1.

Executive Summary:

Stereotype and racism has been part of the American culture for so many years.

Unconsciously, we are thought to either accept people who look different then us,

or to look down upon them. Each family, culture, religion may have different

norms in what is right or wrong. As a Hispanic woman, growing up in America,

coming from an immigrant family, Spanish being my first language, it was very

difficult for me to find acceptance in this society. My English is not perfect,

especially growing up, trying to pronounce certain words, my native language just

would not allowed it. Trying to find acceptance, or trying to fit in into different

groups was very difficult. As a child is when I became aware of stereotype, and

racism. Even within my own family. This webpage is about some of the biggest

issues in our society when it comes to stereotyping and racism. Here, I have

provided theoretical background, empirical evidence, lessons that have been

learned, and what are some best practices on how to change our problem.

2. Statement of Problem/ Theoretical Background:

We tend to make social decisions about others by categorization, it is default,

unconscious, automatic, and lead to biases, mostly bad. Some of the reasons are;

implicit associations (media, conditioning, socialization), aversive isms, how we

identified as us versus them. We might categorized us or them as being cool,

indirect, or ambivalent by favoring in-group, and reject the out-group. Other

issues that interfere with our judgment are norms, society gives value to groups

such as poor, rich, gender, or race. By some counts, 80% of the populations of

Western democracies harbor benign intentions about intergroup relations but

 display subtle forms of bias. Subtle form of bias are automatic, unconscious, and

unintentional (Fisk, 2015).

3. Empirical Evidence:

Dr. Tiffany Yip is a professor at Fordham University, her major research interest

are in ethnic identity development among minority youth, young adults, and

adults. Direct and indirect association between ethnic identity and psychological

adjustment. The impact of ethnic- specific and general stressors for well-being

outcomes. She conducted a study that explores disidentification. To Be or Not to

Be: How Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes Influence, Ethnic/Racial Disidentification and

Psychological Mood Ethnic/racial disidentification is defined as psychological

distancing from a threatened social identity to preserve a positive sense of self.

The first study goal was to explore how daily ethnic/racial stereotype appraisal is

related to ethnic/racial disidentification. The second goal was explore the

association between disidentification and psychological mood. In both cases,

centrality and private regard were considered individual differences that might

moderate daily associations. Method: Ethnic/racial minority young adults (Mage

20.63 years, SD1.49; N 129) completed a 21-day daily diary, including

ethnic/racial stereotype appraisal, ethnic/racial disidentification, and mood. At the

end of the study, participants completed measures of ethnic/racial centrality and

private regard. Results: The effect of daily stereotype appraisal on

disidentification depended on feelings of centrality and private regard. Young

adults reporting high centrality and high private regard reported higher

disidentification on days on which they reported more stereotype appraisal. These

 same young adults also reported higher negative mood on days on which they

reported disidentification. Young adults reporting high private regard reported

less positive mood on days on which they reported disidentification, whereas

those reporting low private regard reported more positive mood (Yip, 2015).

Look up full taxt of article.

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=9b90f32b-

5901-4170-9edc-2e2a3e96ed1d%40sessionmgr103

4. Lessons Learned:

We have learned that stereotypes and racisms is something that we learned, were

not born into this world automatically not liking a particular race. It can be

something that as children it was resembled in your family. Unconsciously, the

brain starts to form bias norms about others. It can also be manifested due a

negative and damaging experienced, that makes you more aware of this certain

race in a negative way. For example, I have a friend that recently got in to a car

accident in an area that is not so safe. This particular area in the city is considered

a low social economics society. Meaning that there are a lot of prostitutes, African

American, and Hispanic people. As she sat in her car, immobile, waiting for the

paramedics to arrive, a few African Americans men approached her car and stole

her cell phone and other personal belongings. She now, consciously developed a

negative bias norms towards African Americans. She said to me I never had

anything against African American people, but after this accident, I have a whole

different perspective to me. I cannot trust them, they stole from me while I was in

need. We have control of our minds, we cannot generalized an entire population

 based on one experience. This is when we need to remain optimistic and give

people a chance, because we are not all the same.

5. Best Practices:

I was able to find an article called Reducing Muslim/Arab Stereotypes

Through Evaluative Conditioning by Andrea R. French, Timothy M. Franz, Laura

L. Phelan, & Bruce E. Blaine. In this article they do an experiment on how to

reduce stereotypes by using a pairing of classical conditioning, conditional

stimulus (CS), and unconditional stimulus (US). Olson and Fazio (2006) used

evaluative conditioning to reduce automatically activated racial prejudice against

Blacks. In White participants, they paired photos of Blacks and White faces (CS)

with positive and negative words (USs), respectively. They used a priming

measure in which participants viewed faces and positive or negative adjectives

and responded by pressing keys on a computer keyboard. Response times between

baseline and the priming measure were calculated to determine automatically

activated attitudes. Olson and Fazio reported that conditioning was successful in

reducing automatically activated racial attitudes as measured by priming

(French, Franz, Phelan, & Blaine, 2013). To see full article text, click on the link

below.

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=cfbe990f-

b303-49f1-ae4d-c1188f97b78f%40sessionmgr4007

6. Alternative Explanations:

According to the article The power of talk: Developing discriminatory group

norms through discussion research has shown that discussing controversial issues
 going on in the world, might increase stereotype and racism. For some reason

when in a group it appeared that discussing the stereotype had a direct impact on

collective behaviour. Indeed, many authors have argued that stereotypes ignite

intergroup discrimination because they reflect values, ideologies, and a particular

world view (Smith, & Postmes, 2010).

7. Future Directions/Recommendations:

As mentioned earlier, stereotype and racism has been incorporated into our

culture for many years now. There is not going to be an immediate transformation

from one day to another, but we all have a responsibility to try to make this world

a better place for us and for our future generations. We all have a very powerful

tool we can use to try to reach out and make people aware of their unconscious

and conscious stereotypes. And that is social media. Social media can have a

positive influence in our society. We can let our voice be heard, and try to connect

with other people, not only in the United States but in the world.

(Ramasubramanian, S. (2007).
 References
French, A. R., Franz, T. M., Phelan, L. L., & Blaine, B. E. (2013). Reducing Muslim/Arab
stereotypes through evaluative conditioning. The Journal Of Social Psychology, 153(1),
6-9. doi:10.1080/00224545.2012.706242
Ramasubramanian, S. (2007). MEDIA-BASED STRATEGIES TO REDUCE RACIAL
STEREOTYPES ACTIVATED BY NEWS STORIES. Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly, 84(2), 249-264.
Smith, L. E., & Postmes, T. (2011). The power of talk: Developing discriminatory group norms
through discussion. British Journal Of Social Psychology, 50(2), 193-215.
doi:10.1348/014466610X504805
Yip, T. (2016). To be or not to be: How ethnic/racial stereotypes influence ethnic/racial
disidentification and psychological mood. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority
Psychology, 22(1), 38-46. doi:10.1037/cdp0000046