Asians are supposed to be smart, Mexicans are supposedly not smart enough, and African Americans apparently do a lot of crimes. Ever heard of that line of thinking before? When we hear the word stereotypes, we typically think of minorities in America and the notions people have against them. But there is yet another class of stereotypes that is often overlooked! Believe it or not, there are stereotypes against Americans and “white” people. Particularly, countries in Asia have a lot of stereotypes against Americans. Weird isn’t it?
Immigrants in the United States particularly have a lot to say in this. In an interview, one immigrant quoted, “Before I came to America, I thought Americans were really rude and big show-offs. They weren’t hard working, and partied a lot. I thought they believed they were superior and they thought very highly of themselves.” Interesting...but how much of this is really true? Yes Americans love socializing, but this does not account that all them just keep partying. No, Americans are very hard working. They seek to innovate and challenge themselves. But again, it depends from person to person. Different people have different viewpoints, values, and personalities. You can’t just clump them all in the one category of race and then assert that people of x race are smart, while people of y race love partying. So rather than trying to categorize people, we should understand that each person is unique and brings diversity to our world.
Another immigrant stated, “Back in India, we thought that Americans had it so easy. They had everything they needed at their fingertips and could have a great life easily. But when I came to America, I had realized that it was not as easy as we had thought it to be. There are certainly many opportunities, but that doesn’t mean that you will get it just like that. In order to be successful, you have to work extremely hard. But I think that is what’s so great about America. You can do anything you want, but you have to push yourself to think beyond the surface. That is when you start to appreciate the meaning of ‘opportunities’; it is not simply money or a good job. It is being able to adopt a different mindset, to think beyond the materialistic life.”
America is regarded as the "Land of Opportunities", but some people seem to interpret this as "life is easy in America." So this leads to an interesting question: can you ever stereotype a country? Is it accurate to state that America gives you an easy life? According to this immigrant, one still has to work hard to get the life they want, so it isn’t exactly easy. By asserting that “Americans have it easy” we are undermining the huge amount of work they may have done, diminishing their efforts by simply reasoning that it was always easy. Many objections may be pointed out, but if anything, it should be safe to say that every single person, regardless of the country they live in, their race, or their gender, is unique. And it is when we start stereotyping and clumping people in the same category that we start to remove the beauty of the diversity everyone brings in this world.
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