Stereotypes About Africa Essay

1. Stereotypes about Africa develop mostly from not being informed of the history and culture Africa brings to the world (3). In America, students are not really taught the positive characteristics of Africa. Instead in our history courses, the focus is on the negatives like genocide, AIDS and mainly how poor the country is (3). When in reality Africa is much more than just diseases and poverty. Most of Americans have pity towards Africa because of how Africa is portrayed in the media (3). The commercials about countries in Africa display inaccurate information. Based on commercials ran across Americans tv screens, African countries are shown as the poorest people in the world and the kids suffer from starvation. Also, the commercials are always …show more content…
Although animals in Africa can be trained, they are not just held captive as pets. Wildlife animals are either being used for worship or hunting and gathering. Developing stereotypes about Africa based on inaccurate information shapes one’s views. If majority Americans view Africa as homeless, hopeless and underprivileged then we will be oblivious to political and economic events surrounding us (4). To avoid stereotypes Americans must first understand the culture, tradition and languages of Africa (4). The reason is because understanding one’s culture, tradition, and language an insight is provided to discover the truth. Also, people can work on acquiring a positive mindset of Africa by taking the negative words used to describe the country and replacing them with positive ones (4). Although stereotypes can take time to shift, it starts with wanting to understand the wonderful things Africa has to offer. As a society, we should dismiss all the stereotypes about Africa and learn to accept one another (6). Whether we want to admit it or not everyone stereotypes (6). The second step is to admit that Africa is viewed wrongfully because of