Stereotypes Associated with African Americans - Research Paper Example

Abstract

This paper touches on the African American aspects and theories used to assist in the counseling sessions. We emphasize several different concepts associated with African Americans. I also seek to draw beneficial conclusions based on the findings gathered.

Introduction

In counseling, it mainly involves the interpretation of the client's behavior, thoughts, and feelings. As the counselor, I will assist me in the navigation of the client's journey from diagnosis to post-treatment. Theoretical approaches are a regular integral part of the counseling process as a whole. While in session with a client, one can seek behavioral therapy to boost the process of understanding each other while in the course. Classic conditioning is one type of behavioral treatment that was used by early theorist Ivan Pavlov's research. In this research, he executed a famous study using dogs, which mainly focused on the effects of a learned response (e.g., when a dog salivates when hearing a bell) through a stimulus in that there was the pairing the sound of a bell with food. In counseling, one can also use cognitive theory, which focuses on how people's thinking can be used to change the client's feelings and behavior.

In writing this article, my focus will be on African Americans as my focus cultural group. I choose to use this particular cultural group based on the fact around the world at the moment they are a point of focus by the majority of the parties. There is also a lot of stereotyping by African Americans, especially in western countries. Recently, there are too many groups being formed to fight for the rights of the African American individual. Based on the latest happenings around the world, many of the African American persons will tend to seek counseling help to help them in handling the worldly pressure that most of them may face. The African American stereotype has been across many generations, and as a result, need to be addressed. The affected parties helped most notably in terms of mental health. Mental health is a widely spoken issue, is a significant focus by a lot of citizens around the world. Negative stereotyping tends to affect the mental capacity of an African American person majorly. According to, (McCreray, 1997), one of the more powerful ways racial, economic, and gender prudence has affected African Americans is the use and the maintenance of negative stereotypes.

Methodology

In writing this paper, I seek to use qualitative data rather than quantitative data. By using qualitative data analysis, the counselor will be able to understand the African American story in a more profound sense and relate more with it. I will use secondary data analysis because African American persons are mostly situated in western countries. Nonetheless, this will assist me in the collection n of real-world knowledge on the behavior's social structures and shared beliefs of the African American person.

I use qualitative methodology being; through this, it is less controlled and more interpretive; thus, the data is relatively genuine for interpretation. According to (McCombes, 2019), methods used for qualitative research are often more flexible and subjective. During this research, my analysis will be based on language, images, and observations from Primary sources. A challenge that will be observed while using qualitative analysis is the use of secondary data sources since this is not first-hand information. However, interviews will not be used for this article because not many African Americans are found in our region. I will be involved in the qualitative analysis as a passive observer by examining past written materials.

African American culture

Many African American individuals try to identify themselves by the cultural practices that they participate in, even in these modern times. According to (Schiele 2005), one of the persistent and perennial challenges faced by an African American is cultural oppression. The effects of the abuse on African Americans have instead received enormous attention from concerned parties, focusing on political and economic oppression as the primary source of the social problems that African Americans try to confront. One of the most significant group successes of USA history is the survival and the continuation of African American life (Billingsley, 1992; Martin & Martin).

African Americans do continue to survive and function remarkable resiliency after the experience of some of the most brutal forms of injustice and dehumanization in United States history. According to (Asante, 1988; Dawson, 2001; J. Franklin, 1980; Karenga), the tenacity for survival was embedded in the history of African American resistance and the intense desire that they had to be free from slavery. The involuntary entry to the USA as slaves and the prolonged captivity has rendered African Americans' history and cultural traditions particularly vulnerable to vilification from cultural oppression that they faced. According to (Anderson1994), the legacy of slavery has dramatically contributed to the continued disproportionate representation of African Americans in many social problem categories. Furthermore, this has led to the optimal achievement of economic power and potential. The most essential and comprehensive consequence of African American's cultural oppression is the risk of not being aware and appreciative of their ancestral homeland and its customs, traditions, and contributions (Schiele, 2005).

Practices (Physical and Mental Disabilities)

An examination of recent research on African American women in higher education illustrates that the literature holds a minority position, not unlike African American women in society. There is, however, not much research on the African American woman on the level of higher education. Yet on the current and developing body of research on African American women in higher education provides the groundwork that can be used to realize African American history, dispelling myths, relating their experiences, formulating theoretical frameworks, and establishing our identity in higher education and also in the social structure at large. Why does there lack research about African American women in higher education? Is it believed that African American women cannot get to the levels of getting high advanced training?

African American Stereotypes

A Stereotype is a relatively fixed, simplistic generalization of something that is not entirely true or based on proven facts (Reber, 1985). When it comes to stereotypes of African Americans and their culture, generalization has evolved within American society and dates back to the colonial era. In the 2010s, there was the depiction of negative stereotypes on African Americans, which could be viewed in news reports and fiction, such as in films and TV shows, though not as negatively. Negative stereotypes tend to affect the social life of the African American person because these stereotypes are diversified long-standing and widespread. Social cues, such as male and female relationships are greatly affected.

