hypocritical tolerance has been going on in the church for years its just more in the main stream African Americans do not even know that they play into and help to reinforce the African American stereotypes . They believe that the African American stereotypes have been imposed upon them and while partly right, they reinforce them through acceptance. For example, some African Americans do not aspire to higher education because they live under the African American stereotypes of being dumb and lazy. It is even more painful to hear children label themselves according to these African American stereotypes.
Let us take a look at some common African American stereotypes . Historically some African American stereotypes labeled African Americans as servile, primitive and simple-minded. These African American stereotypes created negative stigmas for African Americans and since then these African American stereotypes have been upgraded and unfortunately expanded. The current African American stereotypes include criminal, poor, athletic, religious and musically gifted. Though some of these African American stereotypes seem to be positive, it does not make the practice of perpetuating these African American stereotypes right.
African American stereotypes are often times used to mask real issues. For example: it is said that is twice as hard for an African American to get a job, when the fact is that these men are severely marginalized.
Another example: African Americans will complain that the system is set up to prevent black people from attaining certain positions. If they accept these African American stereotypes, how do they explain the current Barrack Obama holding the highest office in America?
African American stereotypes whether positive or negative need to be eradicated. They are cowardice and insufficient ways of looking at African Americans or any other sets of people for that matter. I believe the incidence of African American stereotypes will begin to decrease when African Americans take a greater look at themselves and also reduce the stereotypes they have of others. When one looks into African American stereotypes , he sees how far they have come as a nation but he can equally see how far they still have to go as a people.
Even though African American stereotypes seem to have quite a negative influence upon the young African Americans, African American stereotypes can be used in positive ways to tell historically of where the African Americas are coming from and where they needs to go.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Tuesday, April 12th 2011 at 2:37PM
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