Since it’s hard to tell exactly where an exotic person is from, he or she often bears the burden of the good and bad stereotypes from several cultures and religions. For example: People can’t always tell I’m Turkish just by looking at me. I’m a mystery to them, which can be exciting, because they are intrigued by my appearance; scary, because they think I’m a terrorist; or confusing, because they’re not sure whether to say hola or merhaba. I think this confusion is partially why people feel the need to immediately ask where I’m from — narrowing down my culture will give them a better understanding of my background and thus there will be fewer surprises for them, and fewer chances to offend. It’s important to be aware of stereotyping, and as an exotic person, it’s equally important to be aware of those stereotypes cast upon you. People mistake you for all kinds of things, and you have to be prepared for that. Even when something like the Boston Marathon Bombing happens and you are quietly (and selfishly) praying that the perpetrators aren’t from your ethnicity, you know deep down that the surrounding stereotypes will probably affect you and your culture regardless.
How and why do we create ideas in our head about entire cultures? Stereotyping often says more about the stereotyper than the stereotyped. One way to think about this: Someone tells you a soup has peppers in it, so you may expect that when it touches your tongue, it’s going to be spicy. Spicy food is much less intimidating when you already anticipate what’s coming. You stereotype the soup to be spicy, even if you don’t know what kind of peppers they are, where they came from, or how they were prepared. So does this say something about the soup, or more about the person eating it?
Like most things in nature, stereotyping has a pattern and structure that we can study. At the Technical University of Dresden in Germany, I took a course about the Sociology of Culture to learn about how people behave in a foreign environment and why we tend to stereotype.WWW We discussed one of the main reasons for stereotyping as fearing what we don’t know or understand, which makes sense when considering survival of the fittest. The zebra that trusted his new lion friend didn’t get to tell his siblings about it the next day. When you’re in a foreign environment, it’s especially important to think about how the people behave and communicate, what the culture values and what you might expect to find there. Nothing can surprise or frighten you upon arrival, and thus you can enjoy your visit without accidentally offending someone or getting yourself into trouble. In a way, stereotyping helps you feel and act less foreign in a foreign environment.
Just from considering what I’ve learned about stereotyping from my class, how I stereotype, and how others stereotype me, I do see some reasoning behind both “good” and “bad” stereotyping. My experiences suggest that many people use stereotypes as an expectation for other people and cultures to feel more comfortable interacting with them, like expecting that a soup will be spicy. That’s not always a bad thing — it helps us communicate effectively with others, and be respectful of other cultures. But sometimes we create negative stereotypes of a group, and that’s where problems can occur. A stereotype can only be broken down after seeing the other side, seeing that the previous expectation was either false or somewhat inaccurate. This is difficult to do, and the reality is that it’s beneficial and essential to know the positive and negative expectations that people have about you and your culture. Like the reasons I discussed before, recognizing how others stereotype can lead to more effective communication, and can even provide chances to break down negative stereotypes by changing someone’s expectations.
There’s more to a person and a culture than can be summed up in a few words or characteristics. A girl may look exotic and a soup may contain peppers, but of course there’s always more to the story. The soup could realistically be spicy, bitter, or even sweet — but it’s hard to say without actually taking a sip and experiencing it for yourself. It’s ok to admit it — we often “deal” with foreign cultures by simplifying them. But culture isn’t something to be reduced down to a few key words, such as Germans = beer and detailed scheduling, or Americans = freedom and money, and it might be more productive to take a look at ourselves and evaluate why we make these judgments in the first place. The fact that we all stereotype is something that could bring us closer. Maybe in a strange and perfect world, we could understand something about each other, which is how we try to understand each other.
Zeynep Deligonul is a recent BU grad in Neuroscience. She is currently pursuing employment opportunities in the Boston area. In her spare time she can be found driving/getting lost in Cambridge, playing video games, dancing with friends and trying new things (like writing columns for The Riveter!) Follow her on Twitter @zeynepx.
