This Stereotype Affects You, Too

We all intuitively know that stereotyping based on race is harmful. But surprisingly, there are comparatively few studies that examine how stereotyping occurs — and what is indirect effects might look like.

A new study, though, suggests that stereotyping is a psychological process that actually promotes a broader "stereotyping" attitude that affects all minority communities, not just the ones being actively stereotyped. In other words, my stereotype is your stereotype, too.

To arrive at this conclusion, Dr. Chu Kim-Prieto of College of New Jersey turned to one notorious stereotype: Chief Illiniwek, who was the University of Illinois's sports 'mascot' until 2007.

In two separate studies, Dr. Kim-Prieto showed students either a picture of Chief Illiniwek or of a generic University of Illinois logo. Students were then given a questionnaire asking them to rank their agreement with statements regarding Asian-American stereotypes. (The author explains that he chose Asian-Americans because "stereotypes about Asians are quite different from stereotypes about American Indians. If one evoked the other in spite of those differences, it would presumably mean a general tendency to stereotype had been activated.")

So how did students do?

It turns out that students that first saw stereotypical images of Chief Illiniwek were more willing to endorse stereotypical statements about Asian Americans. The same was true of students who read a fictional biography of Chief Illiniwek (taken from the University of Illinois website), compared to students who read a generic description of an Arts Center taken from the same website.

We usually think about racism as something that's motivated by racial hatred of a targeted ethnic group. Instead, this study tells us that even exposure to racial stereotypes appears to encourage an overall more black-and-white (pardon the pun) outlook on the world — even against unrelated groups. Thus, right-wing pundits and fear-mongerers who perpetuate the racist notion that all Muslims are terrorists (for example) doesn't just affect the Muslim community. It's likely to encourage anti-black, anti-Latino, anti-Native American and anti-Asian resentment and stereotyping as well.

It might seem like a discouraging finding. But I actually see this study's significance as positive. What more evidence do we need that in combating racism, coalition-building between minority communities is not only beneficial, but necessary? Further, it's not hard to imagine, given Dr. Kim-Prieto's data, that stereotyping effect extends beyond racism. In other words, I wouldn't be surprised if internalizing race-based stereotypes also encouraged gender-based, sexuality-based, and class-based stereotyping, as well. We need to build bridges there, too.

For too long, we've approached the struggle to end the racism (or other -isms) that we face as an individual battle. We've seen plenty of examples of divisive in-fighting that pits one minority group against another — as if we're competing to prove which of us is 'most oppressed' (something my friends over at Racialicious like to call playing "Oppression Olympics"). But here's convincing data to demonstrate that we're all up against the same problem. Despite all ideas to the contrary, we're really all in this anti-racism boat together.

Photo Credit: soundfromwayout