https://msc-technology.wikispaces.com/file/view/please-stereotype-me.jpg/54723694/please-stereotype-me.jpgStereotypes, stereotypes, stereotypes.. This word is really common especially last a few decades. You know, like everyone else I have some stereotypes too. But I cannot blame somebody for having some. Because humans have HUMAN MIND you know and human mind can fly anywhere, it is free, and there is no possible way to keep it in one way.
Let me explain this way: This summer, we went to one of our acquaintance's house. They live in the ground house and we were sitting at the table in front of the entrance of the building. Their building is next to another building which is used as a restaurant. And restaurant's entrance door and our buildings door is very close to each other. Because of the position of our door, restaurant's door wasn't seen as well and clear as ours. Consequently, people who wanted to get into the restaurant picked the 'obvious' door to enter.. Later on, we hung a sign on which it says the direction of the restaurant's door. But that didn't work either! People kept attempting to get in through our door. So, what does that show?
People act mostly with respect to their thoughts in their mind! No matter what we hung, they just kept trying to enter the restaurant through the wrong door. Once they have something in their mind, they become blind, they don't see anything else. And it is also like this on stereotypes. Everybody has them. Nobody could deny it.. I have an image in my mind and even if I whisper to myself that I can/should get this image out of my mind and observe the world objectively/without prejudice, I fail. Everybody fails. We try to take stereotyping under control but mostly we cannot do it. Because we have stereotyping within our heads!
The newspaper ZAMAN has had a motto recently: "Önyargılarımız, görünmeyen duvarlarımız", which can be translated as "Our prejudices, they are our invisible walls".
Although I never support this newspaper (because of their ideological background), I liked their motto.
To conclude, I state that stereotyping is natural for us. Nevertheless, I do not glorify it. Even we try to get rid of stereotypes, we will have them for ever. We will have them when a person talking with an eastern accent asks us an address on an empty street.. There is no way out.
However, I always trust in personal interaction. If we try to get to know somebody, if we talk to them face to face, then there is no more wall to crash on. The most important thing is to accept people individually and as they are, which should be an attempt to make for us like to try to throw our stereotypes away. If we attempt this, stereotypes will be able to disappear on their own, I guess.
What a great post! I love the way you used personal anecdote to illustrate a wider point about stereotyping..and I think you're right about all the points you made. I especially support your belief in personal interaction.
ReplyDeleteA few corrections:
...especially in the last few decades.
...one of our acquaintance's houses.
...They live on the ground floor
...the entrance to the building
Zaman's motto? or perhaps headline?
What would it signify to you if an easterner asked you for an address on an empty street? I didn't get the cultural stereotype here.
It was Zaman's motto? There has been a commercial recently and this sentence is stated in it.
ReplyDeleteAbout an easterner on an empty street.
Yu know, in Turkey, there is a huge unemployement in the east (and in the west as well but east is more rural and the birth rate is really high there). So, people migrate to the west. However, cities like Istanbul cannot provide so much for so many people. What do these people who migrated do? Either most of them get into the crime, or they sell drugs etc. the vast number of migrated people is from east and southeast.
So, if we see someone with an eastern accent, we think that they could be mugger. They could be dangereous.
There is another aspect of cultural stereotype about kurds too. Because of the terrorist organization PKK, people tend to see kurds or people with eastern accent as disloyal to the government, which however isn't true for all of them.
Of course, I'm aware of all those stereotypes about Easterners...I guess I was just confused by the "asking for an address" part..I guess by that you mean an example of a pretext for a mugging..
ReplyDeleteoh my God:) wrong preposition changes everything:D It should have been 'asking an address' rather than 'asking for an address' :))
ReplyDelete'asking for an address' would be weird right? :)
As soon as such a person asks an address, we could start thinking "oh, am I about to be mugged now?"
erm..well Can, you did write "ask an address" actually, but since that expression doesn't exist, I'm afraid I still have no idea what you mean...after your explanation, I assumed you meant someone would approach you and ask "Do you know where Asariye Caddesi is?" something like that...do you mean something else??
ReplyDeleteperhaps you mean "greet" - ! (e.g. "Merhaba"..)
ReplyDelete(my latest brainwave..)
hmm... I meant the first one:) somebody approaches you and asks where X is.. how do you call that ?
ReplyDeleteasking for directions...sometimes we also say asking the way :)
ReplyDelete