Exploring+Issues+in+the+Community

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It is a term so easily misunderstood; yet excessively over used. It’s a term that as a youth culture may not fully understand; yet it rolls off our tongues like second nature. It is a term that when used creates a completely different subject of life all on its own. It is a term that by a definition is “a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.” (Dictionary.com). It is a term that buries itself deep within our conscious, and controls the minds of our business leaders, economy and mouths of the: accused, victimized, all alike and different, rich and poor, young and old. It is --racism.======

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What is racism? Do we know the exact definition; it’s consequences on those affected by it? These are questions that most believe have the simplest answers: yes, I know what it is, and I know the consequences. However, the most common answer to what is racism is discrimination against blacks. Is that truly the correct answer? Is it really just discrimination against blacks? So many questions; however, they’re not that simple to answer. Racism is a problem in countries around the world, leaving an endless array of answers and examples; it’s not just a definition. In my terms, racism is not only judging those of color and different ethnicities, but also, in a larger term classification, it is stereotyping, discrimination against those of different hair color, eye color, weight, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, education, etc. Stereotyping, just like racism is also a misunderstood and over used term. ======

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reasons? As a member of the youth culture, a vastly growing group of individuals in the United States as well as the world, stereotyping is a part of the culture, the society as a whole, and a means of becoming a community. It may seem unrealistic, but look back to the past when you were a teenager, or tween, as now coined the term for those “in betweeners”. What did you do? Profile? Stereotype? These terms, second nature to the human vocabulary and always at the tips of our tongues, have been embedded in our minds through the use of media in societies in which we live. Now the real question is, does stereotyping those in society, especially those of the youth culture, affect the way we develop as human beings?======

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Growing up in the 21 st century America, society seems to stereotype youth as drug using, loud music playing, head banging, obnoxious, crime committing, ignorant, reckless, and irresponsible, out of control of people. These, distorted images placed on teens and the surrounding youth culture by the media in response to profiling the typical youth in our current society and culture, aren’t just happening in our communities, but also our schools, business places, and nation. Where does it start, and why should it be the main concerns for those willing to listen and investigate is still a priority concern. However the answer isn’t going to just show up. Why, because as adults, accomplices in the advocating of stereotyping in the youth society, won’t see it, rather, they will do it. Stereotyping is second nature to every person on earth whether most would want to believe it or not. There is always that one person that we may see and just can’t help but mutter something under our breath about the way they look, the lifestyle they must live, or the education they had because of the way they speak or think; small details, but in reality those which make the largest impacts. However, are those little details always visual or audio? Are they gut instincts, those replies that come naturally without thought, piled in our heads, permanently set in place with the nails that movies, businesses, friends, and music influences pounded into our heads? ======

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When it comes to the functioning of stereotypes in communities, schools, and especially those of our youth culture in the world today, many of us don’t stop to think what the effects stereotyping has on a person and their development. In a cultured society where adolescents has an emphasis on the physical, social, and emotional changes, accompanied by confusion and uncertainty, marks a change in a child’s life. As these changes take effect, puberty, as most would consider it, children, tweens, and teenagers, are subject to immense amounts of stereotyping, discrimination, peer pressure, and the struggle to make a place in society. Schools are full of children reaching this time in their lives, and with the assistance of adults, and other children their age, children are left to defend themselves not only against discrimination between their peers and teachers, but also their family members and society at large. ======

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As students in a society where these discriminations overwhelm us, and where society is to be so diverse in an overall view, we are mostly however, subject only to schools that hold students of our race. Growing up in a community of 13, 534 residences, a 98.6% white population, we as students aren’t integrated into any type of diversity in school and interactions with the races of the world (St. Marys Detailed Profile). The attempts to make us a diverse student body are through a study abroad program initialized through our school, which only represents about six students a year. These few students because of our lack of diversity and involvement with the races of our world, are severely stereotyped, especially those of the Asian culture, the most typical to study abroad in St. Marys. As Angela Kim stated, author of “Stereotypes of Asian Americans”, we typically stereotype Asians as nerdy, overachieving, slanted eyed, short, glass wearing rich snobbish geniuses (Kim and Yeh 2). In a stereotypical social environment such as St. Marys Area High School, students have a difficult time adjusting, finding a way to fit in an unfamiliar environment. Asians along with Indians being the typical doctor, scientist, computer analyst, and robotic technicians, we see them as being the model minority, those to look up to for their natural genius. Students of this descent in America have a conceived notion that they must live up to. Some such as a young student from Cambodia perpetuated his academic problems, which left him feeling depressed and under estimated in his culture, isolated from the world around him (Kim 3). Is this what we want for our students on an educational journey of their own, to feel unimportant, underprivileged, and treated as an outcast if not living to American expectations?======

