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These are ideas held by some individuals about members of particular groups, based solely on membership in that group. They are often used in a negative or prejudicial sense and are frequently used to justify certain discriminatory behaviors. More benignly, they may express sometimes-accurate folk wisdom about social reality. Stereotyping of certain ethnic groups is a form of discrimination. Stereotyping may lead to poor self-esteem, social and work place discrimination and prevent or hamper assimilation into the host society (Kamaldeep et al, 2005). Many white people, when asked to describe themselves, do not list the colour of their skin; their whiteness if invisible. Contrary to this it has been suggested that considering the black-African as the ?other?, with their higher prevalence rates of schizophrenia, strengthens the ?self? of the white person. This form of stereotyping compounds ethnocentricity and thus becomes another form of racism (Kelleher, 1996).
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype
Related terms: Cultural Relativism Discrimination Marginalisation Racism Social Exclusion |
