Passage Two

Consequences of Stereotypes

1．The actions taken or facilitated by cultural stereotypes are not often so benign or neutral as may have been suggested thus far．Stereotypes are frequently negative，and because a culture bases its actions upon beliefs and values which characterize the cultural mindset，negative stereotypes can be associated with actions of an exceedingly negative，harmful nature—ugly emotions and even worse behavior．

2．The American civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s dramatically demonstrated to the world that non-white American ethnic groups，in being considered inferior human beings by a large proportion of the white majority，had suffered through centuries of horrible social and economic victimization．Conversely，the narrow view of whites as a group of racist exploiters，termed“honkies”by some non-whites during the last quarter century，had led to a hardening of racial resentments by both groups．It is clearer now than it once was that the oversimplification of characteristics of any race of people into a narrow，negative stereotype can have tragic consequences．Black Americans were enslaved through three-quarters of a century during which the United States Constitution guaranteed basic human rights．Characterizations of Orientals in popular books and movies of the 1920s and 1930s as vicious，rat-like sneaks，part of a world-wide“yellow peril”^[6]may have unconsciously been one reason why more than 100，000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in American concentration camps during the Second World War and might even have strongly contributed to the causes that led to the outbreak of that war．Germans，believing Jews to be pollutants of the Aryan master race，stood by passively while the Nazis systematically butchered six million men，women and children．

3．A second danger of stereotyping is not quite as obvious as these actions because it is often the result of popular stereotypes which are neutral or even somewhat positive in nature．Yet this danger is responsible for a great deal of frustration and unhappiness．Essentially，this second danger results from the fact that stereotypes are not merely descriptions of the way a culture views a specific group of people，but are also often prescriptions as well—thumbnail sketches of how a group of people is perceived and how members of that group perceive themselves．Stereotyping is，as we have seen，a natural ordering function of the human and social mind:stereotypes make reality easier to deal with because they simplify the complexities that make people unique，and this simplification reflects important beliefs and values as well．These two characteristics combined mean that a society has two powerful motives to encourage people to“live up to their stereotypes”:to encourage them to act like the images a culture already has of them(popular culture is conservative)and to thereby fulfill their proper social roles．In other words，stereotypes encourage people to internalize a cultural image，as their goal—a task which may be convenient for the culture(and especially for the power structure status quo)but this proves to be both impossible and damaging to the individuals being asked to mold themselves in such a narrow manner．

4．As human beings，each of us has a seemingly infinite number of choices about what kind of person we want to be．In fact，most of us choose to be several kinds of persons—efficient at the office，sloppy around the house，formal with our boss，loose and vulgar with our friends，warm and loving with our parents—we enjoy wearing different personalities for different occasions．If we accept someone else's stereotyped image of what we ought to be，even if the image is a positive one，we sadly，perhaps even tragically，limit the choices that are such a wonderful part of our humanity，and confine ourselves to being narrow and standardized．We become less human and more like robots．For example，the current national stereotype of the attractive woman being pencil-thin and the fads that accompany this stereotype dramatically illustrates this danger．For the woman who comes to fully embrace this stereotype as valid and adopts it for herself，the symbol of her robotization is the self-destructive anorexia-nervosa^[7]，and if accepted fanatically enough，it is the ultimate symbol of dehumanization and death．

Questions for Understanding

1．What might a(negative)stereotype result in according to paragraph 1?

2．According to paragraph 2 who might easily stereotype whom?Why?

3．If you compare the Jews'history in Germany and the Asians in the United States，what conclusion can you draw about stereotype?

4．Judging from paragraph 4，what philosophy do you think the author validates about human beings?

5．Does the author make a suggestion that people should choose to be a stereotyped person?Give your reason．

【注释】

[1]poetics:《诗学》，亚里士多德著。

[2]formalist(m):形式主义，和“新批评”一脉相承，强调文本至高无上的地位，避免作品批评的审美化和道德化，其代表人物是俄国的谢克罗夫斯基(Shklovsky)、穆卡洛夫斯基(Mukarovsky)和雅科布森(Jacobson)。

[3]poststructuralist:后结构主义，和结构主义分庭抗礼，认为“结构”本身并没有“中心”、“稳固”之类的东西，而是意识形态在语言中的反映。后结构主义强调交际主体的主观能动性，交际者是知识的源泉，所有知识都先于主体的经验而存在。

[4]Mikhail Bakhtin:米卡尤·巴赫金，俄国符号学家、批评家，以“复调理论”、“狂欢理论”而闻名。

[5]mental cookie cutter:千篇一律的或俗套的思想(观点)。

[6]yellow peril(yellow terror):黄祸或黄色恐怖，种族主义术语。19世纪末华人工人不断输出，美国以及其他西方国家开始担忧华人的大量涌入会给他们带来威胁，因此产生了一种反华人、排斥华人，以及鄙视所有黄皮肤的亚洲人的思想。美国1882年出台的排华法案(Chinese Exclusion Act)就是最有力的证明。

[7]anorexia-nervosa:(医)神经性食欲缺乏。