Critical Commentaries on Social Behavior.

Social Behavior: Stereotype/Prejudice.

A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups, or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups, based on some prior assumptions. (wikikikikipedia)

First, let me start off with Racial Stereotypes in Malaysia.

"An analysis of 50 cultures worldwide has found that stereotypes people believe about their own cultures don’t hold up to actual studies of their national personalities"

These facts are extremely inaccurate(maybe)

Chinese
- They sell DVDs and Handphones for living.
- Chinese gangster always color their hair gold.
- They are very rich.
- They like to con people
- Chinese people are very smart and hardworking too
- They owned a modified Proton Waja/Wira
- Chinese nerd always bring water bottle to school.
- They are racist

Malay
- They are lazy but still rich because of subsidies that they get from government.
- They always depend on government subsidies. (we get a discount when we eat at Pizza Hut, woohoooo)
- They will end up working in government company.
- Malays are Mat Rempit and of course Malay only use Motorcycle to travel.
- They are racist

For more information just read a good explanation and commentaries on Mat Rempit by Furqaan.

Indian
- They are lazy and poor too.
- They run very fast and have a good stamina.
- They eat curry everyday
- They like bright colors
- They are racist.
- They have very bad taste in music

Even though stereotyping is inaccurate, it is an efficient way to mentally organise large blocks of information. Categorization is an essential human capability because it enables us to simplify, predict, and organize our world.(wikipedia)

I sometimes believe in racial and ethnic stereotype because in our culture, we have different way of growing up, we see different things, we communicate with different language and we listen to different music. Somehow these are the factors that make our race unique in a way. We have different perception towards some things because things that we see, eat, listen and speak will somehow influence our action, judgement and perception.

Different disciplines give different accounts of how stereotypes develop.(wikikikipedia)

A big company called Isobar is a company that bought numbers of Digital Multimedia agency from 34 different countries around the world. They are not partners or affiliate to the agency, but fully owned. Even though they fully owned the agencies, they have the principle of letting the agencies to retain their identities and never rebrand it. According to them, it is because each different companies from different places has its own cultural background and local speciality.


Media Technology and Stereotyping

This is how it relates to my FYP. Technology. It is always about technology.

A stereotype is a tricky thing, warns comedian Jackie Mason. “I think that people have a stereotype of themselves in accordance to what they’re told is their public image,” Mason said. “They don’t necessarily believe the stereotype. But they know what it is.”

Media technology is powerful, it took about two hours for people around the world to know about the death of Michael Jackson. Ok, I am joking, I made that one up. What I'm trying to say is media is very strong and it could control our perception about certain things.

I personally think that media is the major factor of Stereotyping. I remember watching a documentary about Sarawakian culture when I was a kid. I end up digesting the information that all Sarawakian people only lives in Rumah Panjang(Long House) or on the tree and they always walk around with cawat and chandelier headdresses. Haih, I hate RTM.

These are the things people learn from media.
- Muslims are terrorist. (Iron Man, 2008) Image via here.


- White people always look pretty and handsome (Twilight, 2008) Image via here.


- Black people like to show off their money and they like to rap. (I'm not sure who he is) Image via here.


- Nerd people always wear glasses (Lee Hyori - You Go Girl, 2008) Image via here.



"As far as stereotyping goes, it’s a case of the blind leading the blind. One idiot decides it would be fun to start it, and the rest follows. There’s only one problem – generalization is never a good idea and most of the time, there’s no basis in these accusations. It’s like expecting all the children to look identical because they came from the same womb. Take note that I do not in any way believe or support these stereotypes." - Magenta

This is what annoys me. They expect you to act a certain way just because you came from a certain place.

"Oh, you are from [insert where you came from] No wonder you are [Insert Stereotype here]"

For example,

When i said Klang is where i came from, they will ask me whether or not I am Javanese or whether or not i grow up with Indian gangsters or whether or not I keep crows as my pet. The truth is:

No! I am not Javanese, I am Banjarese(I think).

No! I don't grow up with Indian gangsters. In my neighborhood, most of them are chinese and they like to play chinese Yo Yo.

Yes! there are a lot of crows flying around. But i don't keep them as a pet. I used to have cute cats. They are dead, crows ate them.

My conclusion is we can't judge someone based on stereotype. After all Poor is poor and rich is rich pretty is pretty and ugly is ugly. These do not recognize race, color or creed. Even religion does not come into play.

Oh by the way,
I would like to congratulate Jia Wen because she passed her driving test. But that doesn't mean she kills the 'women don't know how to drive' stereotype.

See you later alligator.

This video is about how west malaysia stereotype the people who lives in east Malaysia.



Reference

http://english.cri.cn/3188/2006/08/29/193@132518.htm
http://www.isobar.net/
http://malaysia2moro.blogspot.com/2007/12/stereotyping-malaysian-people-part-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype
http://fypfurqaanmohamad.blogspot.com/2009/11/fast-furious-rempit-style.html
http://magenta-made.blogspot.com/2008/01/stereotyping-in-malaysia-part-1.html
Typical Malaysian Indian(2007), Viknesh Jayapalen.