Stereotype Threats In Whistling Vivaldi By Claude Steele

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What is stereotype threat? How do these threats affect all of us? And how do we deal with these threats? Claude Steele states, in his book Whistling Vivaldi, he believes stereotype threat, “Is a standard predicament of life. It springs from our human powers of intersubjectivity - the fact that as members of our society have a pretty good idea of what other members think about lots of things, including the major groups and identities in society,”(Steele 5). The major fact is, we are all or have been victims of stereotype threat. Now, let’s look at how stereotype threats apply to anyone. Defining stereotype threat isn’t always easy. We tend to classify ourselves as individuals in our society, we think our differences are what make us unique. Steele states “We don’t like to think that conditions tied to our social identities have much to say in our lives, especially if we don’t want them to,” (Steele 4). …show more content…
When in fact, it sometimes happens self-consciously where we don’t even have to think about it for the threat to have an effect on us. I like how Steele stated, “At first glance, one might dismiss the importance of something “in the air” like stereotype threat. At second glance, however, it’s clear that this threat can be a tenacious force in our lives,” (Steele 11). I like this example, because from a very young age we are susceptible to stereotype threat, for example; another child on the playground would call us stupid we wouldn’t give that much thought. Then he/she would call us stupid again or get called stupid by another child, then it would start to upset us and start making us believe that we really are stupid. Just like the last example, stereotype threats comes from many different areas like; personal self, motivation, expectation, self-esteem, cultural orientation, family beliefs and influences, social network, gender and so many more to list. Steel quotes Gordon Allport (a mid-twentieth-century Social Psychologist) “Ones reputation cannot be hammered, hammered, hammered into one’s head without doing something to one’s character,”(Allport142)/ (Steele 46). Meaning if you continually “put someone down” telling them that they are too dumb or don’t have the skills to accomplish a task, then that person will accept as true, consciously or subconsciously, that they cannot accomplish the given task, not now or even in future instances. Stereotype threat may not be relevant for one situation but be an enormous obstacle in another situation. …show more content…
Steele writes, “The reality of stereotype threat also made the point that places like classrooms, university campuses, testing rooms or competitive running tracks, though seemingly the same for everybody, are, in fact, different places for different people,” (Steele 60). For example the treat may not be there if you are just hanging out with your friends but when you step into a new class room you feel like “all eyes are on you.” Steel previously writes, “One’s own stereotype threat can analogize one into understanding the other guy’s stereotype threat,” (Steele 60). Therefore, if you are aware of the feeling of being subconsciously or consciously threatened then you will understand what the other maybe going through in another situation. We can say that these threats are created by horrific experiences in our personal lives. That is true, but in all reality these experiences are just “scratching the surface” of what makes up our identities and gives us our contingencies. Let’s look at race, Steele mentions that “We typically think of race a rooted in essences-possibly biological, possibly cultural- that are intrinsic and defining,” (Steele 67). What Claude Steele is saying, you had no choice whether you were born black, Hispanic, Asian, etc.., it has nothing to do with you personally in this instance, but it has to do with the history of the United States and the views this country once had on minorities and even gender. Even though most of society has evolved, the scars and the contingencies caused still stand the test of time. Our countries history is the Stereotype that made the “scars,” then the scars are reopened every day by the arrogant people who cannot view everyone as an equal individual. So now what are you to do: Ignore it a hope the threat goes away? Work hard to prove the bigots wrong? Everyone has heard the

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