Avoiding Creating and Perpetuating Negative Stereotypes
by Numair A. Choudhury

Many of the assumptions we make tend to foster stereotypes. When we communicate our assumptions to students we inculcate and foster stereotypes if our assumptions can be used to generalize about those who are different. Here are some commonly held assumptions that can lead to stereotypes

• That only men hold influential jobs
• That children are cared for by their mothers only
• That men head all families and are the major wage earners
• That certain professions are reserved for one sex
• That women perform all work related to homemaking
• That women are possessions of men and are not responsible for their actions
• That only welfare women are single mothers
• That men have no parenting, nurturing, or homemaking skills
• That only minority males are violent or crude
• That certain ethnicities or races are fundamentally less capable than Caucasians; or that any race is superior to any other
• That only persons with disabilities are dependent on others
• That men are independent and women are dependent
• That homosexuals do not make good parents

When we are talking of stereotypes and the results of stereotyping we need to insure that we are discussing them properly. To assist in this process we should insure that we are defining our terms in the same way. The Harvard Guidebook provides the following helpful definitions

• Ethnocentrism: Inability to accept another culture's worldview; "my way is the best."
• Discrimination: Differential treatment of an individual due to minority status; actual and perceived; e.g., "we just aren't equipped to serve people like that."
• Stereotyping: Generalizing about a person while ignoring the presence of individual difference; e.g., "she's like that because she's Asian—all Asians are nonverbal."
• Cultural Blindness: Differences are ignored and one proceeds as though differences did not exist; e.g., "there's no need to worry about a person's culture—if you're a sensitive teacher, you do okay."
• Prejudice: Prejudgment on insufficient grounds; can be positive or negative.
• Bigotry: More intensive forms of prejudice and carries the negative side of prejudgment.
• Stereotyping: Attributing characteristics to a group simplistically and uncritically.
• Discrimination: The act or practice of according differential treatment to persons on the basis of group categories such as race, religion, sex, class.
• Scapegoating: Assigning blame or failure to persons or groups in place of other persons or groups to whom blame or failure actually belongs.
• Racism: A set of attitudes, behaviors, and social structures that differentiates on the basis of race. It involves Power, the capacity to make and enforce decisions is disproportionately or unfairly distributed, and Cultural Imposition, the belief that everyone should conform to the majority; e.g., "we know what's best for you, if you don't like it you can go elsewhere."

Specific Techniques for Helping to Eliminate Stereotyping in the Classroom

• Avoid universal generalizations about any social group. Base your general statements on accurate information. Encourage your students to do the same.
• Respect all students. Avoid humor that demeans other people on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, physical appearance, or physical ability.
• Find a comfortable alternative to using generic masculine terms such as "man," "guys," or "he" to refer to people of both sexes. They tend to render women invisible.
• When illustrating a point with examples, avoid stereotypes such as making all men authority figures and all women subordinates.
• Choose course material that does not perpetuate sex stereotypes.
• If you must use course material that deprecates or ignores one gender or another, be clear with your students about why the material warrants their consideration.
• Monitor your behavior as a teacher, and observe yourself for the following patterns:
  • Do you give more time to men than to women students?
  • Do you treat men more seriously than women?
  • Do you assume a heterosexual model when referring to human behavior?
  • Are you systematically more attentive to questions, observations, and responses made by men?
  • Do you direct more of your own questions, observations, & responses to men than to women?

Rhetoric 1302 particularly focuses on identifying assumptions. Instructors need be aware of their own demeanor and the example they set. In addition to obsolete assumptions, it is easy to make the following assumptions about diverse students, which are generally untrue:

• Students do not always feel comfortable asking for help. Actually, many are willing to ask for help if they think it is safe.
• Students from certain groups are not intellectual, are irresponsible, are satisfied with below average grades, lack ability, have high ability in particular subject areas, etc. Most college students are socialized to seek high grades when they think they are possible.
• If students are absent, you should show concern about their absence when they return by asking if things are alright with them. If there are repeated absences, you should request a meeting with the student to discuss the situation. Some students will not want to share with you reasons for their absences, particularly if they believe that you will denigrate them for, for example, following cultural or religious practices that require their presence at home during the school week.
• Students from certain backgrounds (e.g., students from urban or rural areas, students who speak with an accent, students from specific racial or ethnic groups) are poor writers. Actually there are good and poor writers from all diverse groups.
• Poor writing suggests limited intellectual ability. Some brilliant engineers and mathematicians are not good writers.
• Students whose cultural affiliation is tied to non-English speaking groups are not native English speakers or are bilingual. Some Hispanics have been in the U.S. for 500 years and have spoken English for most of that time.
• Students who are affiliated with a particular group (gender, race, ethnicity, etc.) are experts on issues related to that group and feel comfortable being seen as information sources to the rest of the class and the instructor who are not members of that group. AND/OR European American students do not have opinions about issues of race or ethnicity, and members of other groups do have opinions about these issues. The exact opposite may be true.
• All students from a particular group share the same view on an issue, and their perspective will necessarily be different from the majority of the class who are not from that group. In reality, opinions may be very diverse.
• In their reading, students will relate only to characters that resemble them.
• Students from certain groups are more likely to be argumentative or contentious during class discussions OR not participate in class discussions OR bring a more radical agenda to class discussions. This may be partially true if it is part of the culture in which they are brought up.

Provided by:
Numair A. Choudhury, who is studying for a Ph. D, in Aesthetic Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas. He was born in Bangladesh. Prior to UTD he studied and loved creative writing at Oberlin College, Ohio, and then at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.