CASE: IT WASN’T ABOUT RACE. OR WAS IT?
1.- Identify two different concepts that have been discussed in readings and lectures that you see playing out in this case. * Stereotype:
A.- Definition: We can define this concept as “A perceptual and cognitive process in which specific behavioral traits are ascribed to individuals on the basis of their group membership”. (Cox, 1993) We can also define it as a rigid, exaggerated belief associated with a mental category, that can be more or less rational and that is a consequence from the complex environment and the lack of information that the one who consider it shows. In other words, it comes up to simplify the information and the environment. It is important to know that a stereotype result from differences in levels of contact of individuals with members of “outgroups”. In this way, the lower the contact the larger the tendency to evaluate them along fewer dimensions. It is also important to know that a stereotype does not have to be necessarily bad; traits associated with the group can be positive or negative.
B.- Give specific examples in the case of where the concept plays out. The stereotype suggested here is the one of the “black criminal”. Unfortunately it is usually associated black people with criminals, or at least there is a thought about that there is a higher probability that a black to be a criminal than a white to be so. We can see how in the case Hope thought that Dillon was a criminal because he entered the parking lot piggybacking behind her car. Just in case Dillon was white, the reaction of Hope could have been less sharp and distant, what produced the conflict.
C.- Explain how your knowledge of the concept helps you to understand how people in the case react. The point is that there were not so many black people working in this “diversified” company, thus there was not enough contact among