Stereotypes... I used to stereotype others when I was much younger. Especially when I was young and naive, I was easily influenced by the older generation in my family with their negative perceptions of the other races. When I was a child and would misbehave like other children such as running about, the adults would frighten me by telling me, "Later the Ah nei (Indians) will catch you and cook curry!" With a young and impressional mind, I was easily deceived and particularly afraid of the group of people whom they called "Ah nei" for fear that they would really capture me and add me as an ingredient to cook curry. I have tried to figure out what my family members said was really true while struggling with my logic that wouldn't the police apprehend the "ah neis" if they would capture children to cook curry?
Even being a Chinese, there were also sterotypes among the different Chinese dialect groups. Very often, I will see people sing praises for their own dialect group and criticise the other dialect groups. My grandmother was a judgemental person as she did not received any formal education and she tends to stereotype people easily. Her daughter-in-law is from China. Both of them have different habits, personalities and dialect groups that they did not get along well with each other. Based on her own experience with her daughter-in-law, she holds a belief that woman from China are materialistic and stingy, thus she will generalise the Chinese nationals behaving similarly as her daugher-in-law. Initially, I believed my grandmother wholeheartedly that I believed whatever she said was true and gradually have the perception that Chinese nationals are stingy and selfish.
However, from my interaction with my aunt, I find her a caring woman who has the family's welfare at heart by being thrifty. She cooks simple fare (her hometown cusinie) so that the family will have a healthier lifestyle, yet my grandmother will interpret her as being mercenary, I believe that my grandmother would have hurt her feelings by complaining her to the other relatives and often criticize her hometown food. Since then, I have tried to remove preperceptions about people whenever I interact with them. This has helped me in removing the barriers of communication and allows me to truly understand people from another cultural group naturally.
Based on my experiences interacting with people, I realised that people tend to be judgemental against negative behaviours and jump into conclusions very quickly in concluding whether a particular group of people is good or bad. Even for myself, I may sometimes be critical about a certain cultural group based on a negative experience with one person from that group. There was an Indian student who cut my quene and pushed me while I was trying to board the shuttle bus. Immediately, something came into my mind that I could not even control its entry to my mind, it is the perception that Indian guys are non-gentlemen. In face of such similar situations, I will try to let my rationality to sink into my mind and not let prejudices and biasness overtake it.
I believe that as long as people are willing to accept the fact that regardless of one's ethnicity or race, humans are not perfect beings and will make mistakes. Hence, one should open up their hearts and minds in accepting one another despite their differences.
Adeline! I think you pointed out something really important: people are imperfect and we make mistakes, and sometimes, these mistakes will cause people to look at us differently. Well, but sadly speaking, some of us have very impressionable minds and once an idea is stuck to it, it’s very difficult to remove that=(. And wow! My parents used to say those scary stuffs to scare me in childhood too! Racism really exists in all levels, and even from young, we are exposed to such strange racist remarks so it’s true to an extent that our surroundings/the way we are brought up make us the way we are sometimes.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it’s not totally the parents’ fault. They probably care for our safety so much that they really do not wish for anything to happen and by generalizing one group of people as ‘bad’, we will tend to stay away from them. Of course, this is not always true, as you’ve pointed out=).
For your grandmother, well, my granny is totally the same. Probably some bad experience from our ancestors’ time triggered this to happen. Like what Uttara mentioned, stereotypes are really hard to die off. And the fact that they’ve stuck to their beliefs for so long makes it even harder.
Thanks again Adeline for the really interesting post! =)
Thanks Adeline for the many stories that strongly reinforce your central idea against stereotypes. They certainly speak strongly against us having preconceptions of a particular group of people (or anyone at all). It was so inspirational that I felt urged to share my story too!
ReplyDeleteMy parents raised me up with the same stereotypes against Chinese nationals. Add that to my experience in secondary school with a chinese national in my class who was (to say the least) dishonest, I grew up with both an inherited and learned sense of preconceptions against them.
To a very large part, these preconceptions "protected" us from "harm" - but also in essence - much interaction with them.
However, as we matured and learnt more about them, we would eventually realise that they are indeed very similar to us. They face similar struggles of examination stress, yet their personal issues often include very restrictive monetary constraints and other factors. Once we understand these, we would gain greater understanding and empathy for them.
So through all this, i've learnt that it is important to continually "update" our perception of others. While it is theoretically quite easy to "not form stereotypes", many of us have already done so. I believe another option would be to humbly revise our perceptions of other people and to reconsider them in new light.
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P.S. just a small note though -> can you break your second paragraph into two (at the "However, from my interaction with my aunt" part) so that it will help others to read it with greater ease?
Thanks Jac. I was really worried that I may hurt another race group of people by relating this incident to the class. However, what I want to bring across here is that children are very easily influenced by the actions and behaviour of adults. As long as we rectify our mistakes and ensure that we do not pass such misconceptions of other cultural groups to our future generations, we can make the world a better place to live in. If everyone can understand this, there will be peace among different cultural groups. But I think it will definitely be a long and tedious process in achieving mutual understanding among cultural groups. :(
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post, Adeline, in that you demonstrate clearly how the views of young people are affected by the views of their elders. Your various examples resound with stereotyping and preconceptions. Thank you for sharing your experience, opening up the doors to your childhood.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that would make your post easier to read would be for you to be more consistent in verb tense use. Please see the examples below:
a) I have tried to figure out what my family members said was really true while struggling with my logic that wouldn't the police apprehend the "ah neis" if they would capture children to cook curry? >>>
I tried to figure out IF what my family members said was really true while struggling with this question: Wouldn't the police apprehend the "ah neis" if they were capturing children to cook in curry?
b) Even being a Chinese, there were also sterotypes among the different Chinese dialect groups. Very often, I will see people sing praises for their own dialect group and criticise the other dialect groups. >>>
inconsistent verb tense use
c) Initially, I believed my grandmother wholeheartedly that I believed whatever she said was true and gradually have the perception that Chinese nationals are stingy and selfish. >>>
Initially, I believed my grandmother wholeheartedly; I believed whatever she said was true and gradually HAD the perception that Chinese nationals WERE stingy and selfish.
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ReplyDeleteHey Ben! Thanks for sharing your story to me too. Yup, agree with you that it is really not easy to not form stereotypes about people. :( But we can always revise our preconceptions about them. You also mentioned something which I find very important that is empathy towards to the other cultural groups. Some of them may have their own set of problems which we do not know or clearly understand, especially when they are alone by themselves in a foreign land, e.g: monetary-related problems. As a result of not understanding others well, we tend to be mistaken about them.
ReplyDeleteHi Adeline!
ReplyDeleteIt is an interesting post about how our older generation has different stereotypes and thinking. We still have to respect their views as their thinking could have been influenced by certain events. For example, the older generation in Singapore who lived through World War II would not think much of the Japanese who invaded Singapore and subjected them to much suffering.
Often when we have an unsavoury experience with a person from a particular country or race, some of us will get a bad impression of the entire population of the country or race. It is important not to let such perceptions sink in and cloud our judgment. We must maintain an open mindset and look at everyone as a unique individual.
Cheers!