The Perceptual Context Categorizing and Stereotyping

1. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing and Stereotyping

2. Agenda • Perception and Culture • Categorizing • Stereotyping • Ethnocentrism

3. Modelof Communication

4. What is Perception? • The “I” behind the senses • Interpretation of events vs. actual events • Perception is the process of • Selecting • Organizing • selectively interpreting sensory data • enables us to make sense of our world

5. Perceiving Stimuli: “Eye” and “I” • The “Eye” 5 million bits of data/second • The “I” (the brain) –500 bits of data/second • Selective Perception • focusing on particular stimuli • limited /coherent and meaningful picture of our world • Conforms to our • Beliefs • Expectations • Convictions.

6. What do you see?

7. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing • Organization of information • Categories needed • Help process information • You are evaluated in the first 60 seconds • Reduction of uncertainty • Attribution of behavior – meaning

8. The Perceptual ContextCulture • People from different cultures • think differently • about different things • Impacted by • Education • Use of brain different • Educated use different memorization strategies • Literacy • Oral vs. written • Age

9. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing • Obvious differences • Gender • Age • Race • Ethnicity • Beauty • ? • Subtle differences • Extrovert vs. Introvert • Liberal vs. Conservative • Socioeconomic • ?

10. Perceptual Constancy • Perceptual Constancy • The desire to see selectively • Perception in concert with experiences • Dissimilar life experiences=wider the gap between us and others • Cultural habits/norms • Cultural nearsightedness – the failure to understand meanings to similar behavioral clues can be different

11. Barriers to Perception • Perceptual Sets: Is your past following you? • Selective Exposure: Are you open or closed? • Selective Perception and Closure: Are you a distorter? • First Impressions: Do you freeze your perceptions of others? • Stereotypes: Do you squeeze others into niches? • Inferences: Do you confuse what you infer and what you observe?

12. The Perceptual ContextStereotyping Obvious/Illegal • Racial • Color • Gender • Ethnicity • National origin • Age • Socioeconomic • Religious • Physical or mental disability • Veteran Status Subtle/Legal • Beauty • Odor • Size (www.phataphobia.com) • Socioeconomic

13. The Perceptual ContextStereotyping Without thinking about it for more than a few seconds, write down the first three things that come to mind when you hear: • Jew • African-American • Native American • White/Caucasian • Catholic • Protestant • Atheist • Super Model • Rock star • Grandma • Male Athlete • Computer engineer • Hostess • Female waitress • Liberal • Conservative

14. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing • Stereotypes: Automatic/Reactive response • Information processing • Important in diverse societies • Overgeneralization can harm

15. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing • Stereotypes: Automatic/Reactive response • Arise out of real conditions • Self-fulfilling prophecies • Constructed obstacles • Dominant group uses barriers socially and legally • Conformity forced

16. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing • Stereotypes: • Categories with an attitude • The basis of judgment • One group attributing characteristics, traits, behaviors to members of another group

17. The Self-fulfilling Prophecy • Self-fulfilling Prophecy – a prediction or expectation that comes true simply because one acts as if it were true • fixed/practiced beliefs define roles • resistance to challenges/changes to fixed beliefs

18. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing Race/Ethnicity/National Origin • Stereotypes: Automatic/Reactive response • Asian: “He must be good at computers” • Inference: “I wonder how many Americans are unemployed because of all the immigrants from Asia”

19. The Perceptual ContextEthnocentrism: MBFGW • Ethnocentrism: All cultures • the view that one’s group is the center of everything. • Judgments of others measured/rated by group

20. The Perceptual ContextEthnocentrism: MBFGW • Indifference • Communicated in speech patterns • “Jew them down” • “The blind leading the blind” • “You’re so dumb” • “The pot calling the kettle black” • Avoidance • Purposeful use of language/jargon/slang to minimize contact with other groups • Disparagement • Openly expressed contempt • “nigger” / “chink”

21. The Perceptual ContextEthnocentrism: MBFGW • Values=beliefs=behavior • How did Tula’s culture view other cultures? • Which character was most ethnocentric? • What behavior makes that visible • What was evident: • Indifference • Avoidance • Disparagement

22. The Perceptual ContextEthnocentrism vs. Gender • Values=beliefs=behavior • How do genders verbally express: • Indifference • Avoidance • Disparagement

23. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing Genders • Men and women • perceive different realities • have different expectations set for them • exhibit different communication styles

24. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing Genders • Perceived differences in male/female behavior develop as a result of • The expectations of others • The behavior exhibited by role models • The traditional educational institutions that promote stereotypes • Cultural expectations • Religious expectations

25. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing Genders • Prevalent conceptions of masculinity and femininity are reinforced by: • Television • Films • Books • Toys • Websites

26. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing • Consequences • Missed interaction • Diversity • Socioeconomic • Reduced information • Ignoring of individual differences

27. The Perceptual ContextStereotyping Obvious/Illegal • Racial • Color • Gender • Ethnicity • National origin • Age • Socioeconomic • Religious • Physical or mental disability • Veteran Status Subtle/Legal • Beauty • Odor • Size (www.phataphobia.com) • Socioeconomic

28. The Perceptual ContextStereotyping Subtle/Legal • Beauty • Job interviews • Attention • Odor • Size (www.phatophobia.com)

29. Stereotyping Group discussion: • Where do our stereotypical ideas originate? • How are they perpetuated? • Why do we perpetuate the behaviors we dislike? • What stereotypes do you deal with? • What stereotypes do you have of other groups? • Why do we hate to be categorized/stereotyped, but we in turn do the same to others?

30. Next session: The Color of Fear The Color of Fear is an insightful, groundbreaking film about the state of race relations in America as seen through the eyes of eight North American men of Asian, European, Latino and African descent. In a series of intelligent, emotional and dramatic confrontations the men reveal the pain and scars that racism has caused them. What emerges is a deeper sense of understanding and trust. This is the dialogue most of us fear, but hope will happen sometime in our lifetime. (running time: 90 minutes)

31. The End

32. The Perceptual ContextCategorizing and StereotypingThe Color of Fear

33. The Color of Fear David: the young Chinese American man David C.: the Euro-American man who insists there is no racism in his home town Lee Mun Wah: the facilitator Loren: the younger African American man Gordon: the Euro-American man who identifies himself as a "racist who is working against racism" Hugh: the younger Latino man Roberto: the older Latino man Victor: the older African American man

34. The Color of Fear • With whom in the film did you identify most strongly? • What's difficult or scary about talking about race? • What's a moment in the film that you won't forget?

35. Racial Harmony “The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. I believe we are a more inclusive country now. A growing number of communities and companies are beginning to recognize that survival is about embracing ideas, experiences, and views that come from the entire spectrum of our society.” Bill Russell, NBA Hall of Fame great

36. I have seen so many people make racist jokes about African-Americans, Asians, and other minorities and then say "but I'm not racist...I have Black or Asian friends!" What does that mean?!?!

37. I think the most difficult part of talking about race as a white person is when the discussion shows clearly that racism needs to be eliminated and I am clearly against it. However, it also makes me realize how little I really do against it during everyday life. It is something that makes me very upset while in the conversation setting, but once I leave that environment I do not get active in stopping it.

38. There's a broken record playing, and I'm tired of hearing it. I have two choices as a minority 1. assimilate (which makes life so much easier) 2. talk about privilege without bringing up race as the topic (at first). I like to start with #2 because it begins the conversation, although I seem to drift to #1 quite often. The difficulty comes from a frustration with putting others in my shoes. Also, I think many people are tired to discuss race because it seems as if minorities are using it as an excuse for everything.

39. My family will be going for a citizenship interview this coming December, and I feel like I only have a few months more to be a "Filipino," since I will soon be identified as an "American." My passport will say "American," and I fear that. I was born in the Philippines and I am, of course, proud of my culture and who I am. I know that just because I am going to be an "american" doesn't mean I will be one. I mean, I live in the United States, but I am still a Filipino and i still feel comfortable identifying myself as a Filipino. Maybe "Filipino-American" would be okay, but never "American" alone. I just feel like I am losing my Filipino-ness if I lose that label. It would just be weird for me to say that I am "American." I never identified myself that in the past, and now I will be an American. It is just strange.

40. I can be proud of and love many things without letting one thing cancel another. For example, my homeland is a Caribbean Island (not U.S. owned). However, celebrating different aspects of my homeland does not necessarily mean that I do not have any feelings for America. With all of this said, I still think the amount of pride people have in some things can be extreme. I did not choose my skin color, my family, or my homeland. While those aspects of my life can matter to me, they do not solely define me.

41. Employment and Discrimination: There are certain opportunities that aren't open to everyone. I think this became very apparent to me when I watched 2 videos in my college class. One video was about sexism (featured one white male and one white female), the other about racism (featured one black male and one white male). Both of these videos had two people who were very similar go into the same place with the same people, seeking the same thing. It was unbelievable how differently the woman and the black man were treated. It was a real eye-opener. The two men tried to start a new life in St. Louis, looking for a job, car and place. In some cases the black man was told there were no apartment available even though the white man came in after him and was offered a place. This happened repeatedly, even though they had the same credentials. This was also true of the woman who went looking for a job.

42. Group Discussion The Color of Fear • With whom in the film did you identify most strongly? • What's difficult or scary about talking about race? • What's a moment in the film that you won't forget?