This article is about ethnic stereotypes directed against people of Caucasian or white-European descent, or more broadly anyone who appears to be white-skinned. It does not cover stereotypes that are unique to a specific country or culture.
Common stereotypes
Dancing ability
One common stereotype, relayed in comparison to a typical black stereotype, is that white people lack a sense of rhythm and cannot dance. Comedian Eddie Murphy commented that:
White people can\'t dance. I\'m not being racist it\'s true. Just like when white people say black people have big lips, it\'s not racist it\'s true. Black people have big lips, white people can\'t dance. Some brothers will be in the club and white people are like, "What are those niggers doing in here?" They watchin\' y\'all dance. And they\'re like, "Look at these crazy muthafuckas." Y\'all be stepping on people\'s feet and hitting one another.
— Eddie Murphy[Eddie Murphy: "Eddie Murphy Raw", 1987]
This stereotype has become so accepted that both white and black comedians lampoon the dancing ability of white people.[Examples include:
]
- The DAMN! Show: "How to Dance like a White Guy", 2006
- George Carlin: "George Carlin on white people", You Are All Diseased", 1999
Athletic ability
There is a belief that people of Caucasian ethnic background are less athletically inclined than people of African origin when playing certain sports. The Copenhagen Institute of Sports Science conducted some tests comparing certain genetic characteristics of the natives of Kenya with Europeans [Lindsey, Emma: "Why black athletes are the fastest runners", Express Newspapers, 2000], which did show some differences in the way Kenyans and Europeans store oxygen.
An experiment was conducted to demonstrate the perceptual confirmation of racial stereotypes about Black and White athletes. In a 2 x 2 design, target race (Black vs. White) and target athleticism (perceived athletic vs. unathletic) were manipulated by providing participants with a photograph of a male basketball player. Participants then listened to a college basketball game and were asked to evaluate the target\'s athletic abilities, individual performance, and contribution to his team\' s performance. Multivariate analyses showed only a main effect for target race on the measures of ability and team performance. Whereas the Black targets were rated as exhibiting significantly more athletic ability and having played a better game, White targets were rated as exhibiting significantly more basketball intelligence and hustle. The results suggest that participants relied on a stereotype of Black and White athletes to guide their evaluations of the target\'s abilities and performance.["White Men Can\'t Jump": Evidence for the Perceptual Confirmation of Racial Stereotypes Following a Basketball Game Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 1997, Vol. 19, No. 3, Pages 291-306]
Sexuality
White men are stereotyped as being not very sexual. Blacks often stereotype white men as having small penises and low stamina in addition to being less muscular, and less aggressive and are also stereotyped as being more willing to experiment with taboo sexual behaviors such as homosexuality or BDSM and other fetishes, despite the fact that no well known studies have supported these assumptions.
White women conversely are seen as power hungry and somewhat neurotic. They\'re often portrayed in films and on television to be ignorant, manipulative and/or naive, but are also seen as more sexually desirable, submissive.
Studies
In a study on mutual and self-perceptions of racial images of white, black and Japanese Americans, whites were stereotyped as materialistic and pleasure-loving. Whites are stereotyped as racists. In general whites were stereotyped with positive traits and minority groups with negative traits.[Reciprocity in Racial Stereotypes: White, Black, and Yellow Minako Kurokawa Maykovich The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 77, No. 5 (Mar., 1972), pp. 876-897] In a study on the associative strength between two words subjects, regardless of prejudice score, responded reliably faster when positive attitudes (e.g., smart) were paired with whites than when they were paired with blacks.[Racial Stereotypes: Associations and Ascriptions of Positive and Negative Characteristics Samuel L. Gaertner, John P. McLaughlin Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Mar., 1983), pp. 23-30]
See also
References
External links
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