Are Those Racial Images in Our Mind Positive or Negative?
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Are Those Racial Images in Our Mind Positive or Negative?
What are the images in your mind when you think about other specific race? Rarely
in today’s California is some discriminated actions happen in our life; however, it is known
that people are still making some judgments and assumptions based on race, even though
they do not realize it. As we are thinking about a specific race, we always have some racial
images in our mind. Not all the people do so, but most of us do it. The prejudice basically is
coming from assumption that we believe that there is a high percentage of a specific race to
do a specific action. Particularly, we think most of the people of this race are doing this action;
then, we assume the person in front of us will do this action because of his or her race. This
action becomes a racial image in other mind when we meet a person, even though the person
in front of us may not practice this action. “Racial stereotypes are automatic and exaggerated
mental pictures that we hold about all members of a particular racial group” (“Overcoming
Racial Sterotypes,” n.d.). However, it is not possible for us to know every member from a
racial group and calculate the percentage; the main sources of those assumptions may come
from media and our experience. In some case, those racial image is positive, which could be a
positive signal of multiculturalism. In other cases, there are also people who have negative
racial images; then it becomes a prejudice on a specific race, which could be one of the
potential causes of segregation.
I have done an interview, and the person of interest is one of my roommates who is a
Muslim American Alkin Sen. The interview focused on the stereotypes on races and also the
different racial images that people have on our different races and how they affect us socially
and also personally. I broke the interview into three part racial images we have on Asian and
Muslim, and racialism statue in San Diego. During the interview, I question him about the
Are Those Racial Images in Our Mind Positive or Negative?
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racial images that he may have when he thinks about Asian people and what racial images he
think people may have on Muslim. The information I gather from the interview and
experiences will illustrate well how does those racial images works and where they are
rooted.
The interview was a conversation between two persons from different minority
group (Asian, Muslim). Alkin Sen, my roommate, is from Turkey, a Muslim dominated
country. He identifies himself as a Muslim. He, however, does not believe or practice the
Muslim religion. He is pursuing a master’s degree in computer science major at USCD, and
he is 25 years old. I, Zikai Chen, am from China. I am 21 years old. I identify myself as an
Asian.
The reading From Model Minority to Problem Minority gives an excellent example of
how the media enhances and build negative racial images in people’s mind. Also the reading
American Apartheid Cambridge: Harvard UP. 1-16 argues about the residential segregation
problem, which could be an adverse effect of the racial images that different people may have.
At the same time, racial perceptions could also have a positive impact on people. It means
that minority groups have gotten acceptance by majority groups who have disregarded their
racial images. It should be a path in solving the issue addressed by The West and the Rest. I
will use those readings to discuss the effects on those racial images.
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Causes of Racial Images
During the interview, I asked him about racial images in his mind when he first met
me. He said: “ China is rich doing well on Economy. This is the first thing coming into my
mind.” “I am not rich, and most of the Chinese are not rich.” Then, I ask him about how he
comes out this image. He answered he walked in the campus seeing that many Chinese
Are Those Racial Images in Our Mind Positive or Negative?
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students in the campus driving a nice car wearing some expensive clothes.
It is nearly impossible for us to calculate how much percentages members from this
racial group are likely to do this action. Particularly, Alkin is not able to know how many
people are rich in China. The fact is that China has a very low GPD per person. What brings
Alkin this racial image in his mind is his experience in UCSD. Studying abroad, especially in
UCSD, for a Chinese student, a strong financial support from family is needed; therefore,
mostly, Chinese students who studies in UCSD has a rich family. Does it make any sense to
link Chinese to rich? No. If Alkin was studying in China, he will not have this image in his
mind. The experience is that he have met so many Chinese students in the UCSD and he
made assumption that he or she (a Chinese student) is rich; then, mostly he figured out his
assumption was true later on. When this experience happens again and again, a racial image
toward Chinese will be form in his mind. This is an illustration of how our experience may
sometimes bring us a prejudice on a specific race.
I still remember the day I first met my roommate Alkin Sen. I asked him a lot of
questions about the Muslim religion and other political issues because I only found out that
he was Muslim. I already had racial images in my mind just thinking of his background. The
images I had were sensitive and also political; I also thought about the Muslim religious
practices. I had never been to the Middle East or any Muslim dominated country. I, however,
could not pinpoint how I had that race image in my mind. There One of the popular ways of
creating images about other races is through media. Nader gives an example of the 18th
century and how the media put out ideas and stories that Arabs were killers. Since then
people have had the assumption that all Arab Americans are terrorists. However, what was
presented on the TV is just some area in the world and some of the Arab people. It means that
this image has been created by the actions some of the Muslim people but not most of the
Are Those Racial Images in Our Mind Positive or Negative?
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Muslim people. Media has played an enormous role in creating these racial images in peoples
mind. When those images are positive or negative the effect is also positive or negative
correspondingly.
I asked Alkin to say some word in his mind when he think about Asian. He said
“ smoking, small size and noodles.” The most common racial images linked to Asian are
weak because most of the Asian is smaller in size than White and Black. Smoking is another
image that people have about Asians because there are many Asian smokers. Also, image that
many Chinese eat noodles because they originated from Asian countries. Some of the racial
images are mainly positive, which means people want to know more about my culture. Some
of them could also have a prejudice against my race because of other images that they may
have within them.
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Positive and Negative Effects
Racial images may create segregation of certain race if the images are negative.
Residential segregation could cause a “culture of poverty,” which is the “Patterns of
behaviour inconsistency with socioeconomic advancement (Massey & Nancy, n.d. p. 5). This
segregation is seen in different races like for example with the African American people they
have been stereotyped to being violent and not following rules and also more chance to
commit crimes. This has led to people avoiding living areas where there are African
American people. This also happens to the Muslim people in America. The media does not
help because they have already portrayed them as terrorists.
There could also be a positive signal or show that some majority groups have groups
have become more accepting of the minority groups. Hall addresses the issue that “the West
produced many different ways of talking about itself and "the Others” (1996, pg 225). When
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racial images are positive, it brings about acceptance and multiculturalism in society. If the
images that people have when thinking of other races were good images like food, the world
would be a better place. This is a trend that people are slowly learning and starting to
embrace other cultures and race. When this trend continues the sense of itself and “the other”
will be weakened.
To sum up the interview, I asked Alkin a question about how he felt about diversity and
racism statue in San Diego. He answered: “ It is great hear, nearly no racism and
discrimination here. For the racial images question, I believe that more people wanting to
learn about different culture instead to have a prejudice or being racism.” Positive racial
images will bring up a positive effect and negative will bring up a negative effect. We both
believe that in San Diego right now the way positive is much greater than the way negative.
Granted that there are still some racial prejudice exist in San Diego, most of the time, San
Diego is diverse and very open to every race right now.
Are Those Racial Images in Our Mind Positive or Negative?
Reference
Hall, Stuart. 1996. “The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power.” In Modernity: An
Introduction to Modern Societies, edited by Stuart Hall, David Held, Don Hubert, and
Kenneth Thompson. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. 185–227.
Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy A. Denton. American Apartheid Cambridge: Harvard UP.
1-16.
Naber, Nadine. 2012. “From Model Minority to Problem Minority.” Arab America New
York, NY: NYU Press. 25-61.
Overcoming Racial Stereotypes. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://ucc.nd.edu/self-help/multicultural-awareness/overcoming-stereotypes/
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