Stereotyping 

According to the website Quebec.ca, Stereotypes are characteristics that society instinctively attributes to groups of people to classify them according to age, weight, occupation, skin color, gender, etc. Sexual stereotyping involves associating girls and boys with separate and, at times, opposing sets of characteristics.

 

When a child sees a stereotyped image over and over or hear something stereotyping his culture, again and again, that will automatically affect his perception of himself and the world around. Impacting negatively his identity.  For example, on TV and socio-media, stories about black people are mostly about crimes, drugs, gangster life etc. that situation empowers this quick classification of black African American as people who are citizens of second-zone. And most of the black children grow up in that stereotyped net because they hear it from the music and the politicians, they read it in their textbooks and Novels and they see it in their films and commercials

 

Framing describes the practice of thinking about news items and story content within familiar. context. Framing is related to the agenda-setting tradition but expands the research by focusing on the. essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic.

It is not justifiable for a person from one culture to encourage a person from another culture to disregard his or her own cultural values for the simple reason that all culture matters and valuable. 

        Ethno-centricsm: liam G Summer defines it as “view of things in which one’s own group is the center of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.” 

 

For more than 100 years, Thousands of native American children were ripped from their families and sent to boarding schools to be “civilized “among them was Denis Banks. He became the founder of the American Indian movement. Here is his what he says about the way the U.S government framed their education at the boarding schools: “They wanted to destroy our identity. They put us on this boarding school, I'm one of them that they put in these boarding schools. They said they will destroy and kill the Indian in order to save the man.  Over 100,000 children were taken from their homes. I was living with my mum and my grandma. They came and took me away from them. We were taken by force from our mothers and fathers, from our grandparents. That destroyed the language, the songs.  I couldn't sing any native song anymore. I couldn't speak any native language, the vernacular would be English and English only. There was Corporal punishment at the boarding schools for doing otherwise. I would never forgive the U.S government for allowing a policy like that to be inflicted upon us.  Centuries after, the historical trauma is still with us till today and will be carried on the next generation.” 

 

Media framing theory is the idea that an article is constructed in a certain way to convey a particular message; the way in which a reporter organizes the information, chooses what information to include and how it is worded is how it can be framed. Olasunkanmi Arowolo (2017) said "Frames can be defined as organizing ideas or themes, ways of linking together stories historically, building up a narrative over time and across political space"

 

Personally as a black man, I’m always surprised to see that there’re people of other culture who will love black music but don't love black people. They want to hear it but they don't want to fund the schools that have the music programs that will later help the students to turn into the next great musicians. In movies, I see white people in mostly honorable roles, like heroes and their princesses, doctors etc. But when it comes to people of color it is mostly roles that goes along with the stereotypes.  The popular culture and Media shape how we understand reality. I think by voicing more and more about stereotypes and valuating other people cultures and worldviews, I can become a diversity ally in my sphere of influence. 

 

 

References: Quebec.ca, heathychildren.org, “framing effects” by L.WAYS