Stereotype threat

This blog post is suppose to be about how stereotype threats have affected me. I'm a tall, white male from suburban Florida. I have plenty of facial hair, am handsome and intelligent enough to be married to my bright and beautiful wife, and wear a size 12 shoe. I don't think stereotypes affect me. This isn't a way of me 'flexing' my life to you. Its my conclusion after considering this possibility over several days.

So, instead, here is my opinion on stereotype threats. They suck. The fear and anxiety of falling into or being part of a stereotype is something I wished no one had to live with. Drawing assumptions on a person based off their demographic has be happening since the dawn of time. I don't imagine stereotyping people is going to stop until we're all just one vanilla shade of unisex weirdness.

So what can you and I do about it? I don't believe we can stop stereotyping. Trying to do so would be a waste of energy. I feel this way because I think a stereotype often has at least some underlying truth. Some asians have inherit advantages in mathematics based upon the syntax of their dialect (src). Women are typically bad at driving (src). I don't feel like drawing assumptions based on a person's attributes alone is wrong. Yet, assuming those assumptions are accurate is a big mistake. Regardless of my opinion of stereotypes, how do we prevent stereotype threat?

I hope it doesn't surprise you that I do not have a ground-breaking answer to this. I do think we need to continue diversifying our education patterns and practices. I do think we need to continue breaking cultural molds that have formed through the past. And I do think we, as a society, need to continue instilling resilience in our youth as greatly as possible. Oh, and yes, I do have a stereotype threat after all. Ever since I was a young boy, I've always assumed I can't dance.