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29
05.08

Stereotypes Are For Simpletons

Some kid’s ignorant classmate said, “Ah~ How can you not be good at math? You’re Asian! Wow. I’m going to tell my parents I did better than the Asian kid!”

One of my pet peeves: stereotypes. I am not fond of them; I hate them. People who incessantly employ them irritate me.

I teach; I volunteer. I help students with their math. Sometimes, I help—gasp!—people of Asian ancestry. When students tell me that their being Asian coupled with their being less than stellar at math causes their classmates to tease them, I get annoyed. Picking on someone’s ethnic background has been out of style for, at least, 50 years, amirite?

It’s bad enough that the kids are struggling. Shame on anyone who makes them feel less human or less Asian because of it. “You can’t really be Asian. Come on, I did better than you on this… You were probably adopted and just don’t know it yet.”

Also, shame on those who, without joking, attribute their mathematical abilities to their being Asian.

X: How’d you know that? Wow.
Y: Duh’. I don’t need to try. I’m naturally good at math. I’m Azn.

Okay—so because I’m not Asian, I’m going to suck at math? :( Or if I were Asian and still sucked at it, something would be terribly wrong with me?

Other annoying people feel that such stereotypes are wonderful. They get rather huffy when the subject is brought up. “OMG, you’re Asian. You can’t complain about racism. Your stereotypes are all good! You guys are good at math. You guys are frugal…ugh.”

I don’t know about them, but I don’t see anything particularly good or progressive about being held to a higher standard than the rest of your peers, simply because of your race, and then being looked down upon if you can’t meet it.

I haven’t had any personal experience with the subject, though. I’m black and female, so 99.9% of my stereotypes are bad. Sadness. Something that irks me, though, is that it seems… a lot of people assume that I’m part Asian or something because, “Like, OMGz, I’m not an idiot.”

What experiences have you had with stereotypes?

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19 Comments to “Stereotypes Are For Simpletons”

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In Britain, at least where I live, the stereotype with the Orients (the label “Asian” differs from the USA to the UK) is simply that we’re supposed to be smarter than everyone else. The only “maths” stereotype I’ve experienced is that with my American friends; and my maths skills suck, so they weren’t very positive!

I don’t like the negative discrimination we — collectively — receive due to being ethnic minorities. Yes, people assume the discrimination is good; if people actively think and tell you you’re “clever” or “intellectual” then the label sticks and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, I can’t help but think of the others who AREN’T part of that because they don’t fit the stereotype, and that’s what bothers me. We can say there’s positive and negative discrimination against stereotypes, but both types of discrimination end up hurting other people … I mean, positively discriminating against Asians (of the entire continent) to do well means that people who aren’t Asian are negatively discriminated against — in particular, their intelligence is undermined, and Asians who don’t fit the stereotype are, well, worse off? Perhaps? Negatively discriminating, particularly that of Afro-Caribbeans, only serve to undermine them which results in the self-fulfulling prophecy and whatnot. :-/

But, uh, moving away from my disorganised ramblings, personally; it doesn’t help that I’m the only person from the Orient in my year. Although I’m chiefly British (in everything, I guess, except for culture and biological differences), many people assume that I should be smart and over-achieving in every subject (except perhaps English). It doesn’t help, either, that teachers label me out, thus giving me more attention than, say, the average student which inevitably brings out the “academic” within me. And it irks me too? I’m irritated when people openly use my name and compare themselves to me when they achieve better.

It seems there’s a standard for them, and a standard for me.

It sucks, but hey! It’s a part of life I guess I’m probably not going to get away from easily.

/rant.

Posted by: Jenny · May 29th, 2008 at 4:48 pm · #

Looks like that kid got his 15 minutes of fame.

But it’s hard to dispel stereotypes if you see them often, good or bad. It can still be frustrating. I see Asian girls who are so quiet and submissive and I want to scream.

Posted by: TBQ · May 29th, 2008 at 9:10 pm · #

I’m not really “Asian” and I’m not good at math, so I’ve never really had that problem.

I suppose you can guess what kind of stereotypes people having given me since I’m Muslim, Indian, Canadian, and a woman… and they usually aren’t good ones.

I do have to admit though, most of the stereotypes about Indians, in my experience at least, are true. You know those “You know you’re _____, when you…” email forwards? I’m laughing and agreeing with every single point.

Although this may not be stereotyping per se…I’ve always gotten a kick out of people that look at me with disbelief when I tell them that I am both Indian and a Muslim - like the two are mutually exclusive or something.

