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Stereotypes of whites 

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This article is about ethnic stereotypes directed against people of Caucasian or white-European descent, or more broadly anyone who appears to be white-skinned. It does not cover stereotypes that are unique to a specific country or culture.

Contents

Stereotypes

Evil

"Stereotypes of white Americans include: assertive, cold, dishonest, evil".[1]

Greedy

"[S]tereotypes of white Americans include:...greedy...lusting for power.'"[1] "[N]egative stereotypes of whites as being... materialistic."[2]

Racists

"[W]hite American peoples are somehow more racist, or especially racist, when compared with members of other ethnic groups. This is the "white racism stereotype.""[3] "[S]tereotypes of white Americans include:... racist".[1] "Ms. Steinberg stated the stereotype as follows: "The profile of the hate criminal is the white male between 19 and 26.""[3]

Monolithic cultural identity

A stereotype is that "white Americans are not a diverse ethnic group. This is the "homogeneous whites stereotype.""[3] "The diversity of the white American peoples is uniformly smothered by print and electronic media.[3] Writers and newscasters suppress all mention of white American ethnic and cultural diversity by using terms like WASP, white boy, anglo, white privilege, acting white, and other terms that describe all he diverse white Americans as identical clones of one another."[3] "The dominant media culture stridently opposes recognition of white American diversity, and maligns those who insist on public recognition of this diversity."[3]

Victimless majority

One stereotype is that "white Americans are never victims of hate speech or hate crimes. This is the victimless majority stereotype."[3]

Dancing ability

One common stereotype, relayed in comparison to a typical black stereotype, is that white people lack a sense of rhythm and cannot dance. Comedian Eddie Murphy in 1987 commented that:

White people can't dance. I'm not being racist it's true. Just like when white people say black people have big lips, it's not racist it's true. Black people have big lips, white people can't dance. Some brothers will be in the club and white people are like, "What are those niggers doing in here?" They watchin' y'all dance. And they're like, "Look at these crazy muthafuckas." Y'all be stepping on people's feet and hitting one another.

—Eddie Murphy[4]

This stereotype has become so accepted that both white and black comedians lampoon the dancing ability of white people.[5]

"[S]tereotypes of white Americans include:... lacking rhythm".[1]

Athletic ability

There is a belief that people of Caucasian ethnic background are inferior to people of Black African origin when playing certain sports. The Copenhagen Institute of Sports Science conducted some tests comparing certain genetic characteristics of the natives of Kenya with Europeans [6], which did show some differences in the way Kenyans and Europeans store oxygen.

An experiment was conducted to demonstrate the perceptual confirmation of racial stereotypes about Black and White athletes. In a 2 x 2 design, target race (Black vs. White) and target athleticism (perceived athletic vs. unathletic) were manipulated by providing participants with a photograph of a male basketball player. Participants then listened to a college basketball game and were asked to evaluate the target's athletic abilities, individual performance, and contribution to his team' s performance. Multivariate analyses showed only a main effect for target race on the measures of ability and team performance. Whereas the Black targets were rated as exhibiting significantly more athletic ability and having played a better game, White targets were rated as exhibiting significantly more basketball intelligence and hustle. The results suggest that participants relied on a stereotype of Black and White athletes to guide their evaluations of the target's abilities and performance.[7]

"[S]tereotypes of white Americans include:... lacking athleticism".[1]

Physical Characteristics

Among several Asian cultures, Caucasian peoples are caricatured as having relatively large noses in comparison to Asians. The stereotype is a feature in the public service announcement below.

http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/seian/jisin/image/jisin19f.pdf

Studies

In a study on mutual and self-perceptions of racial images of White, Black and Japanese-Americans, whites were stereotyped as materialistic and pleasure-loving. Whites are stereotyped as racists. In general whites were stereotyped with positive traits and minority groups with negative traits.[8] In a study on the associative strength between two words subjects, regardless of prejudice score, responded reliably faster when positive attitudes (e.g., smart) were paired with whites than when they were paired with blacks.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Shipler, David K. A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1997. [1]
  2. ^ Bowser, Benjamin. Impacts of Racism on White Americans: Impacts of Racism (p 2nd Ed) on White Americans. 1982.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Resisting Defamation. 2008. Accessed July 17, 2008. [2]
  4. ^ Eddie Murphy: "Eddie Murphy Raw", 1987
  5. ^ Examples include:
    1. The DAMN! Show: "How to Dance like a White Guy", 2006
    2. George Carlin: "George Carlin on white people", You Are All Diseased", 1999


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Ethnic stereotypes in Western popular culture
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