Is this racism or stereotyping??

Wow..thats a great point..and ya know i have been thinking about this for 15 mins now,.with a good answer..and i dont have one lol..I have though come to the conclusion that i think it could be both for some people.,..I live in a communtity that has 4% black and chineese..thats it.So I have never had to go threw anything like this..I am not racist,,or pejudice..yet i tested myself..I closed my eyes with this situation..and imagined.,.and i was scared,,,then i imagined a group of scary white men,,and i was just as scared,,being a woman..its scary to see a group of any males..god knowing what COULD happen..and though ther are racist people that may be scared because they are black and in groups..that could be what your talking about..BUT..also..put a woman in a street and have to walk by a group of scary l0ookin makes in a group and we all will be scared,,.,so it could be were just scared of what could happen...period..but who wil ever really know?

I'm with cloud_kicker. I live in an area with a lot of minorities and I really don't notice when I walk by a group of people what color they are. I do notice if they're male or female though! Does that make me sexist or just smart enough not to take chances? I also will be a lot more nervous walking by a young guy or group of young guys than an older man or men.

I think it is more like stereotyping, especially if one has had an unpleasant experience with people of the same ethnicity or race as those one is reacting to. How does it go? "Once bitten, twice shy." It is only natural for one to react with uncertainty after unpleasant experiences. For example, I would expect, say, a White female, to almost resent all Black males she encounters, if she were raped or abused by a Black male. It is simply human nature. However, I do hope unpleasant experiences do not blind us of justice or doing the right thing for the innocent.

well by dictionary definition you are prejudiced. You did in fact stereotype this group of individuals based on their color and it may have been racisit as you assumed, that do to your stereotype and prejudice, you were somehow better or in danger. As for airports and Muslims.. yes I believe this als involves all three elements.

I believe racism would be the answer if you were scared because it is a group of black teenagers. I believe that it would be called stereotyping when you are just afraid of any kind of group. Stereo because we could all be scared of things like this because of what we hear on the news and read in the newspaper. I have lived in Holland for over 20 years,there it is full of all soorts of people. It is normal there. What I have learned? It does not matter what race you are. There is good and bad in every race. We were all born naked and we will someday all die. We are actually all the same.Stereotyping or racism? You tell me. Take care.

Here's a little tid bit of information for ya. According to FBI records the following is true. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_43.html Among the 4 categories of race reflected in the UCR arrest data, 69.7% of persons arrested were white, 58.5% of persons arrested for violent crimes were white, and 68.2% of persons arrested for property crime were white. So, knowing those facts now and still feeling that way when you walk by an African-American then it is probably a little bit of racism.

Let me get a little technical here. Racism means believing that your race is superior than the other. So, if you were a racist, you would look down on the black teenagers (which apparently you didn't do). You were scared based on what your perception of black people (in general). Now I would put that as stereotype.

Well I am sure that a group of white girls wouldn't scare you as much as a group of black male teenagers... I think it is just because of all the stuff that we see on TV and whatnot which makes us a little more scared when we go by certain groups. Heck now because of the terrorism that you see and when you go to war (I am in the Army) when I see a muslim I damn near freak out! And no that never happened before 9/11.

Honestly I think it's stereotyping. Because for one thing it would depend on where in the world I was. In my own hometown here in Canada, I wouldn't even think twice about seeing a group of black teenagers walking towards me. In fact I think I would feel safer with that scenario then I would with a group of white teenagers. There are not many black people here and the ones that are mostly African refugees and totally kind and harmless and very polite. however, lets say I was in LA or New York, then the stereotypes I'v learned because of Hollywood movies would cause me to feel apprehension if I was approached by a group of black teenagers.

this is a very good topic when i just read it's content i "yelled" immediatly: stereotype and then i read again and said racism and stereotyping and at the third time i just had to go and read to reassure myself of what i think so according to the wikipedia: "Stereotypes are ideas held about members of particular groups, based solely on membership in that group Racism is a belief system or doctrine which postulates a hierarchy among various "human races" or ethnic groups." so those two definitions are members of the same family but if you will ask me specifically based on my eduacation and the environment i grew up in i would first say: stereotyping.

