Career Crossing 2

Seeing the video about the African woman and her encounters with One Stories was interesting and did give me a new perspective on stereotypes. It is true that everyone has their own stories and that we can't generalize or assume things about people because of their race or where they come from. However, I think we use stereotypes as a way to relate to others who seem foreign to us or who we are not familiar with. If I met someone from a different country, I would immediately try to picture their country from what I knew of it. This could be a stereotypical image of the country, but it would be all I knew and was a way for me to relate to this person. Not everyone is able to go to every country and be able to have first hand experiences with every place to form their own opinions. This is why we resort to stereotypes. No one can meet every single person and hear each individual story so we generalize Americans, Europeans, Africans, etc. This is not to be racist or judgmental but just a way to feel like we know a little bit about everyone else in the world. Stereotypes don't just come out of nowhere, they are formed for a reason. That does not mean that everyone fits into the stereotype but that for the most people that is how people are.