Courtney’s Thoughts
My grandfather was an inspector for General Motors, and a Catholic. He was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II, and a member of the Elks Lodge, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6180, and the American Legion. He preached two pieces of consistent advice. First, don’t buy a foreign car. Second (for his daughters and granddaughters), don’t date/marry an Italian.
His time working for GM, plus their generous family discount program, answers the first edict. But we were never clear on the anti-Italian sentiment. We can surmise that something happened on the streets of Newark, New Jersey, during his formative years, or overseas during the war that led to that opinion. We never received any supporting evidence, however we followed his rules, until his death. My stepfather is Italian, but that didn’t happen until Grandpa was resting in peace.
The economist Robert L. Heilbroner’s article “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments” first appeared in Reader’s Digest in 1962. In the opening paragraph he asks a series of questions: “Is a girl called Gloria apt to be better looking than one called Bertha? Are criminals more likely to be dark than blond? Can you tell a good deal about someone’s personality from hearing his voice briefly over the phone? Can a person’s nationality be pretty accurately guessed from his photograph? Does the fact that someone wears glasses imply that he is intelligent?”
The answers to the above are obviously “no,” right? Or wrong? Our prejudices and stereotypes are a cycle. We create an oversimplified opinion of an individual based on characteristics (perceived or real). That opinion is a shortcut, formed without the facts, because – let’s be honest – if we actually took the time to get to know everyone, we would have little time for anything else. So, we use the shortcuts to speed us through our interactions, our days, our years, and we miss a lot.
Sweet Mr. Heilbroner died in 2005 and, fortunately for him, hasn’t had to bear witness to the past 20 years of a 24-hour news cycle, reality TV, or social media. His writings, at the time, spoke to a nation divided by the Civil Rights Movement. And yet, here we are six decades later. What would he think?
Well, here is what I think. If you believed the stereotypes (in this case perpetuated by reality TV), a girl from the Jersey Shore would be focused on just three things – going to the gym, going to the tanning bed, and doing laundry. But if you asked questions and dug a little deeper, you would learn that all of the “characters” on the Jersey Shore were not from the shore. They were from north (nawth) Jersey and Long (hard G) Island. Look at me, stereotyping people not from the shore.
When a girl from Jersey moves to South Carolina, she faces the Yankee stereotype, while simultaneously trying not to jump to conclusions about Southerners. We drive too fast, we talk too fast … yes, perhaps. The first time I stood in the deli line at Kroger for a mere pound of turkey felt like the longest day of my life. The small talk. The taste test. The individual pieces of cellophane between each slice. I just wanted to make a sandwich, bless my heart.
Our perception – and oftentimes our misperception – is a result of what we have experienced in the world. Our perception becomes our reality, and that is where it can all go sideways. But hey, happy St. Patrick’s Day to my Irish brethren. We love to drink. We love to fight. We hate the British. We’re an extremely friendly bunch (unless you’re Italian). Cheers.
Barry and his Scottish Hammer
Barry’s Thoughts
It’s hard not to tread in stereotypes sometimes, mostly because so many of us work so hard to fulfill them.
I saw a meme on Facebook the other day that illustrated this beautifully. At the top was the sentence, “That had to be the worst Super Bowl halftime show ever.” Below it were 30 different profile pictures of people who, presumably, all seemed like the type of person who would share that opinion. Each wore mirrored sunglasses, and each profile picture was taken while seated in their car.
That joke only works if that stereotype exists. And you need only spend about five minutes on Facebook to see that that’s true. Your more conservative Facebook friends are far more likely to have that exact profile picture. Clearly, the sentiment of the joke is that people who tend to hold conservative values and use Facebook as the main platform for their self-expression all tend to look the same. But the real question is, why?
Why is someone who holds conservative values more likely to make that their profile picture? It’s such a bizarrely specific trait for a group of people to all spontaneously share.
But maybe that’s all a stereotype is. It’s something that you just take for granted within your own circle that can be noticed only by outsiders. As people of Scottish descent, my family and I probably had no idea we sounded so funny until the first time we pronounced words correctly. As someone from Ohio, I didn’t realize you could drive in BOTH lanes until I moved down here.
And that’s probably why stereotypes are such a touchy subject. Because beyond their ability to dehumanize and belittle entire groups of people with one fell swoop, sometimes they hit too close to home.
I’ve seen follow-up posts from some of the 30 people picture in that meme and they were NOT happy. Not because they disagreed with the sentiment at the top of the meme, but because it had been suddenly pointed out to them that they’d been perpetuating a stereotype.
No one likes to realize they’re a caricature. But at the same time, stereotypes can serve as a signal to other members of whatever tribe we’re in. If you’re one of those mirrored shades people, you’re probably going to give a little more benefit of the doubt to someone with a similar profile picture as you would to someone with a “RESIST” profile pic. It’s all the same thing, just translated into the age of social media.
In the olden days, back when my ancestors were doing whatever people do in Scotland (deep frying things, mostly), going down to the pub was just how we built community. We’d all catch a little buzz as a village, we’d maybe catch a much larger buzz and start hammer fighting, and that would bind us together as a tribe. Then we emigrated to America and the Puritan locals all decided we were a bunch of drunks.
If you’re a mirrored sunglass person, be a mirrored sunglass person. If you’re a RESIST person, be a RESIST person. If you’re Scottish, I’ll see you at the pub. We can make fun of all those other stereotypes while getting good and pissed. I’ll bring the hammer.
