|
|
May 3, 1999
Last week, we couldn’t get the Casa Magdalena Amora people or the African American Theme House people to come so we decided to talk about Interracial dating in small groups. We divided ourselves into three groups and we did little skits to show what kind of stereotypes there were in interracial marriages. The audience had to guess what race they were from these stereotypes.
I was grouped up with Mark Feng and our group did a skit between an Asian American man and an African American female. It was hard for me to play the role of the African American woman because their stereotype was completely different from my personality. I had to be bold and fast-talking which I am not normally. The girls in the group were able to figure out who I was instantly by my actions though.
After our little charade game, we went back into one huge group and we discussed the stereotypes between the different groups. I liked the discussion made between Aaron, Roger, and Mark about how the stereotypes can hurt an African American. It was interesting to hear their theories of how the African American person is marked to be “bad” just because of the color of their skin. They are treated differently by everybody and since they are treated this way, it is easier for them to fall back on these bad stereotypes and become criminals themselves. When Kartik asked what kinds of solutions there might be to erase some of the bad stereotypes, most people agreed that talking among different groups will help, but not completely. I agree with this concept. Stereotypes are somewhat based on facts so even if the different groups do sit down and talk, they are still going to go back to their stereotypes once something bad happens.
