Response to “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments”
Stereotyping is a problem that we face perpetually in the world today, and it is somehow, ingrained in nearly every facet of culture and life in general. As people we find it easy to keep our standard perceptions of everything and a lot of the time it hinders us from realizing the true individual. Robert L. Heilbroner, in his essay “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments”, exposed the social problem of Stereotyping and explained the causes and effects of stereotyping each other. Heil who was a Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York for over fifty years uses the combination of rhetorical strategies and vivid examples and suggests that as people, we need to shift away from stereotyping each other and truly open ourselves to the observation of the human being.
Heilbroner, in his essay discusses how stereotypes cause us to prejudge different types of people in the world before actually getting to know them. He states examples of how names and nationalities could cloud our judgments, explaining that it saves us the trouble of finding out what people and the world are really like. He goes on to say that stereotypes are a kind of gossip which helps us make sense of our abstract world. Heil says that our upbringing affects the way we view our world and all the components in it. We begin to typecast in our childhood, Heil explains and adds that we grow up with standardized pictures forming inside of us. He states that the danger lies in letting stereotypes control our actions and beliefs, whether taught or self learned.
The Essay on Scottish People Stereotyping Differences Prejudice
Ra Stereotyping is a way of thinking about groups of people. It ignores the differences of the group, while emphasizing its similarity. One belief, that is a stereotype, is that red-haired people are hot tempered. Another belief is that Scottish people are stingy. Such thinking ignores many even-tempered redheads and generous Scottish people. Stereotyping emphasizes many differences between groups ...
The author also points out the role media plays in promoting this problem. He says that stereotypes are also perpetuated by the advertisements we read, the movies we see and the books we read. He explains that with all the misconception that relays, it forces the public to accept it as fact. The author concludes by providing some suggestions to help ourselves disconnect from this way of thinking. He suggests that “becoming suspicious of judging” and becoming aware of the generalization of people could help us avoid stereotyping others.
Heil effectively hooks his readers while introducing the topic of his article. He starts up with some rhetorical questions for the readers like “Does the fact that someone wears glasses imply that he is intelligent” (pg 363, n.d).
The rhetorical strategy which Heil adopted works very well as the reader instantly relates to these questions and realizes how prevalent stereotyping is in our everyday lives. He further provides us with some statistics proving how stereotyping is spread all over our society and the teenagers as well. He gives an example of how people typecast swarthy and dark, foreign looking people to be “suspicious characters” whereas in the testimony of criminologists, criminals do not tend to be dark , swarthy or wild-eyed. Such evidences given by the author makes the readers curious about the article and it develops the eagerness among the readers to read the article further. Additionally, it gives the reader an idea of what the author is going to talk about in his article.
Heil successfully puts across his argument against stereotyping. Firstly, he explains the causes of stereotyping. According to Heil, every person begins to typecast in his or her childhood and starts to grow up with standardized pictures inside of us. The stock joke a person hears repeatedly throughout his life also feeds the growth of stereotypes. Heil states an example of how a child learns to differentiate between a good guy and a bad guy from the TV series he or she watches. Thus, Heil proves how media plays a crucial role in the development of stereotypes in our society. By listing such causes and evidences, Heil lays a foundation to further argue on the drawbacks or effects of such stereotypes in our lives. He continues, by stating that stereotypes help us to make sense of our abstract world and thus, we start to develop standard perceptions for all the kinds of people. He supports this by giving an example of how people consider all Latinas as “excitable” or all teenagers as “wild”. He goes on to say that presence of such stereotypes teaches us to behave in stereotyped fashion with different types of people. He further argues that stereotypes hinders an individual from seeing the true world and makes him or her “mentally lazy”. Hence, it impoverish one’s own self as he fails to admit and understand the realities of the world around him. Therefore, Heil presents an effective argumentative article where he states the drawbacks of typecasting and how it affects us. Another aspect which makes his article persuasive is the strategy of suggesting some solutions to help ourselves disconnect from stereotyping.
The Essay on Intended Effect Article Writer Reader
ARTICLE 1. 1. State the type of text- letter to the editor, editorial etc. - In her letter to the editor titled, "Don't dump waste", L. Bourke argues, claims, asserts, advocates, contends... Writer's main contention- state the writers main contention and mention a couple of the main reasons given to support his contention. - the author supports this view by highlighting - claims that - asserts ...
Heilbroner’s article is well organized and present valid ideas on stereotyping that most people do not necessarily notice. He may not be a total expert on the subject but he makes valid points and is familiar with the statistics that further prove upon his point of view. Heil is against stereotypes but at the same time, is also trying to break the perpetual conditioning of the minds to which the world succumbs.
