This week’s readings were surprisingly unique in style when compared to our previous readings. I like how we were able to read a first-person perspective because it introduced a more casual style of conversation. As a result, I was able to delve deeper into his stories along with feeling a stronger sense of emotion.
In the reading “Hating my Soul” by Twitty, he connected his love for food with the culture that he struggled to accept. Despite his efforts to avoid his culture, it was constantly surrounding him, as the walls of his dining room were covered with African pictures that he was convinced were staring at him. Below the African paintings was a record player with a variety of albums that played different styles of music depending upon who was cooking in the kitchen at that moment. One day, Twitty found an album by Steve Curry that was filled with racist assumptions and stereotypes regarding the types of food that black people supposedly ate. Twitty explained that not only were these stereotypes incorrect, but also extremely disrespectful and disgusting.
Oftentimes, people make assumptions about individuals without even thinking. We associate individuals to certain things in an attempt to understand them better. These assumptions are usually extremely general and do not take into account the individuals specific likes and dislikes. Last semester, I took a course where we learned about Business in Imperialistic colonies. In the course we learned about the introduction of multiculturalism into British society, specifically curry houses. The Chinese individuals living in British society struggled with racist stereotypes and assumptions tied to the “stank of curry” that was associated with their culture. The Chinese were treated less than everyone else as a result of these harmful stereotypes. This created an uneven playing field for these individuals living in British Society. Instead of creating bias’s about an individual, we should disrupt these judgements and try to learn about the individual and their culture. It is through this process of learning that we will be able to appreciate one another. Not only was this reading interesting, but also highlighted the effects that stereotyping can have on an individual and their perception of their culture.
I like that you point out the fact that everyone has preconceived notions about everyone around them without even thinking about it. In the reading obviously, Twitty experienced this first hand… even if the assumptions were not. The podcast also touched on this point that our brains are trained to make patterns and lack of representation continues these patterns. However, in terms of these stereotypes and assumptions, Dr. Bezio suggests the idea of more representation and changing the “roles” one would normally expect someone of a certain race to play.
I also felt like this reading was more personal which I really enjoyed! I think it is so true that people make assumption about people based on things like race without knowing anything at all. Often, as you said, these assumption are very negative, but why do they have to be? Is it because anything that is different isn’t good? Stereotyping clearly has negative effects, but is there any scenario where the assumptions are good?