katia Robinson-Lucero(Edison State College)

Stereotyping People after Hurricane Katrina            The United States has been known for the infamous discriminatory history of African Americans since the 1960s, which is why the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became abolished. As mentioned in my Psychology Human Business and Relations class, despite the fact that society has forbidden the acts of discrimination and racism through law does not guarantee that these behaviors will cease. More popular than prejudice, discrimination, and racism, stereotyping is a general accusation about anything intended to harm something or someone because there is not even the evidence to prove the accusation in the first place. Stereotyping kind of reminds me of someone who has low self-esteem, the person who has low self-esteem is likely to put so much value on a stereotype which has absolutely no justification, and this the most harmful thing of all.             I recall from a newspaper article on Hurricane Katrina of 2005 showing images of a black man and then later showing images of 2 white people. In both of the pictures a black man and the 2 white people are doing the same thing; however, the pictures were labeled differently and they were stereotyping against the black man. There was a devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina so much to the point that people had neither fresh water nor food. In the picture of the black man it says “A young man walks through chest deep food water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood water continues to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina” (as qtd in About.com).            On the other hand, there was another photo taken of 2 white people. One of them was a male and the other was female. This photo was labeled as “Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Lousiana” (as qtd in About.com). The white people just like the black man where both walking through the flooded water at the level of their chest. Both were also looking for food because the hurricane infiltrated New Orleans leaving them with no food or water. Yet, just because it was a black person someone stereotyped his and his image as an ignorant man stealing. However, when the picture was taken of the two white folks, someone assumed that they were taking food or water as a mean to survive. This goes to point out that when we listen to the news we are given the information through another person’s point of view. Despite the fact that the news reporter has a college degree in communications does not mean that he or she is the smartest. People must be careful where the information is coming from, how to analyze the information properly without being bias and what is being said. Stereotyping are the thoughts, or illegitimate assumptions that can be modified if the person chooses to do so; and on the other hand, it is so easily misleading. At least people are finding new ways to understand communication and misleading facts that affect the body psychologically and physiologically through human business and relations.  

This entry was posted on 16. June 2010 at 16:48 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.