There is a three step process that makes up perceptions. The first step is selection. The countless stimuli we are exposed to daily, like advertisements, people you see on the street or on television, the news you read, etc. are subconsciously turned into decisions of importance. Step two is organization. Those stimuli that subconsciously affect us are organized in a meaningful way. Our mind categorizes what we see and creates a language. The third step is interpretation. The things we see are subconsciously organized in our minds are interpreted to attach meaning to people, situations, and objects, which allows us to interpret cultures. The way that we see these things presented, our upbringing, personal beliefs, and education can all affect our perception and knowledge about a group of people.
A schema is a cognitive structure that represents knowledge about objects, people, or situations. They organize knowledge, guide behavior and predict behavior of others according to our perceptions. They are active when cognitive load is high and mental resources are low. So if you don't have exposure to or education in different cultures, but you see them without a critical eye all the time as we do in media and on the street etc., then you may fall into believing the wildly held beliefs, or stereotypes about a group. A stereotype is a schema for understanding a group of people. It hinders communication by linking overarching beliefs about a group to an individual who many times will not fit into that stereotype.
Stereotypes function like habits. They are so ingrained in us from all the things we see in the media and the lack of knowledge of a lived reality. They can be unintentional and spontaneous, but these associations develop over time. After a while, without paying attention and being intentional in our experiences and how we perceive them, our stereotypes turn into prejudices. We can change our prejudices but it takes time, intentional effort and attention to gaining knowledge of different groups.
Recently, Ariana Miyamoto, 20, from Nagasaki, was crowned Japan's first bi-racial Miss Universe. Her mother is Japanese and her father is African American. She's simply gorgeous just as a beauty queen would be, but she had received a lot of backlash since being crowned, with comments that she is not "Japanese" enough.
What does that even mean? How can you define what it means to be Japanese and whether someone is too much or too little of it? This is a loose example of ethnocentrism - negatively judging aspects of another culture by the standards of one's own culture. The Japanese community which is mostly japanese and not mixed race, think that she is not Japanese enough because she is hafu - the term for someone ethnically half Japanese or mixed, and they are judging her based on the fact that she is part of more than one culture. Not to say that every Japanese person feels that way, but the people criticizing her certainly do, with comments stating that it's a no-no to choose a Miss Universe Japan that is a hafu. People have let their personal beliefs, perceptions and stereotypes get in the way of seeing how great it actually is that a mixed race woman was chosen.
This is an important issue in Japan, one that is even the subject of a film titled, "Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan". Huffington Post talked to the directors and producers of the film and they agreed that the choice to crown Ariana is changing the perceptions of beauty in Japan. The conversation needs to continue on these issues and people need to pay attention and work to change their prejudices, but this is a very good start.
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