Stereotypes in Modern Day

Stereotyping has been prevalent for centuries, and is still very common in society today. Even though they are very hurtful, people continue to judge anyone who isn't just like them, or who doesn't "fit the mold." 

In "The General History of Virginia," by John Smith, Native Americans are automatically regarded as "savages" just because they live differently than the European settlers. It didn't matter to the whites that they could help them or were just different but still human, because they weren't the same they were deemed "stern barbarians," and below them. In William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation," Native Americans are treated the same way. Although they help the settlers, they are still just thought to be savages.

This week the students of Troy High had an assembly where Mykee Fowlin, a public speaker against bullying and stereotyping, gave his "speech" and talked about how it affects people. Mykee was very good at voices, so he used props and changed his voice to turn into different types of people to show how hurtful stereotypes can really be. One of his examples was an African American boy in high school, on the football team, but had a thing for his best bud. Now, most people wouldn't expect him to be gay; most people would think, "Oh, he's black and tough and on the football team, he must have had tons of hot girlfriends!" Really most people would expect anything but him being gay. This just goes to show how different people are then what stereotypes say, no matter what gender, age or race they are.