Stereotypes and Wilshire Bus

Our discussion on Wednesday got me thinking about stereotypes and why they exist. I guess first we should define a stereotype and the distinction of one from prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is preconceived feelings, that are typically negative, about someone or something and stereotypes are beliefs about people based on their membership in a particular group. Discrimination is making a distinction in favor of or against a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit; this is usually done using stereotypes and prejudices. I agree with Professor Suh in that stereotypes don't just come about on their own. There is always some sort of historical background to it. But my question is, why do they still exist? Many stereotypes originate from early history, yet we still choose to use them today. Is it just something that we've always known and are too afraid to stray away from? From a social psychology perspective, people use stereotypes because they allow people to quickly process new information, organize people’s past experiences, and help people to make predictions about other people’s behavior. Basically, it's the easy way out. In a society that's always on the go, anything that makes life easier/faster will be taken advantage of. According to social psych, stereotypes are hard to change because when people encounter instances that disconfirm their stereotypes of a particular group, they tend to assume that those instances are just exceptions. Also people’s perceptions are influenced by their expectations and people selectively recall instances that confirm their stereotypes and forget about disconfirming instances.

In regards to "Wilshire Bus," I really enjoyed our discussion. We came up with many details the author included that I had not seen when I read it on my own. I was interested in the fact that a distinction was made between the Chinese and the Japanese passengers. This discrimination against only certain Asian groups has come up again and again. In terms of our readings, there definitely is historical context and reasoning as to why this is. We also talked about why Esther and the Scottish/French man chose to say something after the matter. This has a lot to do with stereotypes and trying to break them. I think one of the main points of this story is that we have this ideal of ending discrimination, but at the same time many don't put effort into trying to make this happen. Certain groups don't want to be victimized and so they conform because they want to be accepted by the group, and because they fear rejection by the group. Again, this is the easier thing to do.

And now to address Professor Suh's question that was asked at the end of the class: how does the story connect with the last scene at the soldiers' home? I think the scene strongly demonstrates what I came up with above as the take-away message of the story. The husband is sitting in a room with a bunch of other soldiers and plays the macho, manly role when he "patted her head, looked around smugly at his roommates, and asked tenderly, 'What's the matter? You've been missing me a whole lot, huh?'" In front of "the guys" he feels the need to conform and fit the stereotype of a man. Instead of trying to comfort his wife and expressing some sympathy, he comes across as sarcastic and narcissistic. The wife also contributes to this example. She spends the whole story debating about her identity and deciding if she should exclude herself from the other Asian groups or not. At the end of the bus ride I feel as if she has come to a conclusion and wants to feel bad for the Chinese family. However, once she sees her husband again she loses all liberation and conforms to the stereotype of a woman. Instead of telling her husband what's wrong, she simply answers, "yes, [are]n't women silly?"