Do stereotypes die hard?
14 years ago
Posts: 215
Quote from Kitteh_13
Quote from WeeklyManga-chan
They're also splashed generously over the storylines of every movie and book and manga and anime and manhwa...
This may sound crazy, but maybe that's where we get it from? When I was little, there were a lot of shows with very stereotypical characters of other races. Also, we may have been unconsciously watching our parents, who may or may not have done the same to theirs.
On a related note, I'm Jewish, and I still don't see all that money I'm supposed to have hidden in a secret cave under the sea. 😀The Jewish people having money stereotype dates way back to BC times when Jews typically weren't allowed to hold jobs in most European countries. Since they couldn't get 'real' jobs their only option was to become money lenders. They got good at it. -shrugs-
I got a source to back up my hefty claim, but I learnt this in school when studying Shakespeares "The Merchant of Venice"
You're quoting your own source wrong. The stereotype evolved from the late medieval period (circa 1000 AD) and into the Renaissance (circe 1400 AD) not BC. BC is Rome and there were not many Jews in Europe and those that were in Europe were mostly merchants from the East.
Jews becoming money lenders was not only because they could not get jobs it was in fact because the Christians believed things like money lending (also known as usury) was frowned upon by the Church so the only people any Christian could borrow from was the Jews. Incidentally this also gave rise to the idea of banking and the great banking families of Italy.
Stereotypes continue to exist because honestly a portion of the group who is stereotyped actually do that. All stereotypes are founded on truth even if it is not the majority truth anymore. Things like Black men being horrible fathers that will simply run away does not apply to every Black man but there are still enough today who do it that and statistic compared to other races to keep it alive.
As for the Mexican ones if you stop to think about it you can see where ignorant people would get the idea and that same ignorance makes them typecast everyone of similar look, heritage, etc. the same way. Like blondes being stupid.
