CHAPTER 5 Stereotypes Prejudices Racism
4
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS IN CROSS-CULTURAL
COMMUNICATIONS:
STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICES, AND RACISM
Objectives
At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
Describe the origin of stereotype, prejudices, and racism.
Describe the danger of stereotype, prejudices, and racism.
Given a specific case, recognize stereotypes, prejudices, and racism.
Given a specific case, propose an alternative solution or scenario that would be more culturally appropriate.
This book chapter was written exclusively for the CCA course (HvA) 2014-2015 by Nguyen-Phuong-Mai, PhD. It is part of the author’s forthcoming book publication. Reprint or distribution must be obtained with written permission (p.nguyen@hva.nl)
1
STEREOTYPE
Everybody knows some jokes about stereotypes of a cultural group. The most common is the one about “Hell and Heaven”. This joke begins:
Heaven is a place where: The police are British, the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian, and everything is organized by the Germans.
Hell is a place where: The police are French, the chefs are British, the lovers are Germans, and everything is organized by the Italian.
The fact that people in each cited country can have a laugh suggests that there is a grain of truth in this joke. There is an overwhelming perception that the Italians are erotic and chaotic, and that the Germans are much better than the Italian in structuring their life but at the same time can be quite uptight with expression of emotion. As for the British, their gastronomy is far from on par with that of the French (in fact French cuisine is so tasty that it has been awarded World Heritage status by
UNESCO), but the British are sure known for seeing authority as a professional privilege while the
French may perceive authority as a right and make it less open to question.
A stereotype is a fixed, over-generalized belief about a particular group of people or a coculture. No matter how accurate or inaccurate a stereotype is, it is mostly based on some reality,
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS IN CROSS-CULTURAL
COMMUNICATIONS:
STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICES, AND RACISM
Objectives
At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
Describe the origin of stereotype, prejudices, and racism.
Describe the danger of stereotype, prejudices, and racism.
Given a specific case, recognize stereotypes, prejudices, and racism.
Given a specific case, propose an alternative solution or scenario that would be more culturally appropriate.
This book chapter was written exclusively for the CCA course (HvA) 2014-2015 by Nguyen-Phuong-Mai, PhD. It is part of the author’s forthcoming book publication. Reprint or distribution must be obtained with written permission (p.nguyen@hva.nl)
1
STEREOTYPE
Everybody knows some jokes about stereotypes of a cultural group. The most common is the one about “Hell and Heaven”. This joke begins:
Heaven is a place where: The police are British, the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian, and everything is organized by the Germans.
Hell is a place where: The police are French, the chefs are British, the lovers are Germans, and everything is organized by the Italian.
The fact that people in each cited country can have a laugh suggests that there is a grain of truth in this joke. There is an overwhelming perception that the Italians are erotic and chaotic, and that the Germans are much better than the Italian in structuring their life but at the same time can be quite uptight with expression of emotion. As for the British, their gastronomy is far from on par with that of the French (in fact French cuisine is so tasty that it has been awarded World Heritage status by
UNESCO), but the British are sure known for seeing authority as a professional privilege while the
French may perceive authority as a right and make it less open to question.
A stereotype is a fixed, over-generalized belief about a particular group of people or a coculture. No matter how accurate or inaccurate a stereotype is, it is mostly based on some reality,
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