Do you have a strategy for dealing with stereotypes concerning the cultural group you belong to Has this strategy been successful When I think of stereotypes I immediately try to laugh at them This is a strategy that I have always used and will most likely always attempt to use When I think of stereotypes there are generally two types of people that come to my mind The first being misinformed ignorant people who know little to nothing about the culture or the people in which they are stereotyping and the second would have hateful or mean people The problem with this is that sometimes the two blend together Sometimes people can be ignorant and mean in the same breath and that generally makes things much worse I have found that if you can approach a person based on what they are presenting to you that is the best way to decide if you like them or not You can base your opinion on some predetermined outline or what you have heard you have to experience that person to be able to understand that person This strategy is one that I use and up to this point so far in my life it has always worked I don t like to base my opinion of someone on anything other than who they are I understand that even that may not be enough but I work with what I have If I have met someone via brief encounters and they always seem rude or hateful to me then that is what I will associate with them That does not mean that that is how they are but that is how they are perceived by me I am actually a cultural mutt as I call myself whenever the topic is brought up in social groups however I do have friends and family of multi cultural ethnicity and I am quite sensitive to racism from anyone regarding any race I currently live in a area not far from Harrison Arkansas and for those of you who are unaware long ago Harrison was a major KKK area and is still mildly active I have only lived in this area Deep Southern Missouri for seven years and before moving to my current location I have lived in several areas in several large cities and have been surrounded by multiple cultures my whole life and had never experienced racism first hand like I have in this area My cousins who s father and my uncle by marriage is African American come down from St Louis every summer to visit their grandma my aunt who lives right next door My children my cousins and I often go to the creek and pal around I see people driving past looking with unpleasant expressions and when my cousins notice I simply explain to them that these people are not educated or culturally experienced in any way My children and I attempted to get involved in the local church and I experienced problems there as well Some of the people called themselves Christian then out of church I would hear them making racist jokes talking bad about people of certain other races and stereotyping African Americans as monkeys or stupid or other unpleasant terms and the Bible teacher made a couple of remarks to my 11 year daughter in regard to President Obama then a candidate running for President I was so upset that I went to the pastor and told him that I do not understand how a person can call themselves a Christian let alone be a Bible teacher and be racist at the same time and make negative remarks about another in front of the children and that in my opinion it is an oxymoron We did not go back to the church When I hear people stereotype other cultural groups I tend to want to try to give them an educational lecture regarding human existence and history Most do not want to hear it but those who are around me on any regular basis know not to make such remarks in my presence I have had debates regarding Oprah Obama and Middle Eastern people as a whole I have heard many people speak poorly about Middle Easterners and Muslims and stereotyping them as bad people because of the terrorist issues and my children are 1 4 Iranian their father is half Iranian and his fathers family are wonderful amazing people and muslims so I generally attempt to correct people who try to stereotype Muslims or Middle Easterners as a whole and remind them that there are good and bad people in every race This strategy works well for me because even if I do not change the attitude of the person they still do not make the mistake of voicing those opinions around me anymore I believe that people who stereotype other cultural groups or are racist have not truly been educated for the most part