Question #1 Stereotypes

Being part of a group in some form or another will lead to stereotypes. For me, i used to encounter stereotypes and still do when playing basketball. I am white, and there are several stereotypes that go along with being white and being an athlete. One that i encounter quite often is that people expect me to be a good shooter. This happens because basketball in general (especially at the professional level) sees less and less white athletes as the years go by. Because of this, I think people had to glorify white people at some point to make them feel worthy of being in their position as a professional athlete. The one attribute that tended to be associated with this glorification was shooting, and that white people were good at it. This specific example does identify with the concepts in this chapter, because it shows how stereotypes perpetuate myths by representing each individual of a specific group as a token. People see me as a white basketball player and associate me with "their understanding" of a white basketball player. This leads to people not being able to see a valuable difference between me and the stereotype, thus further perpetuating the myth.