Stereotyping at a Young Age
As the sun sets upon the horizon of the New York City skyline, the beautiful red and orange colors fade to a mystic black. Aban, a turbaned Middle Eastern man, paces north toward home from a hard day of work as a financial assistant. Parading south down the same street as Aban is a nice young family, so giddy and giggly after a successful night out at their favorite restaurant. As Aban approaches the young family, their giggles turn to gasps as the two young children, 4 and 7 years of age, fiercely look into each others eyes as if a man was murdered right in front of them.
“Oh no, we better run! The Muslim is going to bomb us like we’re the twin towers!” Shouts out the 7 year old as they quickly scatter away. But Aban was used to the critics. He got called ‘terrorist’ and other harsh names, wherever he went and some people would give him an evil glare as if he was literally the one behind the attacks. But on the inside, Aban was nice gentlemen who wanted a large family and beautiful wife, not the stereotype of a terrorist he had achieved.
Stereotyping is “a form of pre judgment that is as prevalent in today’s society as it was 2000 years ago.” Now, more so than ever, with the new war and terrorist attacks, America continues to deal with stereotyping. This “social attitude has stood the test of time and received much attend by social psychologists and philosopher alike.” Although it is controversial, some believe that stereotyping started at childhood. (Schneider)
John Stossel and Kristina Kendall of ABC News, put out an interview on the “Phsycology of Stereotyping” This study concludes that stereotyping begins at childhood.
"20/20" brought together three groups of kids and showed them pictures of two men; one Arab, the other Asian. When asked which man the children prefer, they all said the Chinese man. Most of the children preferred the Chinese man "because he looks nicer and he has a smile on." But both men were smiling. When asked why they did not like the Arab man one said, "I think he's weird." Another child said, "He's like the scary dude.”
Next, they showed a picture of a white man and a picture of a black man. The children commented on the black man and one said, "He looks mean." Another referred to him as "FBI's Most Wanted." Another commented, "He looks like he's a basketball player."
When shown the white mans picture one said, "He's nice." And another said, "I think he's nice except he might be mad about something." In reality, the black man was just a photo found off the internet and the photo of a white man was of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
But where do these children get influenced from? At a very young age, many children are exposed to movies, whether at the theater or on videos at home. One major producer of children’s movies is the Disney Corporation. Some of the more current releases with racial stereotyping include Aladdin, the Lion King, Tarzan, and Peter Pan.
“The Aladdin character in that movie portrays “bad” Arabs with thick foreign accents while Anglicized Jasmine and Aladdin speak in standard Americanized English” (Giroux). Aladdin looks and sounds like a typical American boy. One of the evil characters, Jafar, looks very Arabic. Some of the lyrics in the movie convey racist
overtones: “I come from a land…where they cut off your ears if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” (Giroux).
Also, In the Lion King, the hyenas clearly speak in a kind of street, inner city African American dialect and they are considered the bad guys. Referring back to the 20/20 study, the children believed the black man was the ‘bad’ and ‘mean’ one.
Tarzan, which was released in 1999, is set in Africa but does not feature any black people. It is difficult to identify animated Disney movies with positive black role models, which may be why children have such a different view on them.
Another common stereotype noted in Disney movies is the Native Americans. In the film Peter Pan, Princess Tiger Lily’s father represents the negative stereotype of being uncivilized and savage as he holds Wendy’s brothers hostage.
Most Disney moves are essentially trying to portray lessons and attributes for younger children to acquire, but while delivering that, they also deliver an increased amount of stereotyping. Because of this, at only a young age children begin to stereotype people and it sticks with them for the rest of their lives. As the 20/20 study shows, many children judge other people on what they look like or what their skin color is at only a young age. It could possibly be outward influences, like Disney Corporation movies that inhabit them to do this. Not only is it something we have no control over, it is something we are automatically prone to do because it is, in the end, the way we were brought up.
