Racial Stereotypes in Childhood

[Drooperdoo]

The horror of growing up was realizing that stereotypes were not born in a void . . . that they exist because they actually have a basis in reality.
For me, it started like this: I was in Cleveland, Ohio. It has a massive black population. As a child, hastening to catch the bus, the observation slowly crept into my consciousness that blacks tended to walk slower. I attached no hostile construction to this--it was just an observation that batted about my mind, existing wordlessly in my subconscious as I tried to maneuver around them on my frantic race to the bus. Then years later, the woman who would later be my wife said, "I know this sounds awful . . . but have you ever noticed that blacks walk way slower than whites?"
At the time, we were in a different state, a different section of the country, and at a different age. The trigger that set off her observation was the fact that we were caught behind a rather slow person (who happened to be black).
My wife was ashamed of her observation, but it made me wonder: How could she come to the same conclusion independently--in a politically correct age, with non-racist views, non-racist parents, etc.?
She was so embarrassed to even share the observation.
I told her it was okay . . . that years earlier I had noticed the same thing. But I thought I was just being insane.
Then the two of us, a few years after that, rented a video of rare vintage cartoons from the early twentieth century. The collection had WWII propaganda cartoons, Popeye fighting the evil Japanese, Bugs Bunny battling Hitler, etc. Then we both stopped, slackjawed, when up came a (rightfully banned) racist cartoon called "Lazytown". It was about a city inhabited by blacks where everything went slowly--people walked slower, worked slower, moved slower.
We were ashamed--but secretly perplexed: Other people had noticed we we did? People we never met, from a less enlightened time. But here's the thing: The stereotype existed because it was based on empiracal obervation.
People are different--and not just blacks.
Vladimir Nabokov said he was astonished to learn that different countries had different hand gestures. He had always assumed that just our languages separated us. But it's not so. Different peoples move differently, gesture differently, think differently.
And that's one of the hardest lessons to learn as an adult--that sometimes even bigots can be correct. We hate them, we despise them, we renounce them--but perhaps the politicians who sell the romantic notion that we're all the same are just as backward as the bigots. Because they're two sides of the same coin. Because the truth is: stereotypes are not born in a void. The right-thinking moralist blinds himself to the difference, the bigot contrariwise sees the differences but irrationally attaches a negative connotation to them. The wise person, contrariwise, is large enough to accept the differences, and smart enough not to attach pejorative connotations to them.

[Mike the Jedi]

You're right, Droop, stereotypes are based in reality.

[Ilmatar]

There weren't many people of a different ethnic background in Finland when I was a child. However, I was born in the late 70's, and grew up in a very socially and globally conscious athmosphere. I remember that there number of tv programs, children's books or even songs dealing life in different countries, especially the 3rd world.

But the first people of a different ethnic background I ever saw were actually athletes. My father is a big sports fan, and took me to the track and field competitions. So the first black people I ever saw were Keniote long distance runners.

The race issues were a big tabu, though, in the early 1980's Finland. However, I loved to look study the maps when I was a child, especially an old World Atlas from the early 1960's. The Atlas had great maps, but also other information on religions, language groups and yes, even "races". I've later understood that the physical anthropology classication system of the book was essentially based on Coon.

[Matthew]

murphee said:

From my childhood: My parents told us that 'Goys' were different from us, though not inferior or to be avoided. We needed to be aware that some might hate us unfairly because we were Jews. I was told, and immediately did not believe because it was illogical, that "every Goy has at least once in some point in his life hated Jews."
My father's parents were strongly prejudiced against Black people, and quite a few times as a very young child heard mutterings about "The Schwartzes." (Yiddish for Blacks).
The grandparents were very old and crotchety and big complainers, and the rants were part of the package.

I remember being young and my mother would buy us books on Jews, and Judaism so that we would know differences and expand our mind about cultures. So I knew what Shofar was, all about Purim, Hanukkah, and other holidays.

Schwartzes was also used by Germans as well to describe Black people, but some speakers of Yiddish used "Schwarze Chaya" which means Black Animal. I wouldn't lie and say that I'm exactly 100% fond of Jews (that being geared towards the few who are immoral), but I will say I've met Jewish people who are some of the most wonderful people I've met and were very very kind even if some of them had customs made them feel strange, and act weird or abrupt around us Goyim. One of them is a reasonably famous actress I've met by chance. She's very sweet, and down to earth.

Drooperdoo, while I despise racist cartoons. I know not all strereotypes are based in falsehood.

[henerte]

The race issues were a big tabu, though, in the early 1980's Finland. However, I loved to look study the maps when I was a child, especially an old World Atlas from the early 1960's. The Atlas had great maps, but also other information on religions, language groups and yes, even "races". I've later understood that the physical anthropology classication system of the book was essentially based on Coon.

That's interesting. When I was in school in Poland there was no information about human races, whatsoever. My sister is in high school right now and I noticed that in atlases they use there's already some info on this topic (mainly maps but also texts). They don't only divide humans in the main races or types but also go into more details. They show Alpine, Med, Nordic types and all that is followed by photos of typical faces representing this type.

[Nist]

Íf you explain to a child that the earth is round. He would just look out the window and say 'not true'.
If you say that the world is subjective to a teen he would point out the window and say 'you see what I see'. Too realize how the world expands from your personal bubble and how views different from you aren't strange are two very important stages in your life. Using stereotypes is like jumping back your development to a 3 year old again.

[murphee]

I vaguely remember being taught in a cursory manner about 'Caucasoids, Mongoloids and Negroids' in elementary school. I became interested in race and nationality at a young age when I became fascinated by the variety of forms of facial features among various groups of people. Foreign travel further piqued my interest, and it wasn't until finding sites such as this that I was able to discuss with anyone about it or even know the correct terminology.

