How do you see the real culture and not the stereotype?

[3mmargaret]

According to Merriam-Webster, culture is: “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time.”


This is one of hundreds of valid interpretations of the concept of culture. It is an onion, made of separate layers that hold each other together. Some of these levels are visible, and some are hidden. This image shows another way of looking at culture. I find it interesting that the majority of the iceberg is underwater. This implies that culture is largely internal, yet society loves to define culture by its “observable” aspects, such as language, traditions, clothing, music and food. There is nothing wrong with these characteristics contributing toward your idea of a culture, but there is definitely danger in not looking below the water surface, that danger being stereotyping. As comfortable as it is to look at culture as a way to categorize people, people are individuals first, and their personal beliefs, values, thinking and emotions may say more about their culture than anything you can see. With that said, human behaviors and their results are not negligible. They often reveal a lot about a culture. My question is where do you draw the line? How do you see the real culture and not the stereotype?

[6dmaya]

This image is a fascinating way to view the way in which we tend to see other people generally. It is so easy to judge anyone based sheerly on the clothes or makeup they wear and the way the present themselves physically. In many ways it is obvious that the first thing we catch when we meet a new person is how they appear, simply because we are only able to observe visually and cannot give them a character evaluation before actually knowing them. But this is surely an issue in our society- this tendency to use the power of observation to create stereotypes and make assumptions based on small observations. Since we are taught to associate certain behaviors or qualities with a specific group of people from a small age (the birth of stereotypes), it is easy or even natural to do so with everyone we meet. It is our job as citizens of a world diverse in thought, culture and knowledge to live with an open mind. I truly believe that open-mindedness is one of the most essential practices one can employ. It is paramount that we never forget there is always more we don't know, and have to learn from each other and about each other.

[6WElahe]

The image shown above is extremely fascinating and unfortunately truthful. It depicts that our emotions, thoughts, values, and beliefs are often unrecognizable when others observe us. What is visible are our behaviors and the results of our actions. Often times, assumptions are made before any communication is undergone. People tend to judge individuals based on where they come from or what they look like rather than who they are independently or what they stand for. Individuals have been grouped off in areas such as race, gender, social status, physical appearance, etc. and have been given fixed images. While stereotypes may sometimes be relatively true pertaining to a group of people, they are not justified due to the fact that a person’s innate personality, traits, and behaviors will never completely depend on which group they happen to fall in. In today’s society, stereotypes are everywhere. Conclusions are made of people in an instant. With race, the actions and behaviors of certain people from a race of people outline how the rest of the world sees that group. The unfortunate part about this setup is that it is often the extreme cases of actions that go noticed while not every single person in that group is behaving that same way. As an African American living in today’s society, I understand that there are plenty of stereotypes that I could fall under. These may pertain to my behavior, physical appearance, or lifestyle; some of them possibly true, some of them possibly false. Stereotypes have attempted to find a pattern based on general classifications, but human beings are much too complex for a system like that to work accurately.