How Stereotypes Affect Our Society

What do you think of when you see a can of soup? You think of a little tin can with a label saying what it is and what it contains. Stereotypes are our labels and we are the cans of soup. People have us labeled under a certain stereotype or label us as certain types of people without knowing anything about us. Stereotypes change everything like the way we look at people, the way we interact with others, and it makes us pick and chose. Stereotypes affect every aspect of our lives even though they may not be true people still hold onto the idea of them. Stereotypes can be defined as beliefs about a certain group or kind of people, which causes us to see them all as one way, and they impact our society in many ways (Stereotypes). For example, in an interview with Guy Raz from NPR, Jamila Lyiscott, says that “You have this lens …show more content…
These lenses are our stereotypes, and if we were to view ourselves through this lens we could see how they cause others to assume quickly about us just because of our appearance or the way we speak. As a society, we must be careful to not oversimplify people and throw them into groups of our idea on how they speak or act. Additionally, in another interview with Guy Raz, Maz Jobrani says, “I mean, you could have a thousand Iranian or Arab doctors saving lives every day in the United States. And the lack of exposure that would get compared to one Muslim trying to blow up a car bomb in Times Square like the Pakistan guy had tried to do it years ago.” (Raz, Maz). This explains the meaning of stereotypes by revealing Maz Jobrani understands how one thing can cause everyone to look at a group of people and think they are all the same. We could have hundreds of thousands Iranian or Arab doctors and nobody would hear a peep about it, but that one person who chooses to do something unlawful everyone hears about