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Wednesday 17 June 2009

Stereotyping

How often have you jeered "Ah-beng" at a passing low, loud, blinking Proton or at a blonde-haired dude with bright coloured tight pants talking loudly on his mobile? i bet we're all guilty. Best bit is, up until recently (and soon again in the near future!!) i used to drive around in a low, loud Proton with trance music blaring from the stereo... i resent being called an ah-beng. Who gave us the right to judge someone anyway?. Its wise to look at things from many different perspectives i say. A recent article on "Ah-bengs" in The Star newspaper highlighted points i used to preach awhile back to my narrow minded stereotyping friends. Sadly, It's not just the chinese "ah-beng" that is plagued with this negative perception, but sometimes even an entire race is stereotyped as "lazy" or "drunks". We're all victims of ignorance.

Here's some info i gathered from the article i feel all of us need to digest, and the next time you meet or see someone who's different from you, don't judge or jump to conclusions. According to Prof.Datuk Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Director of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Institute of Ethnic studies; "Stereotypes stem from a negative perception. From an anthropological standpoint, it is simply that in trying to define ourselves, we also reject the other."

"Stereotypes develop over time as a result of ignorance or half-knowledge about the other. What makes it worse is when it is repeated many times by many groups of individuals. What is myth, perception or illusion becomes reality."

"One doesn't know what the other's lifestyle is like, and perceived it as unusual or deviant. People only choose to see what they want to see. This is the danger of 'half-knowledge'. They don't bother to find out what the reality is."

So, as we've mentioned throughout this post.. lets not judge a book by its cover. Practice Mutual Respect.

2 comments:

bohtak said...

but sometimes its true! LOL!

Demon said...

Anonymous: Exactly the feedback we're looking for.. cause as long as they drive a blinkie proton and have 'gwai lou' wannabe hair.. you've already judged them.