Talk:Ethnic stereotype

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Contents 1 Blacks good at music? 2 Examples of negative stereotypes 3 Repitition 4 Question 5 Majority

[edit] Blacks good at music?

I noticed someone edited that out. I won't edit back in, but if someone else wants to: The stereotype that blacks are good at music is an old American stereotype, back during the jazz and motown era. It's not common anymore and I don't know if it was ever outside of America. 71.246.228.4 23:12, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Examples of negative stereotypes

159753:I have put some non-American stereotypes on there. The Dutch stereotype of the Belgians are because of a joke:

What happened to a man from Maastricht (a city in southern Netherlands) went to Antwerp (a city in Flanders, Belgium)?

The average IQ in both cities went up!!

[edit] Repitition

I think there should be a distinction made between Lists and encyclopedia articles. Too many Wikipedia articles are being ruined by this sort of expansion.

This article orginally gave examples of some stereotypes; they're now being added to and it's starting to be a repeat of information already listed (and better placed) elsewhere.

If authors want to have lists within the article (there are often good reasons for this) then they should include a List Message. Perhaps if authors are only giving a couple of examples to make their point, they should stay away from bulleted lists?

At any rate, there are already too many lists of slurs and stereotypes. No need to repeat every one of them here. (I'm also concerned that such lists start to become less informational and more a repository of bigotry, but I don't know what we can do about that.

I have cut the lists, but am placing them here so the information is not lost. If anyone feels strongly that his addition is NOT adequately represented elsewhere, it can be included on one of the other lists, which I have given links to in the article.

Positive stereotypes:

• Jewish people in America tend to like lox and bagels. (Israeli and middle-eastern Jews, contrary to popular belief, don't have much of an affinity for them.)

• How can it be a positive stereotype to like lox? ;) 惑乱 分からん 18:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Examples of negative stereotypes:

• Americans are fat, insular & speak bad English.
• Arabs are terrorists.
• Poles are stupid.
• Frenchmen are rude and obnoxious.
• Englishmen are unemotional (a stiff upper lip) and have bad teeth.
• Scotsmen are tight (frugal).
• Italians are prone to criminal behaviour.
• Spanish are bad time-keepers.
• Belgians are thick (a Dutch stearotype).
• Swedes are sex-mad.
• African Americans cannot speak Standard English or arrive at appointments on time.
• Russians are communists & dull.
• Indians are either taxi cab drivers or convenience store clerks.
• Irish are drunkards and brawlers.
• Jews are greedy.
• White American southerners are ignorant and prejudiced.
• Mexicans are lazy.
• Asians can't drive or are preoccupied with technology.

Quill 21:09, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• Of course Swedes are sex-crazy, but that's not a unique trait to that nation... 惑乱 分からん 18:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Don't forget Germans being tall, blonde, blue-eyed and worshiping Hasselhoff, techno and beer! (I would know, I am one) Uber Cuber

[edit] Question

When it says, "Australians are good at sport", does this mean sport as in the sense of jokes or simply in the meaning of sports i.e. football etc.

Sports, btw, how would you say "An Australian is a good sport" in plural? 惑乱 分からん 18:58, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

In case anyone's confused by that opening comment here it's because when referring to sport in general, we Americans always say "sports" in the plural. (Our newspapers carry "sports" sections where UK ones carry "sport" sections, etc.) --66.195.208.113 04:26, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Majority

Are there examples of modern day stereotypes that are not based on the majority of an ethnic population? Like, I know most Latinos are Catholic, and that's a stereotype. And I know most Blacks have will go/have gone to prison, and thats a stereotype. But are there stereotypes that generalize the entire group based on a minority of the group? What is an example of this? - ShadowyCabal 12:56, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Aren't stereotypes mostly perceived on an image taken from either a few individuals, or personal misconceptions, later projected onto a whole ethnic group. If you "know", something, it would seem an oxymoron that you acknowledge it as a stereotype. I guess the examples you give are of the population in the United States. According to Hispanics#Religious_diversity, Catholicism is indeed the largest religion among Hispanics, so it doesn't seem to be a stereotype. According to African-american#Contemporary_issues, in 1995, one-third of African American men between the ages of 20 and 29 were under some form of criminal justice control. That's not a majority, even for young black males, although a significantly large part of the group. For a start, it could be mentioned that a stereotype is always a perception by outsiders, without particular insight into the culture. The question seems strangely posed. 惑乱 分からん 19:18, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

That's probably because of the punctuation -- the original statement could probably have used some scarequotes, like "I know 'most Latinos are Catholic' -- that's a stereotype." Even then it is a little clunky... --Lenoxus 04:31, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Stereotypes can have some truth to them. Quebecois are stereotyped as drinking Pepsi, for instance, and Quebec has a higher percentage of it's cola sales in Pepsi than any other province. You can find a verifiable example of that stereotyp ecoming up in I Am Not Canadian, for instance. Stereotypes are regardless of the truth - they don't need to be true or false. But they can be (and often are) exaggerations rather than outright falsehoods. WilyD 14:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

That's an important distinction — the difference between statistical facts (most X are Y) and unearned generalizations (all X are Y, and furthermore this is somehow embedded in the "collective personality" of Y). As for the first question in this section, it... seems to answer itself. All right then.— Lenoxus 02:15, 30 January 2007 (UTC)