Okay so first lets talk about what stereotypes are. Stereotypes are essentially what society has made as the “commonality” of the populations of certain races, social groups and social tendencies. Okay, now that that is out of the way:
The media sometimes stereotypes groups of people based on something most people don’t think about; that being Political groups. For example, CNN and FOX news have really bad habits of talking about the “stereotypical” conservative or the “stereotypical” democrat. If you pay attention to certain clips from these stations, you will see stereotyping as well as less than friendly conversations involving politics. Next up, who benefits? Well, people who want the attention frankly. People can use stereotypes to actually make a point or to even further disprove stereotypes. Who is harmed? People of color. That is kind of the obvious answer unfortunately. People of color have stereotypes that don’t put them in the best light. Frankly, I find it biased and not true, however people sometimes believe in these stereotypes. So sometimes these stereotypes can harm the people of color. Finally, how does it affect the political sphere? People are labeled and the political sphere becomes more radicalized. When stereotypes are pushed forward and when people believe it, ideas become radicalized. This is NOT good, radical opinions often bring hatred and EXTREME bias with them.
