RESEARCH ON STEREOTYPES

As I have further my research I have realized how very common stereotyping is on many different levels .Its not hard to look around and see the stereotyping happen before your own eyes . Racial profiling and unfair judgemants of people , Just by walking through the mall you can notice how easily people seperate themselves into groups and categories . Its always "Them from us " or "their behavior from our behavior ".During the course or my research I went to the -media awareness network- where I read on article on stereotypes it stated that "Stereotypes can be either positive ("black men are good at basketball") or negative ("women are bad drivers"). But most stereotypes tend to make us feel superior in some way to the person or group being stereotyped. Stereotypes ignore the uniqueness of individuals by painting all members of a group with the same brush." This paragraph stood out to me because of the last sentence ".. IGNORE THE UNIQUENESS OF INDIVIDUALS BY PAINTING ALL MEMBERS OF A GROUP WITH THE SAME BRUSH " .I personally can relate to this because theres been times where I have felt as if society has somewhat "labeled" us. Growing up in the projects always brought that to my attention because of how often people would make degrading comments about the place I called home . This effects our point of veiw on things in a large way wether you are as fortunate as I was to realize it ....or not .The feeling of being looked down upon is never a good one. So when people feel this way they tend to hover towards people who are more like themselves . Thus being the start of the seperation between groups ... I wonder If im the only one who thinks his way sometimes but....whats wrong with different ?? Is it bad to be unique?? OF COURSE NOT !!!!!! . As I have gotten older I realized how much people really want to "fit in" everyone has a feeling inside of them that wants to be wanted or accepted . Children should have a decent relationship with there parents and a sense of reassurance should be installed in them at an early age by the parents .... but as we know theres not always a direct parental figure in every childs household . When theres no immediate oulet this feeling often results in youths joining gangs for a false sense of family or brotherhood .Then to acheive in order to please the people they feel are there friends , they do sometimes dangerous and wrong things. ... Why ???All because of the fear people have of "different " . People are afraid of things that they dont understand and nobody wants to be an outcast .This only adds fuel to the fire ! ... My outlook on this is that children should be taught at a young age about first there own culture and religious background , Then introduced to other cultures and ways of life . I think that if you have never had the experience you should join a family of a different ethnic background as yours for dinner. This helps open your eyes to other ways of life and you can eventually learn just to accept people for themselves