Stereotypes of another form...

This is an excerpt from an essay I was writing for my sociology subject that I think may be of some interest to few of you. Feel free to comment and critique.

"....Stereotypes on race, class and gender are ubiquitous. However, not all stereotypes are bad and malignant. Neither are they all good and benign to the people in question. A harmless stereotype, I feel, on race may be one that I experienced in France a few years ago. In Singapore, we Chinese are very accustomed to calling ourselves Chinese and not Singaporean-Chinese or Singaporean. So when I was being asked what race I belonged to when I was taking the Metro train, the answer that I gave the colored man was that I was “Chinese”. Almost immediately, he thought I was from China. Not knowing, of course, that I’m Singaporean-Chinese not mainland. But he also explained to me that before I told him I was Chinese and eventually Singaporean-Chinese, he also told me that he thought I was Japanese because of my skin-color. Evidently, that was a harmless form of stereotyping probably present not only in Paris but also in other countries.

In another country though, I received some racist treatment simply because of my skin color. It was this group of men who just drove past and start hurling verbal abuses at my friends and me simply because of our skin color. They did not know what kind of people we were or where we came from or whether we could actually get along if both parties actually bothered trying. I reckon that they perceived our personalities, mentalities and capabilities to be limited by our skin color, which was probably why they resented and detested the sight of us in the first place. Such limitations succumbed to the temptations of stereotyping largely attributes to the reason why genocides, war and cross-border strife are ever so prevalent. This is so even in a modern world as ours regardless of how hard many people and governments are trying to suppress them.

In reference to the second incident, it is evident that this had already been tolerated by many since we were forewarned that we should just ignore the people who would try to intimidate us. I feel that this is similar to what Gloria Yamato mentioned about “blaming out of habit”. We simply had to, with the advice of others alike, accept these insults and degradation out of habit and fear that any further trouble may come our way. "


"The same Lord is Lord of all and is generous of all who call on him."
Romans 10:12