Stereotyping in Society

Stereotyping in Society

I think it is pretty hard to go through a week without experiencing at least two or three incidents where someone or a group of people is being sterotyped. Whether it comes from jokes, television, comics, or just hearing people talk about other people, stereotyping is around all the time.

The first example of stereotyping that I witnessed comes from the television show "That 70s Show." At least every episode the "crew," or group of friends always hang out, and they have a foreign exchange student for a friend. They don't know what country he's from but they always make fun of foreigners on the show. They crack jokes about him floating over on a raft to the United States and always make references to him being from different countries that he's not from just because his skin is dark. The jokes are funny and they aren't supposed to hurt the character's feelings, but they are very stereotypical.

I saw a commercial the other day that was an advertisement for using protection during sex to help the fight against the spread of AIDS. The commercial starts out talking about how African Americans represent the leaders of sports because they have the best basketball players, leaders in baseball, and have the fastest track runners. Then at the end of the commercial they say that they are also leading the population of the United States in being diagnosed with the AIDS virus.

When I saw the commercial I didn't really know where