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“All muslims are terrorists.” This stereotype has been thrown around all over social media lately. There has been several terrorist attacks by s group called “Isis,” which are a group of Muslim extremest. Not all the people who come from the Middle East or practice the Muslim beliefs are terrorists. Many Muslims  people are very kind and helpful towards others, but because of what the people who practice the same faith have been doing, people assume that ALL Muslims are terrorists. 

One of my moms co-worker is Muslim, and my mom stated that her co-worker and very kind and helpful to the rest of her fellow employees. In Islam, they believe that by helping others they will be blessed. We can’t just assume all Muslims are terrorists because of the actions of a certain group of people. Everyone is different. 

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- “Aboriginal Peoples are savages.” When the Europeans invalided this land, they thought of the Aboriginal peoples as savages. They were thought of as “uncivilized.” They were thought of uncivilized or savages because of their way of living was different from how the Europeans lived. Just because they wore fur or animal skin for clothing, hunted with spears or arrows, and had different beliefs and costumes does not make them savages. 

Today, people wear animal fur and skin as fashion and is considered to be high expensive. Here in Canada, it is very diverse, and so everyone has a different belief and have their own costumes. Sadly until now, some people still see the Aboriginal peoples as savages because of the history and the way the europeans saw them. 

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Here is another stereotype that many Asians are told, “All Asians are good at math.” This is not true. As I mentioned before, I am asian, and I am not that good in math. 

This is western stereotype on Asian countries. Here in North America, our education system strives to have students well rounded. The students are encouraged to pursue their own interests and to develop their areas of strength. In Asian countries, for example China, according to the Office of International Affairs, their education focuses on knowledge of accumulation, on how students manage and use the knowledge they learned in school, and on understandings of knowledge systems and structures. Their education system is very different from our education system here in Canada, where students focus on improving student assuredness, self-determination, and independence.  

This proves that most Asians are good in math, because of the education they were given. There are also other people who are asian but they are not great in math either. Being good at math or any other subject does not relate to your ethnicity, but depends on your mental capability. 

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Here is another Asian stereotype that is commonly used in the media, “Asians have small eyes.” A lot of people would use this term and joke about Asian people not being able to see properly because of our small eyes. 

Yes, there are some Asians that have small eyes, but there are also people from other races that also have small eyes. There are also many Asians who have big round eyes. I myself am a Filipino, but I don't have small eyes. 

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This is a stereotype people tend to use very often, “All asians look the same.” People think that all asians look the same like in the image above. The reason why people think all asians look the same is because of how the media portrays  this image. To be honest, some asians have several similarities, but don’t we all.   There are many people around the world who may look alike, but they are not Asian. Some people can be white, black, brown, Asian, European, American or African, and have similarities with different people from different ethnic backgrounds. 

Another thing I would like to point out is that there are people that assume all Asians are Chinese. China is the largest country in the continent of Asia, but that doesn’t mean every one who is Asian comes from China. There are many other countries that fall under the continent of Asia, such as, Philippines, India, Japan, North and South Korea, Syria, Qatar, Thailand, etc. 

The main point is, not everyone who “looks” or consider themselves as Asian, looks like every other Asian, or come from one country. We shouldn't categorize people based on what we see in movies, tv shows, or social media. 

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Stereotypes

There are so many stereotypes about different ethnic groups. These stereotypes have been developed over the past decades. Some have faded, but many still stay are are commonly used. 

These stereotypes are usually seen through the media, and because of this, people are often categorized in a certain space where they don't fit in, because that is not who they are. People tend to judge other people by their ethnicity, or their skin colour, because of how the media portrays that certain group of people.