People have a tendency of judging people without knowing them properly and this leads to any cases of stereotyping. The need to understand someone well before passing judgment on him or her is paramount. In this case, it is important to explore different stereotypes people are regarding regions of a country, religion, race and ethnic group one comes from. People have a tendency of judging people from certain regions and putting them in the same category. Some are positive stereotypes while others are negative. A common stereotype based on the region is that people from the Middle East do not like Americans. This is not entirely the case because not everyone from the Middle East hates Americans as some have families in America. The other common stereotype based on the region is that people living in India Subcontinent are all shopkeepers and own motels. To judge people from India in this sense is not correct as people there run various businesses and many have different careers independent of shop keeping (Kirszner and Mandell 67).
In regards to the country of origin, people have a tendency to believe that everyone from Canada is very polite. This is however inaccurate as one cannot say that everyone is polite because politeness is an individual attribute and cannot be judged collectively. This is also seen where people tend to believe that anyone coming from France is very romantic because people from that country are highly associated with romantic gestures. The other stereotype commonly associated with countries is that people from China eat anything and everything ranging from dogs to snakes, which is not entirely true because there are many Chinese people who are vegetarians. Though people from these countries do not necessarily fall under the category they are placed in, people judge them from what they have come to believe in over time.
In regards to gender, many people have different stereotypes fro each gender. For women, people believe that they take forever to do things; this is mostly associated with taking a shower and dressing up. This is not the case, as many women take a shower fast and then decide on the outfit they want to wear fast enough. This is however not applicable to all women as there are some who take a long time to decide on whether or not to wear a particular cloth. The other common stereotype among women is that women are always moody. Even though this is through, it only happens once in a month when they are experiencing hormonal change due to their monthly periods. Men are commonly stereotyped based on strength and aggressiveness where they appear to be stronger and aggressive as compared to women. This is however not the case as women are proving to be strong and can handle almost everything that men can (Kirszner and Mandell 23).
Racial stereotyping is common and people have numerous ways of seeing people from different races. For instance, people whites are racists. The other stereotype is that Asians are Chinese. The other common stereotype is that all black are lazy and are good basketball players. Taking a particular race and then attributing certain factors is not correct, as there are many whites who play basketball well. Saying that all blacks are lazy is also not true as a person is hardworking or lazy depending on their own personal choice.
Another common stereotype is based on the ethnic group of an individual. Hispanics are said to be poor English speakers or some cannot even speak English. All Americans are also said to be Cowboys, which is not true as cowboys only come from certain regions in America. Germans are Nazis is another common stereotype against Germans.
Works Cited
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell, ed. Patterns for College Writing, 12th ed.
Boston:Bedford/St. Martin, 2012.
