Many practices have drawn criticism over the years. In Madagascar, for example, the famahidana funeral tradition includes bringing bodies out from tombs once every seven years, wrapping them in cloth, and dancing with them. Some people view this practice disrespectful to the body of the deceased person. Today, a debate rages about the ritual cutting of genitals of girls in several Middle Eastern and African cultures.
To a lesser extent, this same debate arises around the circumcision of baby boys in Western hospitals. When considering harmful cultural traditions, it can be patronizing to use cultural relativism as an excuse for avoiding debate. This makes the stereotypes rigid, difficult to change. Changing the stereotype is possible, but it takes a lot of time, because it is a change of collective knowledge in the community.
In the context of immigration, Poles have the experience of being an object of stereotype, but not its creator. In Western Europe, for years there was a stereotype of a dirty Pole-alcoholic who does not integrate with a host society. In the 90s, the stereotype of a Pole — a car thief — was very popular.
A slow change in the image of Poles as immigrants began only after , when Poles could start working legally in the EU, which changed the nature of the trip and increased the percentage of people with higher education among immigrants. All these factors caused that Poles started to be perceived as valuable workers.
Stereotype is not based on the direct, individual experience of the individual. It makes the stereotypes rigid, difficult to change. The change of stereotypes consists in applying the same solutions that are used in the case of changing prejudices, i. Stereotype is beyond an individual. Discrimination is an unjustified, negative or harmful act against a member of a group, solely because it belongs to that group.
It is treating a person less favourably than a person in a comparable situation because of a particular characteristic e. Discrimination is a worse, unfair treatment because the of membership in a particular group. Some of the difficult emotions that we encounter in intercultural contacts may be related to ethnocentrism. It has been suggested that we need stereotypes in order to survive. How useful do you think they are? In everyday language it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between stereotypes and prejudices.
A prejudice is a judgement we make about another person or other people without really knowing them. Prejudices can be negative or positive in character. Prejudices are learned as part of our socialisation process and they are very difficult to modify or eradicate.
Therefore it is important that we are aware that we have them. To explain this concept more directly it could help to examine how deeply we know all of our friends. We may have different friends for different occasions, for going to the cinema, going walking, helping with homework, playing football, going to concerts.
Do we know what music our football friends enjoy? Or do we just guess? Stereotypes are oversimplified ideas about groups of people. Prejudice refers to thoughts and feelings, while discrimination refers to actions. Racism refers to the belief that one race is inherently superior or inferior to other races. How far should First Amendment rights extend? Learn more about institutional racism at www.
Bouie, Jamelle. August 19, Herring, C. Keith, and H. Hudson, David L. Klonoff, E. Explaining the Skin Color-Hypertension Relationship. Landor, Antoinette M. Simons, Gene H. Brody, Chalandra M. Bryant, Frederick X. Gibbons, Ellen M. Granberg, and Janet N. Lowery, Wesley and Darryl Fears. August 31, The Washington Post. Retrieved October 9 , McIntosh, Peggy. Nobles, Frances, and Julie Bosman. August 17,
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