Stereotypes: Where do they begin?

Have you ever heard someone say a belief and it enables you to respond quickly? Most likely you are responding quickly to the situation because you may have had a similar experience to it before. Stereotypes are generalized beliefs about a particular group or class of people. In my words they are opinionated facts formed from common observations. It seems like all stereotypes are based off opinions referring to a Teen Ink post.

A stereotype has the advantage to judge a certain group or class of people based of off multiple encounters. It has a disadvantage to make people ignore differences between individuals. They allow us to think things about people that may or may not be true; this is called being stereotypical. Most stereotypes tend to reveal a negative impression or message. Positive stereotypes are rare. There is no such thing as a positive stereotype because they are all based judges about a particular group. This is only my opinion. It seems like all issues in the world are formed off of opinions.

I am interested in this topic because it is not a common study. As said in the NY Times stereotypes are issues involving ignorance, racism, and hypocrisy. The main focus here is how stereotypes affect youth. How does one become aware of a stereotype? Do they understand the effects of it? I plan to discover more issues involving this topic. Also, I hope to gather as much information as I can from people willing to share their experiences.

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