African American scholars (Davis, 1983, 1990; Hooks, 1992; Hernton, 1987; West, 1993a, 1993b) suggested that mental health professional should consider the profound influence when it comes to racism, sexism, and economic oppression as they care and conceptualize the African American men and women. According to, (Thomas & Sillen, 1972), there is convincing evidence that the systemic influences concerning sexism, racism, and economic oppression have existed throughout the history of Africans in America. A more powerful way African Americans have been affected by racial, economic, and gender prejudice is by using and maintaining negative stereotypes. African Americans tend to have a long and assorted relationship related to negative racial and gender stereotypes.

It is evident that through stereotypes, there is the factor of racism. According to Banton (in Kitano, 1985), racism will be referred to as the efforts brought about by a dominant race group to exclude a dominant race group from the sharing of other material and the symbolic rewards of status and power. According to (Hall 1993), the universal perception towards African American men evolved from the history of western racism and stereotype. Professionals have enabled the validation of stereotypes while doing their research and in the publication of bogus conclusions that are concerning non-European participants. African American men are perceived by stereotype as being healthy, but, at the same time, intellectually dull: "dumb Black." The performance is likewise when it comes to IQ tests and other standardized measures of intelligence. Stereotypes can also be defined as "pictures in our heads,"

Conclusion

Based on the self-assessment, I was able to identify self-flaws when approaching people with a different cultural background. The world consists of several and various types of cultures. Nurturing these different cultures by an individual of another culturing brings a sense of belonging and creates a mutual ground that can be used for further interactions. I have also had the chance to explore my family's cultural background in terms of migration and settlement into the historically mentioned grounds. I have had a chance of understanding the basis of our cultural practices when it comes to practices such as marriage, initiation, and property inheritance.

Having had prior knowledge of stereotypes, I have had the chance to expand and understand other various stereotypes that exist for other different cultural groups. Besides, I also realized that a negative stereotype contributes to unhealthy mental capacity, mainly to the affected parties and may, in the worst case, affect other parties. Before coming up with a conclusion based on a stereotype, it is also wise to get involved with the other individual and try understanding their point of view and how they respond to the different situations around them.

I use qualitative methodology being; through this, it is less controlled and more interpretive; thus, the data is relatively genuine for interpretation. According to (McCombes, 2019), methods used for qualitative research are often more flexible and subjective. During this research, my analysis will be based on language, images, and observations from Primary sources. A challenge that will be observed while using qualitative analysis is the use of secondary data sources since this is not first-hand information. However, interviews will not be used for this article because not many African Americans are found in our region. I will be involved in the qualitative analysis as a passive observer by examining past written materials.

African American culture

Many African American individuals try to identify themselves by the cultural practices that they participate in, even in these modern times. According to (Schiele 2005), one of the persistent and perennial challenges faced by an African American is cultural oppression. The effects of the abuse on African Americans have instead received enormous attention from concerned parties, focusing on political and economic oppression as the primary source of the social problems that African Americans try to confront. One of the most significant group successes of USA history is the survival and the continuation of African American life (Billingsley, 1992; Martin & Martin).

African Americans do continue to survive and function remarkable resiliency after the experience of some of the most brutal forms of injustice and dehumanization in United States history. According to (Asante, 1988; Dawson, 2001; J. Franklin, 1980; Karenga), the tenacity for survival was embedded in the history of African American resistance and the intense desire that they had to be free from slavery. The involuntary entry to the USA as slaves and the prolonged captivity has rendered African Americans' history and cultural traditions particularly vulnerable to vilification from cultural oppression that they faced. According to (Anderson1994), the legacy of slavery has dramatically contributed to the continued disproportionate representation of African Americans in many social problem categories. Furthermore, this has led to the optimal achievement of economic power and potential. The most essential and comprehensive consequence of African American's cultural oppression is the risk of not being aware and appreciative of their ancestral homeland and its customs, traditions, and contributions (Schiele, 2005).

Practices (Physical and Mental Disabilities)

An examination of recent research on African American women in higher education illustrates that the literature holds a minority position, not unlike African American women in society. There is, however, not much research on the African American woman on the level of higher education. Yet on the current and developing body of research on African American women in higher education provides the groundwork that can be used to realize African American history, dispelling myths, relating their experiences, formulating theoretical frameworks, and establishing our identity in higher education and also in the social structure at large. Why does there lack research about African American women in higher education? Is it believed that African American women cannot get to the levels of getting high advanced training?

African American Stereotypes

A Stereotype is a relatively fixed, simplistic generalization of something that is not entirely true or based on proven facts (Reber, 1985). When it comes to stereotypes of African Americans and their culture, generalization has evolved within American society and dates back to the colonial era. Read More