Posted by: Rafia · May 29th, 2008 at 10:22 pm · #

Blergh… stereotypes :P

At univ, my calc professor was Asian. I never really associated math-Asian though. I don’t think that stereotype is common here because Asians are rare here. I haven’t met (or even seen) a lot of them. The stereotypes for Asian people here is that they all look the same and that they fly o_O I know a lot of Asian people online, and I think of them when people here start joking or teasing about the subject.

A very common stereotype here is associating Dominicans (from the Dominican Republic) with inherent dumbness. They typical “blond jokes” exist here in the form of “Dominican jokes”. It’s very unfair. Other than the jokes, it comes up in everyday situations. For example, when my parents are driving and another driver is driving slowly / did a dangerous maneuver / had an accident they always say “it has to be a Dominican”. One time I schedule an appointment for driving lessons and my mom made me cancel it last minute because the instructor was Dominican! She said he was going to teach how to drive the wrong way. It’s sickening and very unfair!

About math, it’s usually associated with guys here, at least in college level. My calc professor taught very advanced math classes, and sometimes on examinations, he would bring our calc section with his advanced math section in one big room to take the exams ‘together’. The first time it happened, some kids from my calc class saw the girls that were taking the advanced math class are were surprised at how there were girls taking such class. I hadn’t even noticed that most people from the science and math school are guys, and that most of the girls are under the environmental science program. Where are the rest of girls? :O

Posted by: Lene · May 30th, 2008 at 2:14 am · #

When I was in elementary school, my parents decided to send me to a Hungarian one, seeing as I’m 60% Hungarian, so I could learn to properly read and write. Despite both my parents being more than half of Hungarian descent, they both attended school in Romanian. Therefore, to them talking a Romanian or Hungarian person was mostly the same.

Not so to my classmates, and to my surprise the teacher as well. Everyone was always convinced that since we are a minority, Romanians naturally hate us. And as such, they were treating them badly as a sort of prevention…
In 5th grade, I transfered to a Romanian school, where I found that OMG they don’t all actually hate Hungarians. And found my being Hungarian interesting rather than ZOMG! freak. It was a bit of a wake up call, a sad one at that, because I was so proud of being Hungarian and standing up tall against possible insults.

And the sad reality was that, in fact, we were the ones doing the insulting… most of the time.

Posted by: Vera · May 30th, 2008 at 5:01 pm · #

Meh, I get the maths one a lot for being Asian. I think what I notice more are stereotypes about women, maybe because I’m more feminist-minded these days. Just comments about how women are flighty, emotional, weak etc etc… all of them bug me. The one that annoys me most is the stereotype that women can’t be reasonable. I’d like to think that I’m relatively reasonable and it’s frustrating that even if they realise I’m reasonable, I’m treated as an exception, rather than anyone really changing their mind about the stereotype. Incredibly frustrating.

Posted by: Belinda · June 1st, 2008 at 1:31 am · #

I used to be slightly stereotyped in that I was often a teacher’s pet, had generally good school spirit and was… I suppose a bit annoying in my goody-two-shoe-d-ness. People would assume, because of this, that I was just automatically good at everything school-work-wise. I would get a 65% on a math or science assignment, and my classmates would be shocked, since in classes like English or social studies, I achieve high nineties and am a bit of a perfectionist. It took a bit to get them to understand that I wasn’t as well-rounded as they thought I was, and that some subjects didn’t come as easily as others. It was kind of like, just because I take an interest in learning, and creating valuable relationships with my teachers, school and community, does not make me some sort of over-achieving android.

Posted by: Aisling · June 1st, 2008 at 12:51 pm · #

I get stereotyped all the time for being Asian, and many of our stereotypes aren’t positive at all — we’re seen as too quiet and well-behaved, nosy, cheap, unable to speak English, etc. Some people embrace them, though; others poke fun at them. Some of my (Asian) friends say “I’m terrible at math, I must not be azn” or “I’m the azn blonde — I suck at math” … but they’re joking, of course.

Posted by: Meg · June 2nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm · #

I’ve found that the best way to kill stupid stereotypes that aren’t based on things you can see immediately (like race) is to put your best assets forward first and then educate them on the realities.

For example - I am vegetarian (I know its “cool” to be so now, but I have been since before birth and It wasn’t always cool :P), a Christian, and did correspondence (homeschooling) from grade three onwards. In the past, my age has often been a huge source of stereotypes as well (people always thought I was older than I was if they didn’t know my age right away - if they did, they’d always dismiss my abilities before giving me a fair chance) … With those three heavy swingers against me, I’ve had my share of hits (mainly when I was younger) - basically all of them coming from me being homeschooled.

