Spotlight on Students: Stereotypes in America

The following piece was written by Anthropology student, Devin Scherbak, and is the result of an assignment given to my Anth/Soc 205 students in which they were to discuss modern stereotypes of an American minority group.  The purpose of the assignment was to determine the historical and modern significance of those stereotypes as a means of dispelling them and discovering the truth behind the lies that many Americans believe.  This is her work:

African American and black complected individuals are the second largest minority group in the United States, with 13.5% of the population in the US falling into the racial category of “Black” (O’Connor 2013).  Aside from making up a large proportion of the United States, this group was among the first to colonize the United States and made major contributions to the development of its culture through their labor, intellectual expressions, and artistic creations. However, due to the overpowering presence of racism in the dominant American culture, African Americans are mistreated and misrepresented (Brown, 171). Due to the negative views and actions inflicted on African American culture, stereotypes have been created and are used to categorize and alienate this group of people from the “White only” aspects of American society. With a lack of education and understanding, these stereotypes become the only “fact” that the dominant American culture knows, and as a result, the majority mistreats African American citizens through the means of institutional discrimination, popular media portrayals, and everyday forms of prejudice and hate.

            It is popularly believed that the majority of African American men are delinquents, and that they are more likely, by nature, to commit acts of crime and violence.  This is due to the statistic that African American men make up 1 million out of the 2.3 million inmate population in the Untied States (www.NAACP.org). With the amount of media coverage on minority arrests and incarcerations, it is no surprise that the majority of the nation believes this particular stereotype. However, upon closer examination, it is clear that a majority of the arrests made are due to racial profiling by the arresters themselves. There are many different examples of racial profiling in police work, but the one referred to the most is the crack cocaine possession laws and how it has affected the rate of incarceration among African American men. According to the NAACP statistic fact sheet, African Americans made up 80% of the sentenced individuals under the federal crack cocaine laws in 2002, but served longer terms than white individuals incarcerated for either the same or greater offences. However, the percentage of black users is so high because white cocaine users are not sentenced as often as black users. It is clear that white offenders of this law are being released sooner than their fellow black inmates and are suffering fewer consequences for their drug use and possession. Because of the amount of freed white crack users, they make up 2/3s of the actual possession and user population of crack cocaine. Regardless of the statistics however, black men still make up the largest part of the arrest population because police rarely pick up white cocaine users. Unfortunately, because of the existing stereotype, black men become the focus of most criminal activity, and as a result, make up the largest portion of the prison population and are seen as a danger.

            Another popular belief is that African American families are more dysfunctional and incomplete when compared to white households. This is an idea that has been circulated for as long as the division of whites and blacks has existed. During the years of slave ownership, it was very common for African Americans to be a part of single parent households. However, this was due to the fact that the husband component of the family would die young due to physical stress and over working. Thus, the stereotype of paternal absence and divorce in African American homes was born. Today, it is commonly believed that black marriages fail more frequently and that women are the sole guardians of their children. Although the statistic supports high divorce rates among black families, it is merely 5% above the white household average of divorce (US Census Bureau). This makes the divorce rate far too similar to the white rate and thus dismisses the notion that black families have a much higher tendency to fail. As a matter of fact, African Americans have a huge focus on family connections and bonds. African American families tend to place more focus on extended family relations and place a completely different form of importance on the extended family as apposed to other ethnic groups (Brown, 199). This type of family unit was created from Black culture during the slave-owning eras. Because of the single parent households that were developed, single mothers had to rely on grandparent type figures to help raise the family. The same still is true today as many African American families form tight bonds and support groups among their communities and relatives. So in reality, African American families are quite strong and tight knit, with support that extends outside of the home. The myth of dysfunction in the family unit is still present though, due to popular media depictions and the misuse of statistics. Upon closer inspection, it is clear that African Americans have very strong family ties.  

            Due to the overwhelming amount of racism in the United States, there are many inaccurate and negative views placed on the African American community. Regardless of the statistical evidence supporting that there is little difference between white and black drug addicts or white and black families, the majority of people still believe that black men and women are inherently different in mentality and behavior. But in reality, the only difference that exists between these demographics is skin color and culture.

Works Cited:

Brown, Susan L. "African Americans." Race and Ethnicity: The United States and The World. Second ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2012. 171. Print.

"Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." www.NAACP.org. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

O'Connor, Liz, Gus Lubin, and Dina Spector. "The Largest Ancestry Groups In The United States." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc., 13 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2013.

"How Divorce Rates Vary by Race and Ethnicity in the US." Divorcescience.org. n.p., 29 June 2012. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. * [I did not use any of the written materials. Because the US government is not active at the moment, I was unable to access the actual US Census Bureau’s website. I interpreted the line graph that was posted by the article author that was taken from the actual Census Bureau’s site.]