everest is there, they will most likely associate the entire country with a National Geographic special they saw about Mount Everest. I have been asked on more than one occasion if there are roads in Nepal, if there is ever a time of year when snow is not on the ground, how many times I have climbed Mount Everest, and if I have ever seen the Yeti. Although these questions may seem logical to some, they are in fact completely false when talking about the country as a whole and the daily life of people there. I do not intend to attack or talk badly about people who may have formed these stereotypes in their heads, I simply believe no one is above forming stereotypes at some point in their lives based on limited exposure to many topics.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, there are very few, if any, stereotypes about Bangladesh or Bengali people because a lot of people just don’t know that there is a Bangladesh. The more cultured people will guess that I’m Indian (as opposed to Mexican or Middle Eastern) and “Indian stereotypes” are the ones that I have to deal with. I always make it a point to tell people that I’m Bengali and not Indian though because we The biggest one is probably that I’m supposed to be really smart and that I don’t have to study to make good grades. I’m not going to say this is completely false because I didn’t really study in high school, but still got good grades. The thing is I wasn’t the only one that did this. There were white people in my classes that paid attention in class and got good grades without much effort. However, there’s always that one Indian guy who aces the SAT, ACT, five subject tests, has a 4.0 GPA, and ends up becoming the valedictorian for your senior class that drives the stereotype. Also, the fact that Indians have been winning the national spelling bee competition since the beginning of time doesn’t help this stereotype at all. The reason many students of Indian decent are so driven is because their parents expect a lot from them. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVODv8A5-EM (this applies to South Asians too). Another stereotype is that South Asians apparently wear turbans. I have no idea where this stereotype originated from, but aside from religious leaders, nobody ever wears a turban! Ever! Apparently, we also eat curry all the time. Actually, most South Asian families do. The thing is curry has a very broad definition and is used to describe South Asian food as a whole. In general, curry is just a very well-seasoned “sauce” that is used to marinate meat and vegetables. There are so many different curries each with unique flavors that using one word to group it all together is simply inaccurate. The last stereotype is that South Asians tend to hang out with other South Asians. This stereotype is truer in the South where there is less diversity and people feel more comfortable identifying with others that they have more things in common with. Aside from the occasionally mean-spirited South Asian stereotype, they don’t really bother me because I get a good kick out of them and explaining to people what’s true and what’s not.
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