Examining Racial Stereotyping and Unfair Behaviors

1. Three assumptions made by the characters in this video are: first, where the man assumes that the Asian woman may not know good English and is apparently surprised that she does; second, when the mana assumes that the woman eats kimchi because her great grandmother was from Seoul even though she has told him that she is born and raised American (and is American); and third, that she is not American because she looks ‘Korean’ or ‘Japanese’. Such assumptions are based on racial stereotyping and can be common (Marcelin, et al., 2019). In the video, we see that the man finds it hard to understand that this Asian looking woman is actually an American, and he insists on knowing where her parents or her grandparents are from. On the other hand, he incorrectly identifies himself as a regular American because he is Caucasian.

2. I think that stereotyping can lead to unfair behaviour because it can lead to people who are stereotyping others, into being prejudiced with others and to even have negative associations based on the stereotyping. Even unintentionally, people may be unfair to the others because of their unintentional stereotype which we see in the video where one person may associate certain traits or habits with another person and make judgments based on race, gender or age (Plant & Peruche, 2005). This can at times lead to unfair outcomes for the person who is being stereotyped. For example, stereotyping can lead to unfair assumptions that someone is lazy, as is the case with stereotypes about Italian people. This may lead to unfair denial of work opportunities. Or there may be a stereotype of criminality associated with some groups which can also lead to unfair outcomes within the criminal justice system. This is why stereotyping can be unfair.

3. Within my discipline, bias can occur or have an impact because like any other discipline, there are individuals that represent diverse backgrounds and they may therefore end up making stereotypes about others. Due to this stereotyping of each other, people may make unfair or incorrect assessments about each other. If the person assuming a stereotype is in a position of power, they may make decisions about the persons being stereotyped based on that stereotype. For example, gender stereotypes may affect decisions related to promotions or work allotment to women. Therefore, I believe that like any other discipline, there are dangers of bias due to stereotyping in my field as well.

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Bibliography

Marcelin, J. R. et al., 2019. The impact of unconscious bias in healthcare: how to recognize and mitigate it. The Journal of infectious diseases , 220(2 ), pp. S62-S73.

Plant, E. & Peruche, B., 2005. The consequences of race for police officers’ responses to criminal suspects. Psychological Science, Volume 16 , pp. 180-187.