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Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 3327
Registered: 07-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 05:33 pm: | 
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Posted on Tue, Oct. 03, 2006
Stereotypes work against all of us
By Merlene Davis
HERALD-LEADER COLUMNIST
I was watching a John Stossel report on ABC's 20/20 recently and couldn't believe that what I was seeing still occurred.
Stossel was trying to take the covers off the myths and stereotypes that influence all of us.
It seemed to me that we could use some of his information to increase scores on the CATS tests and to close the achievement gap.
In one part of the report "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity," Stossel shows how what we say to or show people, old or young, before they take a test plays directly into how well they perform on that test.
For example, one of ABC's studies showed that women who watched a sexist ad about ditzy females scored 38 percent lower on a math test than women who didn't see it.
The women were more influenced by the negative image than they had realized.
If women who watched the ad were then reminded they were students at a prestigious women's school, the scores went up.
The same tests were conducted on Asians, some of whom were told Asians do well in math and some who were told they didn't. The same thing happened with them as with the women: The group that was told Asians do well in math scored better than the group that was told they didn't.
They then tried the experiment on blacks.
A professor who conducted the experiment said he could change the IQ test scores of blacks simply by calling the tests a puzzle.
The scores of black students increased significantly.
A psychologist at the University of Arizona did something different. He told black and white participants that the test was set up to measure some aspect of natural athleticism.
The psychologist said blacks performed much better on that test because they had heard blacks were good athletes.
But when the students were told the golf test was about intelligence, the scores of the black students dropped by 18 percent.
What we say so casually, so academically, sometimes becomes reality. If we continue to delineate students' test scores because of their economic status, because of free and reduced lunch designations, it becomes a self-fulling prophecy.
We all know that. We've been telling parents for decades not to call their children dumb or to beat down their spirits with negative comments.
And yet when we look at disparities in test scores for whites and minorities, for boys and girls, for the rich and poor, we shout out the differences over the TV and radio and in the newspaper.
Someone is listening.
None of the test participants could believe how easily or how deeply influenced they were by such innocent incidents.
But this has been going on for years, especially for minorities and women.
I remember a report in the 1950s by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark about how the self-image of black kids wasn't very high.
On several occasions and in various locales, the couple showed black and white children black dolls and white dolls and asked which was pretty, nice and bad.
To no one's surprise, the white children preferred the white dolls. To nearly everyone's surprise, 66 percent of the black children also preferred the white dolls, calling the black dolls bad.
Then the Clarks asked the black children to pick which doll looked more like themselves. Some picked the white dolls, some couldn't answer and some just broke down and cried.
Yes, you say, but that test was conducted more than 50 years ago. That was before desegregation and the civil rights movement. Things are better now.
Well, a similar test was conducted at a day care center in Harlem last year. The results were the same.
Black kids still see white as better. In fact, 15 of the 21 children preferred the white dolls.
When asked to pick the doll that most resembled themselves, the children hesitantly picked the black dolls.
Similar studies for Latino children showed the same thing: whiter, fairer skin was better.
Somewhere in those experiments and studies is the reason we have an achievement gap in our schools.
Somewhere in the way we continue to label our children according to their race, culture, sex and economic levels is the reason the learning gap isn't closing as fast as it should.
And, because there is no change in 50 years, nowhere in there is proof we want to change.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/15645377.htm |
Mony
Newbie Poster
Username: Mony
Post Number: 37
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 - 08:09 pm: |
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Sterotypes no matter how benign, are far from harmless, if one is incolcated with low self esteem espeacily if you are on the receiving end of particularly negatve ones. It takes strong willpower to overcome such abuse. Yes stereotypes do indeed stem form abuse whether from family or society at large. |
Misty
Regular Poster
Username: Misty
Post Number: 295
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 03:19 am: |
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very interesting
i always knew that what you were told about yourself affected how well you perfomed on things...but this is good proof that backs that idea up because you have alot of people who will try to deny it and simply label this another excuse for blacks to fail. |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 3329
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 03:57 am: |
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Exactly Misty. That's exactly why I found it interesting.
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Renata
Veteran Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1427
Registered: 08-2005
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 10:21 am: |
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THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!!!!
