I’m a creature of habit, so every morning I wake up, I roll
over, grab my phone from my desk, open up the New Zealand Herald and read up on
what’s going on in the world that day. The usual suspects include dirty politicians,
celebrity worship, crime stats, bombings and heinous acts of terror, all of
which I find myself glazing over more and more. However, as I caught up with
the world from my bed a few days ago, an article caught my eye: an innocent
young woman had been egregiously stereotyped and accused of shoplifting while shopping
at Glassons.
Christina Victor appeared teary-eyed as she explained her
traumatic experience, describing being accosted by the security staff whom
pointed and laughed at her, telling her she “looked dodgy”. She was then asked
to explain where she got her new heels from. Realizing they could not prove any
theft had taken place, Christina was released. Unsurprisingly, she describes
her experience as humiliating and degrading, which had left her shaking and in
tears.
Aside from the appalling way Christina was treated, what’s
remarkable about this situation is the baffling mental gymnastics that were
performed in order to reach the conclusion that this woman had stolen something
from the store. While I was obviously not present during the event, it would be
safe to assume the theft prevention staff took a look at the woman and her new
shoes and made a judgment call based on colour of her skin or ethnicity. She was
effectively stereotyped by an ignorant employee. Would Christina have been
stopped if she were white? If we are to believe she would have not been stopped,
then Christina was effectively discriminated against due to her ethnicity; and due
to the subliminal nature of the stereotyping, she is of course a victim of the
more sinister inferential racism.
This flippant stereotyping seems to be part of a bigger
issue of racism we are facing in modern society. As Susan has explained in the
week 4 lecture, stereotyping effectively whittles down a group to a few
negative qualities which are found in just a few individuals. This doesn’t necessarily
mean all stereotypes are bad, as they are not always negative, though assuming
a young woman to have potentially stolen a pair of shoes because of her ethnicity
is incredibly problematic.
So where do these stereotypes come from? Or perhaps more
importantly, how are they perpetuated? I feel as though a number of the more
negative stereotypes are down to how ethnicities are portrayed in the media. We
often see the majority of crime reports and statistics featuring Maori
offenders, which often magnifies the issue and misrepresents Maori on the
whole. A person following the news may constantly be bombarded with articles
about Maori offenders and start to believe that this is representative of Maori
as a whole. This is made even worse by the fact that we don’t hear about the
constant ‘blue collar’ crimes such as tax evasion as much. This of course can
have a trickledown effect, leading to a situation where a young woman like
Christina is unfairly targeted due to the preconceived notions of the ignorant.
The issue will be how we, as a society, deconstruct and
quash the perpetual stereotyping minorities are facing. It is an incredibly
complex issue that does not have a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Perhaps
leaving prejudice at the door would be a good start.
Sources:
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