Sociology Research Proposal- revision

Research Proposal on Racial Stereotyping and Prejudice

Introduction

People from all over the world travel to different places and regions to experience the feeling of adventure and cultural integration with other individuals. When these people travel, they meet individuals from diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and with various affiliations. Racial affiliation is one of the associations that people connect themselves with when interacting. Besides, many people tend to act, think, and feel differently when interacting with others based on the fact that they belong to dissimilar races. Some show hate, prejudice, and stereotyping characteristics after discovering that another individual is affiliated to a different race. The problems that arise and persist as a result of racial discrimination, at times, tend to affect other people when they travel to different destinations. For instance, international tourists have raised concerns over how they receive unfair treatment because of their races.

The problems associated with racial stereotyping and prejudice not only affect tourists, but also people in learning institutions, business, homes, and other avenues. This challenge has become significant because diversity is almost in every part of the globe. No country has only people with common affiliations and ethnicities in the world. Therefore, there are high chances of meeting people of different color and race in nearly every part of the universe (Hall et al., 2015). Besides, humankind is created differently which brings in the issue of diversity and variety. In the world, we have many races living in different parts where some are the original inhabitants while others became residents as a result of migration. For instance, a country like the United States of America has many people who are affiliated with different races. This aspect of the population makes the United States to be ranked as one of the countries with the highest diversity. However, the country still experiences problems associated with racial stereotyping and prejudice. Many people, especially those affiliated to the white race show hatred, discrimination, and forms of injustices on other races.

Research Problem

Migration and movement of people to different places is an issue that has been in existence for a long time. Even before a country like the United States gained independence, people used to move and settle in different parts of the world. Eventually, the world ended up having a diversity of people from all the races. However, in some places, only a few people from a certain race moved and settled there which created the issue of minority and majority (Hinton, 2017). Going by the example of the United States, the majority appear to be comprised of the whites making other races like the Africans, Hispanics, and Asians to constitute the minority. Besides, even in the modern age, people are still immigrating and migrating.

The increase in the number of minority immigrants has been an issue of concern for a long time. Shocking, various challenges that are associated with racial affiliations are still experienced in the modern age. In spite of having growth and developments that have improved various parts of the world and its cultures, discrimination based on race and ethnicity is rampant in the United States and other parts of the world. In most cases, racial and ethnic discrimination is between whites and non-whites. Immigrant communities have been among the severely affected by problems of racial stereotyping and prejudice. For example, people who migrated to the US after 1975 have reported cases of physical, psychological, mental, social, mental, and cultural challenges with regards to prejudice and discrimination because of their races.

Literature Review

Prejudice

Prejudice is usually described as an attitude with a conative component, an effective component, and a cognitive aspect. Hence, prejudice can be described as antagonism that is essentially based on an inflexible and inappropriate generalization or pre-judgment. In most cases, prejudice is expressed or felt and concentrated on a group of people who are affiliated to a certain race or ethnicity. Some research and studies suggest that prejudice is a negative attitude based on the fact that the people who pre-judge base it on bad motives (Williams, Sng & Neuberg 2016). For instance, some people feel others are inferior because they do not like them. It is surprising that there is a group of people who pre-judge others since they found it as a norm or a habit from others. Therefore, they go on doing like their colleague did and even pass on the culture without wanting to find the truth in it. Consequently, the victims, who in most cases are the non-whites and other minority groups continue to suffer the consequences of the problems of racial stereotyping and prejudice.

Some researchers use psychology to suggest that prejudice creates an environment in which there is the presence of other individuals while adjusting everyone to objects within it. Besides, these researchers claim that prejudice can also be used for other reasons such as providing material possession and improving the self-esteem of some individuals. Even though psychology scholars suggest that prejudice is based on an individual’s attitude sociology professionals state that the concept of pre-judging has other purposes, especially when used at the group level. In a nutshell, when a person has an attribute of prejudice when relating to people affiliated to other races, the individual may be doing so to achieve personal goals that are attitude based. However, a certain group of people may become prejudice when relating to their counterparts from other races to gain certain benefits or aspirations.

Stereotyping

The word “stereotype” is often used to refer to a distinct picture that comes in the mind of a person when a certain thing is mentioned. When people are relating to each other, some individuals create stereotypes of others. Therefore, they end up developing certain “image” or beliefs concerning others. For instance, there is a group of whites who distinctively believe that non-whites are inferior and less important people who should be disregarded. The former thus associate the later with incapability, incompleteness, and other disadvantages. In such a case, the disregarded people may also believe that they are incapable, incomplete, or disadvantaged which end up lowering their esteems. Besides, stereotyping facilitate other problems and challenges due to the idea of labeling others (FitzGerald & Hurst 2017). For instance, some stereotyped people may end up starting fights as a counteractive measure for being called inferior and other unpleasant names.

Some studies suggest that stereotyping entails mental diagrams used when processing information on other individuals based on their social perspectives. Stereotyping makes people have an idea of what to expect when they see or interact with others. At times, the concept of stereotyping is used to suggest the same meaning as that of prejudice. This is because when we say that stereotyping makes people have an idea of what to expect from others is the same as pre-judging. Importantly, Stereotypes greatly contributed to the discrimination and perpetration of other injustices, particularly to minority groups across the globe (Van Dijk, 2015). A majority of people who stereotype others tend to associate them with limitations and disadvantages. The main aim of people who stereotype others is to discriminate them and make others have the same perception towards the later. Therefore, the stereotyped individuals may feel intimidated or of lesser important as compared to their counterparts. The whites in a nation like the US stereotype others by disregarding and refuting them which paves the way for discrimination, hate, and other racial-based problems.