I remember something Kola said once, and I can't remember if it was here or in her book: how we tell daughters that women have bad attitudes and are only good for having children, and wonder why they turn 13 and are angry and act out that stereotype.
Which reminds me....a few friends of my mother used to tell her that they didn't want daughters because they only bring home a lot of babies. My mother didn't agree with that. ALL of their daughters now have a lot of children. My sister and I don't (my sister is 29 and still has no children and no plans to have any soon. I had mine at 30 and still think I'm too young to have a baby, I should have waited at least until 35). This is the attitude those mothers had before their children turned 10.
Anyways, maybe they thought it would be OK for them to have a lot of children, since it was expected of them anyways. |
Urban_scribe
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Urban_scribe
Post Number: 118
Registered: 05-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 11:40 am: |
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I remember watching an interview with John Singleton shortly after "Boyz in the Hood" was released. Singleton had said that he'd been recently approached by a Black teenage male who told him after seeing the film he went home and told his mother to stop calling him a motherfucker because if she called him that then that's what he'll be.
Some years ago, one of my co-workers was pregnant. She was a devout Christian. During her lunch hour she would go into the lounge and read the bible aloud to her baby - still in vitro. I asked her why did she do this and she said because she wanted her baby to grow up loving God. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5375
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 12:19 pm: |
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Thoughts are things. Words are weapons. The power of suggestion is amazing. But the down side to positive reinforcement became apparent when a generation of children who, in order to give them a high sense of self esteem did not have their shortcomings called to their attention. When they got out into the real world, they were totally at a loss upon discovering that they were incapable of competing or efficiently doing what was expected of them. |
Chrishayden
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Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2814
Registered: 03-2004
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 12:22 pm: |
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Stereotypes don't work against the people who are using them to psyche out the targets of the stereotypes.
They know what they are doing, waging psychological war on the people they are using them against.
Rather than hope that nobody uses stereotypes against you you need to man up and get strong and get ready to resist them when they come.
This study just proved that most people are too stupid to live--but if the last few years in this country haven't convinced you of that then there is no hope for you. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6525
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 01:19 pm: |
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Chris,
I basically believe the only TRUE way you can defy this form of psychological warfare is to recognize what's going down and construct and live one's life in a way that greatly REDUCES one's exposure to such. Because not matter how strong willed one is, eventually ALL of us will to some degree begin to believe and accept what we see, hear and experience all the time.
The PROBLEM is that is incredibly DIFFICULT to do these days. Especially with the merging/blending of media platforms and genres.
I preface what follows by saying I'm NOT villify hip-hop: For example, even if I attempt to limit and regulate my kids exposure to elements of hip-hop I deplore, there's still so much of such seeping into areas that you can not easily antipate and predict they will venture into. |
Va_sis
Regular Poster
Username: Va_sis
Post Number: 141
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 01:45 pm: |
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It's not what you say, but how you say it.
In regards to Renata's comment, there is NOTHING wrong with being cognizant of teen pregnancy and what that means if you have daughters. Perhaps your mom's friends fell short in providing intervention and nurturing as well as the warnings.
I don't believe in sugar-coating a damn thing. That being said, when I shoot straight from the hip with my son, I also lay out the options for him to avoid the pitfalls & stereotypes, AND I provide him with the means unconditionally. |
Renata
Veteran Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 1428
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 - 09:38 pm: |
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In Mississippi, girls are just EXPECTED to have a lot of kids. I don't think they try to prevent as they probably just think it's inevitable.
Chris, what you say makes a lot of sense....for adults. I think a big issue is that these stereotypes are usually pushed onto children before they know how to fight them. If enough adults think it's true, it must be so. By the time they get to an age where they think on their own, they've already thought the surrounding adults beliefs so long that they're their own thoughts as well. |
Va_sis
Regular Poster
Username: Va_sis
Post Number: 143
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 05, 2006 - 09:03 am: |
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Renata,
that may very well be a southern, or southern transplant, thing. People that come from large families usually want large families themselves without any regard to financial and emotion strains.
I knew a guy who had 12 brothers & sisters. When I met him, he only had one child. Before long, he had three more and said that he loved kids and wanted lots of them....but wound up in prison. I come from a small-ish family, and I don't want anymore kids. I've found that people usually emulate their parent's lives- in relationships and child rearing.
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