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Children around the country just like the Asian students are stereotyped everyday not just in school, but also by the public eye. As we grow older, the public eye stereotypes us for our clothing, makeup, body type, sexual activity, sexual orientation, etc. This activity we participate in starts at a young age. We begin to stereotype and judge others of our age in many different ways before we even know it, and continue for the rest of our lives with out even thinking about it. In a study by Bigler and Patterson, students were subject to several stereotypical situations based on eye color. One day the blue-eyed students would get superiority, and the other, brown-eyed students would receive superiority. As the study continued, the observations were very unrealistic to what adults would believe. The students’ peer relations suffered, with previously existing friendships between blue-eyed and brown-eyed children deteriorating. The children began to use the “inferior” eye color as an insult, leading to arguments and physical conflicts among students (Bigler and Patterson 65). Is this the beginning of childhood friendship and understanding of society? Growing up in a family where my mother provided day care, for children of these ages and still today, problems like this were an every day occurrence; discrimination because of the way one person looks compared to the next. These views carry over into our future lives as adults and teenagers, leading to very subjective and scrutinized lives. ======

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As we find ways to express ourselves, others out there are judging us. A Garden Grove, Californian officer stopped two Vietnamese Americans teenagers because of their style of expression through clothing. He photographed them, took their information and placed them in a file as possible gang members. After a further investigation, they were found to be two 15 year-old honor students (Beres and Griffiths 950). Self-expression, differences in appearance, and self-conception, are all triggers in the minds of mostly whites to judge people for who they aren’t. As Eduardo Bonilla-Silva once said in a speech on color blind racism, “Today most whites justify keeping minorities out of the good things in life with the language of liberalism… as, whites do not feel guilty about minorities’ plight…they believe, ‘Discrimination ended in the sixties, man’” (Bonilla-Silva 138).======

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As stereotyping bleaches the minds of our youth culture, filling them rather with the toxic distortions of the culture, races, and vocabulary of the world, we are in exchange oppressing their minds to one belief, that the white race, the way it looks and lives is the only way to succeed. We as parents, teachers, and role-models to our future generations are oppressing the minds of our children, molding these elements of culture into a bulk mass in their minds, by allowing these acts be stretched to meaninglessness in their minds in retaliation to human experiences of their suffering, and stereotyping (Frye 155). So how do we stop all of this? How do we as a society, replenish the minds of our youth with memorable experiences in their lives that aren’t infested with the lies, hatred, and violence toward the races among us? It is up to the individual. We as humans, civilized people among a planet shard by over 6 billion people of all different races and ethnicities must learn to accept people for who they are, what they stand for, and their purposes in life no matter how they look, talk, live, worship, or leave this planet. ======

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As our children grow old among us and we leave this planet, we may always wonder how we raised them, and how the experiences and impacts we left upon them have shaped them into the people they are today. However, it is also up to them to distinguish the right among the wrong. As Margaret Mead once said, “Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful” (“Margret Mead Quotes). We must take life one day at a time, and one person at a time. Children should not stereotype at first impression. It is up to them to find the true meaning behind the person who impacted their life, whether it was meaningful or not. As the 21 st century moves forward, and the youth culture grows larger and larger, we must prevent the past and break the racial boundaries that still exist, not only against people of different ethnicities, but also the racial boundaries between our own individual races. It is our time, the youth culture, to make the difference and change the racial boundaries that are existent in our world and culture, to turn a once misunderstood term into a term of the past, which will no longer exist in the vocabulary of our youth culture -- racism.====== 

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Patterson, Meagan M., and Rebecca S. Bigler. "Relations Among Social Identities, Intergroup Attitudes, and Schooling: Perspectives from Intergroup Theory and Research." __ Contesting Stereotypes and Creating Identities: Social Categories, Social Identities, and Educational Participation __. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. 66-87.======

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"St. Marys, Pennsylvania (PA 15857) Detailed Profile. __ Stats about all US cities - real estate, relocation info, house prices, home value estimator, recent sales, cost of living, crime, race, income, photos, education, maps, weather, houses, and more __. 2008. 24 Jan. 2009 .======