Stereo Types

Stereo Types


A stereotype is often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic (Woodstock, 2012). As an African American male, I’ve encountered many different stereotypes. One of the many experiences that come to mind is when I lived in South Korea for a year. I was lucky enough to get a nice military assignment in Seoul, South Korea to conduct military operations. The duties of my position allowed me to wear civilian attire, and live out on the economy as a normal person not affiliated with the military. With this came many odd looks and stereotypes. It usually occurred when shopping in the city. Most native Koreans know Basic English as it is taught in their school systems. The younger generation of Koreans is also huge fans of American pop/hiphop culture. From movies, music and fashion, you can see the western influence in the kids. Furthermore this led to many greetings that started with the following: “What up Yo?, Do You like rap music? Do you play basketball? and my favorite, do you know President Obama?” The argument used in most cases of stereotypes is deductive arguments. Our text states that a deductive argument is one that seeks to establish a conclusion on the basis of premises, with a tight connection between the premises and conclusion, (Mosser,2012). Based on the text, Hasty Generalization is used with this stereotype. For example from a Koreans perspective. I saw a big black guy. In the movies the big black guys are usually thugs, or play sports. Therefore the black guy I saw from the states must be a thug or play sports. The mistakes in this argument are that one has a generalized perception on black males (African Americans). This fallacy is committed when the conclusion is based on insufficient information: a generalization made too quickly (Mosser, 2012). Not all African Americans play sports and are thugs.
I am often guilty of Hasty Generalization arguments. I have this perception...

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