Title: How do we rid ourselves of stereotypes? - Getting Race Right
Headings: How do we rid ourselves of stereotypes?
How do we rid ourselves of stereotypes?
Educate Yourself
Meet New People
Get motivated
Get the facts
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Content: So many good books have been written from various faith perspectives, too. Meet New People
Learning about race and racism is good. But it’s not enough by itself. There is a huge research literature, going back decades, on what happens when we establish meaningful, reciprocal relationships people from other groups ( Allport, 1954 ). Being in equal-status (but not dominant/subordinate) relationships with people from different backgrounds enables us to see them as complete human beings: members of their social groups to be sure, but unique in their particular set of personal experiences and characteristics. The result of this kind of contact is a significant drop in both prejudice and stereotyping ( Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006 ). Compared with White children in desegregated schools, for example, White children in an all-White school are more likely to say negative things about Black children they see in a picture, and are less likely to assume that Black and White children can be friends ( McGlothlin and Killen, 2006 ). A little experience with cross-racial interactions also reduces anxiety among both majority- and minority-group members. As it turns out, getting to know people from other backgrounds usually goes better than we expect.