Stereotyping Is Still With Us and On the Rise
In 1986, a black university graduate called Brent Staples wrote an article in the New
York Times titled “Black Men and Public Space”. He addressed the issue of all black men being
stereotyped as potentially dangerous people. He cited some of his own unfortunate experiences
like how people would change direction upon his approaching them, police pulling him over
while driving without cause, him being mistaken for a murderer while working as a journalist in
that case had it not for his press pass he would had been arrested. This type of stereotyping is
sadly still with us and has even worsened if recent events are any indication. Perfect illustrations
of this would be the killings of Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo both victims of stereotyping. These
killings were so brutal and unprovoked that they received much broader attention than other
daily low key stereotypical effects. Thanks to mass media and the internet, the whole world was
made aware of the still racially biased stereotyping existing in Today’s American society.
Sean Bell, a twenty three years old black man was killed on his wedding day by a hail of fifty
bullets fired by five police men while unarmed. He was with two of his friends when the shots
were fired, they also sustained severe injuries. A disturbing aspect of this tragedy was the racial
diversity of the police men that partook in the shooting of these innocent victims; two whites,
two blacks and one of mixed raced(half Spanish and part black). This shows that stereotyping
has no racial boundaries and that it had infiltrated into the minds of some people within the same
race to be pre-judgmental against their own race. This could be thought of as a form of self
hatred. When one of the survivors was asked to tell his side of the story, he said “we all thought
we were being robbed because there was no form of warning prior to the shooting”. It is rather
ironic that the potentially dangerous criminals as perceive by the police were actually worried
about their safety. The only good outcome of this tragedy was that almost everybody’s focus
has been drawn to a long standing problem that needs an immediate solution.
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Prior to the Sean Bell incident, there was the tragic death of Amadou Diallo in 1999. He
was an African peddler who lost his chance to experience his American dream when he was also
gunned down by police. He was shot forty one times. This unfortunate event was also brought to
the awareness of the general public thanks to mass media and internet which reminded us that
stereotyping can and will result in more destruction if not controlled.
Since September eleven (9/11), Muslims from all walks of life whether citizens, aliens,
immigrants or tourists have been elevated from not just being of a different race and religion but
are all possibly terrorist lurking to strike at any given moment. This stereotyping has
unfortunately has now become a universal problem. This has caused most Muslims a great deal
of oppression as they are forced to live like outcast. They get stereotyped against by custom
officers at airports who over search them, by people avoiding to sit, stand or travel next to them
on any form of public transportations. The Muslim children also get stereotyped by their peers at
school or playgrounds. The most fearful aspect of this is that younger generations are now
getting in on the action and this begs the question, what will happen to our future generations if
these stereotypical belief are not eliminated?. We should rise together and fix this wrong before
it spreads even more.
Most people seem to have fears for people who are different than they are whether it is
race based or different standards of dressing, the result of these accumulated fears results in the
same unfair judgments and treatments of others. The unprovoked deaths of Sean Bell and
Amadou Diallo were typical indications that the level of stereotyping had peaked extremely.
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