[molika]

I was taught as a child, not so much through words, but through actions of the people around me towards other ethnicities. I was shown that the Roma were beggars and not worthy of living in the same standard as we were. However, I would always sneak out to watch them in where they lived. This place was called the 'bajro' or bario I guess in English. I saw their colorful clothes, their weddings that lasted for days and the small shacks they lived in lined with oriental tapestries and hutches full of mismatched china. I was fascinated by their love of life regardless of their living conditions.

I was shown that Montenegrins were lazy, Bosnians were always celebrating, Serbs and Bulgarians were cruel and Albanians and any Muslim for that matter were as bad as the Ottoman Turks that oppressed and tortured us for 500 years.

My grandfather hated Serbs because he watched his father get murdered by a Serbian soldier and he hated Greeks and Bulgarians because of their forced assimilations. My mother is basically half Greek and half Serb so go figure! My great-grandfather on mom's side was a Serb officer under the King of Yugoslavia and my great-grandmother is from Athens.

We were told that Croatians were fascists and Slovenes never liked us. My uncle is married in Croatia with a Croatian wife and my half Croatian cousin is married to an Albanian. My husband is half Slovenian.

We were told that Americans & Australians were all rich but dumb, and all Western Europeans except for Portuguese, Spaniards & Italians were cold and unfriendly. We were told Russians were all drunks and Africans and Asians were exotic and foreign, but we never had many to see in person.

Basically, I was taught to hate and that other people were always the cause of all of our problems. What a lie.

Between my husband and I we have almost the entire Balkans covered, including Jewish and Russian blood. Not much left to hate!

[zemelmete]

In childhood I lived in country called USSR. As a country, closed to other countries, there weren't much foreign tourists, not to speak about immigrated people from foreign countries. It means that in soviet period I never saw such people as afro-americans, indians, arabs etc. Even in TV they weren't showed much, because media was strongly controlled and there rarely showed programms which showed life in foreign countries.
Of course, it doesn't mean that I didn't see people of different races. In such huge country as USSR lived very diverse people - russians, tatars, buryats, gypsies, georgians, uzbeks etc. And even more - I had travelled almost half of all USSR, had seen people of different ethnicities. Some of them, such as russians, latvians, khanty, estonians were for me the same, just "common" people. Another, such as gypsies, were weird for me. Everybody, regardeless of their ethnicity, didn't like gypsies, so did I. The weirdest of all which I had seen, were kyrgyzs, uzbeks and chinese, they just looked for me so strange.

[CooCooCachoo]

murphee said:

Also, when I was a child, my parents would talk of how they hated the Germans because of World War 2. My father would rant about how he will NEVER travel to Germany or buy German products such as Volkswagens.
A decade or more passed, and he changed his attitude: he travelled to Germany and Austria many times and also bought German products. He overcame his prejudice, and also stopped talking negatively about Germans.

...That's a beautiful story.

I'm going to put you on my special list so your family won't be bothered the next time we decide to get uppity.

[OdinofOssetia]

zemelmete said:

In childhood I lived in country called USSR. As a country, closed to other countries, there weren't much foreign tourists, not to speak about immigrated people from foreign countries. It means that in soviet period I never saw such people as afro-americans, indians, arabs etc. Even in TV they weren't showed much, because media was strongly controlled and there rarely showed programms which showed life in foreign countries.
Of course, it doesn't mean that I didn't see people of different races. In such huge country as USSR lived very diverse people - russians, tatars, buryats, gypsies, georgians, uzbeks etc. And even more - I had travelled almost half of all USSR, had seen people of different ethnicities. Some of them, such as russians, latvians, khanty, estonians were for me the same, just "common" people. Another, such as gypsies, were weird for me. Everybody, regardeless of their ethnicity, didn't like gypsies, so did I. The weirdest of all which I had seen, were kyrgyzs, uzbeks and chinese, they just looked for me so strange.

Don't know how that was possible, because I lived in Communist Poland, and they had frequently on TV and in the cinemas films/documentaries/movies about, or even from, other countries, including the Western ones.


Perhaps things were different in the U.S.S.R., but I don't know that since I never lived there.

[murphee]

We'll hunt you down with our bayonets, anyway.

[nockwasright]

My family was extremely race/ethnicity conscious and I was taught from the beginning to draw lines even between Italians of different regions. Basically I was taught to look up to Northwestern Europeans and Jews, respect Japanese, limit my contacts with Slavs to the literature, and look down to all the rest. This still sticks, on a non rational level.
Italy was not a multiracial country at the time, so the pc crap in school was not started yet. It is now.
Btw molika, nice post, liked it a lot.

[zemelmete]

odinofossetia said:

Don't know how that was possible, because I lived in Communist Poland, and they had frequently on TV and in the cinemas films/documentaries/movies about, or even from, other countries, including the Western ones.


Perhaps things were different in the U.S.S.R., but I don't know that since I never lived there.

In USSR showed documental programms about foreign countries (one of them was "Around the World" which I watched with big interest), also in news showed something what happened in other countries. But then in TV rarely showed films, made in capitalist countries (especially from USA) and they were carefully selected. Also there weren't such things as MTV etc. So for me life outside USSR was something far away from real life. Also such groups of people as africans, indians, arabs etc. for me were something unreal, what don't exist in real life and I thought that it is impossible to meet them in whole my life, because I thought then that they live so far away as it is moon.

[JoeyC134]

I'm American, my mom is black and my father is white and Hispanic. I never realized that my father was adopted even though his parents were black (I think his adoptive mother is black, I've never asked). People in my family range from black to brown to white so I was used to differences in people's features. The only time I asked questions was about Chinese people which was "Why do their eyes look like that?". To me, everyone was the same except for skin color and hair except with Asians being the only ones with "weird" eyes.