As long as people continue to make assumptions of others and lump individuals into one group, our society will never be equal.
Stereotyping, ranging from big to small, has been around since humans started roaming the Earth. Religious wars have been fought because of it. Even today, people can’t get jobs because of their first names.
Since the internet is accessible at any time, it is easier to catch things like the George Floyd incident and others like it because of dangerous stereotypes.
Police brutality has been more than whispered in 2020. Recently, an unarmed black man named Jacob Blake was shot seven times by a police officer.
Because of everything going on lately with Black Lives Matter protests, some people might instinctively be one-sided and create a stereotype that all police are crooked.
Jacob Blake’s intentions were unknown when he was shot. Whether the cops were doing their jobs or playing with power is also unknown.
We know Blake violated a restraining order, and the situation escalated to the point where he is now under intensive care.
Say this happened another time in life before 2020, it is likely that people would have thought that Blake was the bad guy and not the cops.
Because of stereotypes of black males, society has historically not cared about the little evidence and automatically picks a side.
But people should not replace stereotypes with other stereotypes. It is great that the world is opening up with the knowledge of police brutality, but on the other hand people should not form an opinion of all police.
Kyle Rittenhouse, an armed 17-year-old self-declared militia member, is accused of killing two people and injuring one at a protest prior to the Jacob Blake shooting. Right before the shooting, a video shows a police officer giving Rittenhouse water and thanking him for being there.
For every silly stereotype like tall black men being able to play basketball, there’s a dangerous one like every black person from the hood is a criminal.
Some companies don’t allow people with foreign names to pass an interview. This is an automatic assumption of someone.
In a TED Talk by Jeremy Spiller, he gave examples of automatic assumptions and said “the way to stop stereotyping is to treat people more as individuals.” He said businesses like to over-categorize people but using data will help focus on individual people.
Stereotypes are dangerous. But with technology more accessible, people are being held accountable and asked to look at their stereotypes more closely. They can look at others as individuals and not as a homogenous whole.