About the airports..you ask sterotyping or racism??? NO, its being smart ! On ther other hand, I caught a flight not long ago and myself, a lady in a wheel chair, and two very young teenagers were picked for special screening. Meanwhile, while we over there taking our shoes of and being searched like criminals, two guys with turbines on there heads, beards, etc, walked right on the plane. Shows how the government screws things up when they put their hands on things like airport security. Oh, I'm sure anyone of us in the special screening group was going to hijack the plane...specially the little old lady in the wheel chair...DUH ! Damn people, wake up !!!! It almost wished, even though it meant losing my own life that "Sadam, and Ben" with the turbines would have blown that plane all to hell. I can see the spin on the news now..."what a shame 125 people lost their lives on flight 398, but we didn't sterotype anyone in our security procedures....ain't we great"

As humans, it is in our nature to categorize everything we see in order to maintain some level of organization. It's something we do almost sub-consciously. This could be used to our advantage, like when we use what we think we can tell about a person to convince them to do something or buy something. It could also be to our detriment, such as thinking negatively about a person only to find out later that they aren't that way, and now you blew your chances at a friendship because of how you thought of them. It can also be used as a safety mechanism. I live in a town that isn't exactly the safest of places. As a young woman, I have much to fear if I'm alone and misjudge the character of a stranger only to find myself if the same area as a rapist or murderer. Therefore, I judge sub-consciously, even though I know I'm probably wrong. A man wearing "gangsta" clothing would be more suspect to me than a man in a suit. Now, that man in a suit could easily be a murderer or rapist, but judging from stereotypes and norms, that's not always, or usually, the case. This is stereotyping at it's finest. If something fits into our perception of a certain group, we automatically label it with the same characteristics of that group. In other words, we see a blond, and automatically think 'ditz', or we see a kid in a trench coat, and we think 'trench coat mafia' - that kind of thing. It's not racism unless you think negatively of all members of that race. I am by no means a racist, but you'd better bet that if I see a white/black/latino young man in "gangsta" clothing, hanging around with similarly dressed guys on a street corner, I'm going to be wary. They are strangers, after all.

i think this is racism nothing else

I will call it fear of the unknown. We hear that a certain incident has happened elsewhere where a person of your religion or race or country has been attacked by people of a particular religion or race or country. Now whenever you find yourself in such a situation you are afraid that they will attack you also.

The answer is both are correct. Reason being is that due to either a bad experience of your own or someone else's you tend to think the worst. Also you tend to read or listen to way too many news articles that may also make it hard to trust other ethnics. The only reason that racism is a fact is because it is only about another race. It does not have to be a hate issue for it to be racism. Are you a bad person for this? No, not really. Why? Because you are not trying to harm those people, you are only trying to defer the possibility of yourself being harmed. I am a woman and I do Real Estate Appraisals. I have to enter the homes of hundreds of people each year. I know nothing about these people only that they are trying to get a loan for their house or to buy a house. I am probably the least racist person you would ever meet BUT I get freaked out too. I get scared to go to a "to be" foreclosed house that someone still occupies. I fear they will retaliate on me for their lender trying to take their home from them. I fear going into the heart of Minneapolis or St Paul because of the high as heck crime rates. I really get scared when I know there will be only a man meeting me there to inspect his home. You hear all to often of woman who get rapped, killed or what not so it scared the heck out of me. Am I racist for it? No, cause I fear no matter what race they are. I in all actuality can be considered a separate race. I know that sounds weird but as a woman you are in a class all of your own no matter what nationality you are. Am I a stereotyper? I would say yes I am. Due to all I know and all I hear I feel a reason to be scared. So to close, my answer to you is that as long as you are not harming other people with words or physical aggression then you are not being a bad person. Koodoos for being willing to be upfront and honest about something such as this!