Colin Russell
11/11/13

ALANA Paper

In this paper, I will be talking about one of my experiences concerning stereotyping and white privilege. I will be analyzing my experience using the portrayal of race in the media proposed by Danille Dirk and Jenifer Mueller. According to Dirk and Mueller “The problem with the stranglehold popular culture has over dictating the way that the populace “knows” people of color is that fro people who have very little real, interpersonal experience with individuals from these groups, they can believe in an essentialist vision composed of every stereotype and myth promoted.” (Gallagher 2012, 294) One racial stereotyping incident I experienced was when I first came to UVM and started talking to white people. When I first came to UVM it was my first time being in an area where white people are the majority since I’m from the Bronx and there aren’t many white people that live in my neighborhood. So when I was meeting people they kept asking me if I listened to rap music and if I live in the ghetto and it really tick me off that they assumed that but at the same time I had stereotypes about them to like that they listened to rock and country music and also that they lived in the suburbs in a nice big house.

Another experience was when I was at a party and someone assumed that I played basketball because I was black and another person didn’t believe I was from the Bronx because I didn’t use slang and didn’t say “nigga” a lot. When I asked them where they got these stereotypes from they told me it was from TV shows and movies that they saw. I also got into a discussion about white privilege and most of them didn’t know what it was.

Even though I was stereotyped I wasn’t mad because it is to be expected since most depictions of black men on “Film and television, for example, have been notorious in disseminating images of racial