The best way to deal with these things is to educate the people who are stereotyping you. When I was younger, the parents of my friends would ask me how I got socialized or if I had any friends (in the most condescending way possible) because they simply did not understand how a balanced homeschooling program works. Ignorance and stereotyping are *directly* related - if you take the time to educate them (providing they are willing to be educated), you instantly kill the stereotype - providing you don’t actually educate them in the direction of the stereotype, of course.

These days, I let people get to know who I am first - if they don’t bother to put in the effort to at least try and get to know me, I don’t bother putting up the unnecessary details of what I eat, what I believe or how I was educated. However, when people get to know me and they do learn of what I eat, what I believe and how I was educated, they simply cannot believe the stereotype could ever apply to me. And that’s the way it should be.

As an example: I have actually had people decide to homeschool their kids (or switch from school to correspondence) because of who I am, how I “turned out” (their words, not mine) and the “enlightenment” I have provided them with regarding what a balanced homeschooling program is really like and what it can offer. This always makes my day, mainly because it means that I must be doing *something* right, and knowing how homeschooling has shaped who I am today, I’m always more than happy to share it with anyone else.

I hope that doesn’t sound cocky - I’m just telling it like it is, straight up. :)

Regarding racial stereotypes - I haven’t really had any experience with those, so I can’t really say anything either way, except this: Just be who you are, always. You don’t have to go out of your way to prove them wrong - If you fit the stereotype then you fit the stereotype, but if you don’t, eventually the people who are stereotyping you will realize this (even if they never admit it).

Posted by: Chanel · June 3rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm · #

Thanks (everyone) for leaving such wonderfully long and thoughtful comments.

Posted by: Chantelle · June 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm · #

I don’t mind stereotypes so much and I stereotype myself. I laugh through stereotypes but of course, I despise negative teasing such that in your example above. Most stereotypes I get I consider fine though, for jokes sake. There was once I was complaining about getting 98.75% when I was expecting full marks. And my friend sighed and said, “Your Asian-ness kicking in again?” I think there just is some high academic standard sort of thing related to Asians. That’s not to say non-Asians are generally not smart, but I would take a guess at that a greater proportion of Asian/Indian parents are more uptight about their children’s academic results than other races.

Also how in our population, Asian still takes up only a minority “something-%” of the total population in our city. But our Medicine, Law and Engineering schools all have a significantly larger % of Asian students enrolled in them than this “something-%”. This could deduce (1) that more Asians are receiving tertiary education than other ethnicities; and/or (2) that more Asians are getting into these “elite” courses relative to the proportions in the actual population. I think it’s just because of this very obvious over-representation of Asians in “smart” areas of education (relative to the number of Asians in the total population) that Asian stereotyping is so common. In my high school we had, of course, a much smaller number of Asians/Indians compared to Caucasians. But who were the ones getting awarded first place in school year after year? Asians/Indians.

This isn’t to say people should pick on Asians who may not do as well just because they’re not so high “up there”. But there does seem to be a greater percentage of Asians who are literally hardcore-geeky about their studies compared to the percentage of geeks in other races. One could probably argue that stereotyping can be justified in this respect, but I’m definitely against harmful stereotyping. I take Asian-stereotype comments like jokes. Even when people do say “Omg I bet you! Aren’t you Asian?” (haven’t had this after classmates turned 15 or 16) I just shrug and tell them to be happy after they beat me overall. (Because I know they wouldn’t. :P) Or if you’re in a foul mood you could always tear their stereotypical argument apart and attack every single element of it and own them in front of an audience!

Posted by: Rilla · June 4th, 2008 at 5:08 am · #

Where I went to school, I’d say about 15% of the kids were Korean. I never heard anyone make comments about Asian kids being smart at math or anything, we all knew they were smart and it was completely based on observation. No one teased them or anything if they did badly, no one singled anyone out for being smart or anything, no one really talked about it unless you asked them how the hell they got a 100 on that test. A lot of them went to Korean school where they learned like advanced calculus and stuff. Suddenly it all made sense. I don’t know if this is true in all communities, but where I went to school, that’s the way it was.

It’s hard to get out of the mindset - all Asians are good at math, when all the Asian kids you knew in school actually were really good at math. Though part of that could be because they were expected to be good at math. Self fulfilling prophecy?

But, yeah, grouping people like that is wrong, but it’s hard to help when our brains automatically categorize everything for us. As humans, we really have to consciously make an effort not to stereotype people. That’s why they still exist, it’s just the way our brains were set up. And if you’re continuously exposed to something, even just by people repeting it, you eventually start to believe it. People have to really stop repeating this crap.