Discrimination

As far as interaction among people is concerned, discrimination is associated with having a disapproving meaning. Also, discrimination is also believed to suggest a negative perception of an individual towards others. At the societal level, discrimination is found to be the cause of unfair and undesired treatment of people because of having an association with a certain group, ethnicity or race (Williams, Sng & Neuberg 2016). Mostly, discrimination makes those with negative perception towards others to adopt inappropriate behaviors that will directly or indirectly affect them. For example, some members of the majority race tend to openly show hatred or disrespect towards the minority races as signs of discrimination. In extreme cases, some people use negative and abusive remarks to individuals affiliated to minority races to suggest high levels of discrimination.

Additionally, discrimination can also be used to demonstrate how a certain group of people deny others some rights based on their race or ethnicity. In such a case, members of an advantaged group can make it difficult or create some stringent conditions like price hike on some products to ensure the disadvantaged ones do get what they yearn for. It is also essential to note that in this case, local authorities and regulatory bodies also play a crucial role in facilitating discrimination among people. Besides, the majority groups may partner with authorities and regulatory bodies to execute inhumane acts associated with discrimination that greatly affect members of the minority communities (Azevedo et al., 2017). Other research and studies indicate that discrimination is, at times, defined as exaction of actions that are aimed at ensuring a person stays in power or top position at the cost of other people. Therefore, such an individual will do all forms of inappropriate actions and dealings that affect others severely to facilitate his or her stay at the top. Hence, discrimination is broadly understood as undesired or biased behavior that either favor or disfavor a person’s own group.

Deficiency in the Literature on Racial Stereotyping and Prejudice

The literature review indicates that there are enormous information and pieces of evidence on the topic of Racial Stereotyping and Prejudice. However, just like any other field of research there exist some gaps or deficiencies in the literature on this topic. For instance, many pieces of literature tend to focus on the issue of racial stereotyping and prejudice among adults. Only a few information shows how racial stereotyping and prejudice happen among children or teen. These groups of people also form an important part of the population that research refers to in any given situation (Hall et al., 2015). Additionally, there is a deficiency in how discrimination based on race has been addressed when referring to individual groups or a particular race. A majority of research and studies mostly refer to minority or the discriminated as a general group and only offer little information when analyzing a particular race like the African or Hispanic.

Purpose of the Study

The main aim of this paper is to collect data associated with various factors of racial stereotyping and prejudice. Therefore, some people, particularly the immigrants or minority will be important for this study. These people will significantly help in learning and understanding the experiences they have had while interacting with others. A critical analysis of data will greatly help in assisting in developing better strategies and recommendations that can also assist tutors and learners to effectively know how to deal with racial stereotyping and prejudice. Additionally, there will be analysis and evaluation of past history among immigrants and other minority groups that face the problem of racial prejudice and stereotyping. Their cultural heritages will be evaluated as well to show how they impact their interaction with other people. Finally, there will be an implementation tool that can be utilized by educators to address the issue of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping based on race to help improve society. Lastly, effective understanding of a culture, art, language, and other aspects of people will efficiently help to mitigate the problems associated with racial stereotyping and discrimination.

Data Collection Methods and Instrumentation

For this research, data and information will be obtained from some people who represent the hosts of a given country and another category of immigrant individuals. The participants will be selected from various walks of life. Therefore, many aspects of life will be factored in the research. For example, the participants’ age, level of education, and their economic status will be considered when collecting data and information. Importantly, people affiliated with the races of Africans, Americans, Hispanics, and maybe Hmong will also be analyzed. Besides, the personal contacts from the search investigators will significantly assist in suggesting the participants who will be part of the research. Also, people who in one way or another have ever experienced prejudice, discrimination, or being stereotyped will be crucial in the study. In the analysis part of the paper, the factorial design will be utilized. The basic research methods of survey, questionnaire, interview, and analyzing past information will also be used.

References

Azevedo, R. T., Garfinkel, S. N., Critchley, H. D., & Tsakiris, M. (2017). Cardiac afferent activity modulates the expression of racial stereotypes. Nature communications, 8, 13854.

FitzGerald, C., & Hurst, S. (2017). Implicit bias in healthcare professionals: a systematic review. BMC medical ethics, 18(1), 19.

Hall, W. J., Chapman, M. V., Lee, K. M., Merino, Y. M., Thomas, T. W., Payne, B. K., ... & Coyne-Beasley, T. (2015). Implicit racial/ethnic bias among health care professionals and its influence on health care outcomes: a systematic review. American journal of public health, 105(12), e60-e76.

Hinton, P. (2017). Implicit stereotypes and the predictive brain: cognition and culture in “biased” person perception. Palgrave Communications, 3, 17086.

Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Racism and the Press. Routledge.

Williams, K. E., Sng, O., & Neuberg, S. L. (2016). Ecology-driven stereotypes override race stereotypes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(2), 310-315.