I believe that most people's stereotypes and assumptions come from multiple ways. First I believe that people's stereotypes stem from how they are raised. If a child is raised and their parents have a particular opinion about a certain race or a certain group of people then that child will more than likely adopt the same way of thinking. This can be presented verbally or no verbally by the parent or the community. Verbally expressing your opinion is pretty straight forward. What I mean by non verbally is how a parent or the community acts upon a certain group of people. An example would be that if there is a neighborhood that was predominately white and wealthy and say a wealthy black family moved into the neighborhood some of the white people might outcast the black family or treat them differently even if they don't say it directly. Even though the black family is wealthy, the white people might still treat them different because of the color of their skin.
Another way people might develop stereotypes in through the media. In fact I think the media plays one of the biggest roles into developing people's stereotypes. A year or so ago I took an ethnic literature class and we learned about different ethnicities. Obviously one of the groups we talked about in this class were black people. One of the most astounding things I have ever heard came from this class. It was about black people and during certain periods of history if wealthy black people wanted to be accepted in society they had to pass the brown paper bag test. Meaning if they are "too black" they would not be accepted. Society put a standard by comparing black people's skin to a brown paper bag. I believe this, to some extent, is still carried out today. Throughout my own life I have heard several individuals say that he or she is "too black".
All in all there are many influences that develop people's stereotypes whether its from your parents, your community or the media.
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