Posted by: Lissy · June 4th, 2008 at 3:06 pm · #

I know this is an old entry (update, yo!) but I wanted to comment. Because I have too many stereotype experiences. Not for myself (being white and such)…

But at home all my friends are Asian so I’m particularly perceptive of stereotypes when they do pop up. Like how at school my friends refer to each other as “good Asians” when they do one another’s left hand manicures. And then even among the Asians there are stereotypes. I once had a Korean friend state as if it was fact that “Chinese people are dirty.” And then there was that time two of my friends found out that the guy I hooked up with was black and were almost annoyed that I hadn’t mentioned it first and foremost… why is that worth mentioning?! (Because they were curious about his, uh… size, I gathered eventually.)

I mean, I don’t really get outraged and usually just laugh at the jokes around the stereotypes, but it’s still bothersome because like you said, “Picking on someone’s ethnic background has been out of style for, at least, 50 years, amirite?” But… apparently not.

Posted by: gem · June 13th, 2008 at 11:40 pm · #

I agree. Stereotypes are really frustrating. Personally I am lucky enough to have not had to deal with many, except those that come along with being a woman. These stereotypes have been around forever, and they’re endlessly perpetuated. Some are so ingrained on our society that they are subconscious - we don’t even realize we are stereotyping someone! I think everyone is guilty of that. Sometimes it’s hard not to be.

To reply to the comment you left on my blog: you are very lucky!! Private colleges certainly can afford to give much more financial aid to their students. In my experience, though, public university was still less expensive - and I got A LOT of financial aid from the private schools that I applied to. I was pretty disappointed to turn them down, but I had to in the name of affordability. (Although, really, that’s a stretch - college in general, whether it is public or private, is hardly affordable at all.)

Posted by: Patricia · June 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 pm · #

I was in that kid’s position a year ago in my math class. I sucked horribly at math/science, but managed to pass with a B average. Still, people thought that was “not asian-like” of me, which pissed me off.

Stereotyping is just a part of human nature. We can’t help but classify people according to what they are. And for the most part, the vast majority of a race is going to do the same exact thing. It would be very hard to disprove it unless you search really extensively. Labeling just makes things easier to learn about each other, I guess. But not exactly in a good way.

Then again, here are good and bad stereotypes for every race/gender/whatever.

Posted by: Merinn · June 29th, 2008 at 3:47 am · #

Actually the only stereotyping I have encountered is ‘you wear glasses so you must be a nerd’ really.

It’s terrible though that people get judged by their ethnic background on what they can or cannot do. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, you’re either good at something or you’re not and that’s not related to your race.

Posted by: Chans · July 2nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm · #

Stereotyping is pretty common in my high school just because it’s so metropolitan so there’s a mixture of ethnicities and the like. As a Jew I get stereotyped as being frugal & money obsessed and my friends of course tease me about it… but it’s nothing new so I don’t really care anymore. I know they mean no malice by it.

Posted by: Brianna · July 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm · #

Wow, I totally thought you were Asian–Korean to be specific–because there’s Korean writing on your website layout.

The Asian stereotype is both bad and good. To me, it was sometimes good because in school, people would always look up to me, even if they didn’t know me (my school was very diverse, so there were lots of stereotypes floating around, but surprisingly, lots of tolerance as well). Of course, it did get annoying when people wanted me help to them just because I was Asian, but I liked being seen as smart. And although this may not be a stereotype, I think due to there being a lot of Japanese influence right now, a lot of people think any oriental Asian is Japanese. I’ve been asked if I’m Japanese so many times now, which makes me laugh, because there are a lot more Chinese people in this world. I would think that the logical answer would be Chinese. So yeah…stereotypes do limit people a lot.

I think that there will always be stereotypes, because people always put a lot of emphasis on first impressions. Many people like to label people by a first impression, and stereotypes help greatly in those cases. Also, I believe people are always suspicious of others who don’t share similar cultures. I know that there are lots of stereotypes in the Asian community about other races because Asian cultures don’t tend to mix with other cultures. It’s really all down to the fear that’s caused by this difference.

Posted by: Yingna · July 3rd, 2008 at 11:42 pm · #

I get stereotyped a lot. I honestly don’t fit any of the Asian stereotypes, and my “friends” give me hell for it. They’re all, “Alex, how can you be Asian and suck at math and science?” Math and science just don’t interest me. Then, they go “ASIAN PEOPLE ARE NOT GOOD AT WRITING. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.”

Oh, and my parents are really laid back in my upbringing. They know that I’m responsible and I can study and do my homework without their help. My friends are always like, “Dude, you’re so whitewashed. Your parents don’t even care about you.” It’s incredibly frustrating because my parents do care about me, but I’m responsible enough to not need them to constantly watch me as I do my homework.

Yeah, I need new friends. -_-

Posted by: Alex · July 19th, 2008 at 1:11 pm · #

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