Stereotype Threat & Intellectual Test Performance Of African Americans

Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans: A Critical Response Paper Name University Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans: A Critical Response Paper A Stereotype is something that conforms to an established pattern especially when a general mental image is set in members of a particular group that holds it in common and portrays an uncritical judgment, an oversimplified opinion, or a prejudiced attitude (Stereotype, n. d.). It is widely common especially in our country that host a lot of different races. One of the races who experience stereotyping is the African American Race. The origins of this stereotype could probably still be traced back from the colonial times and the slave trade era. It is at those times that the White Race have thought that their race is superior to the Blacks. The Film “12 Years A Slave” which was based on the book by Solomon Northup was a great depiction of this. The treatment and abuse of the slaves are indeed a great prejudice to the Black race. Williams stated in her 2011 article, that contaminated and dirty were how African Americans were viewed in history. These views had even later resulted in the laws segregating the Blacks and the Whites under the pretense of preventing diseases and cleanliness. There were separate utilities such as bathrooms, swimming facilities and drinking fountains (Williams, 2011). Centuries have passed and our society had changed greatly since then. Yet, the stereotypes given to African Americans have still not been erased. There is a risk of this negative stereotype being confirmed as self-characteristic and this predicament is defined by Aronson and Steele, in their 1995 study, as a stereotype threat (Aronson and Steele, 1995). Their study which they conducted in 1995 had the title of, “Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans”. According to the authors, African Americans are stereotyped to perform poorly in intellectual or explicitly scholastic task. Their paper aimed to know if the stereotype threat would affect the intellectual test performance of the African Americans. Aronson and Steele conducted 4 studies in this paper to prove their point. This paper will give a critical response to the study of Aronson and Steele’s confirmed hypotheses that the society’s negative stereotype on the intellectual ability and competence of African Americans may hinder the student’s intellectual functioning, particularly in a standardized test. Considering a lot of intellectually famous African Americans of today, the students’ intellectual test performance might indeed be hindered due to the negative stereotype yet I would argue that this is not the sole factor that may or may not contribute to their success but negative stereotype threat is important enough to have a definitive impact in how one’s performance in life will turn out for the better or for the worse. Aronson and Steele’s paper along with other papers with similar studies are good contributions in knowing the effect of negative stereotyping to a certain group of people. I personally believe that when people are driven to the extent and choose to conform to the negative stereotypes unfortunate consequences happen. Stereotyping happens everywhere. There are stereotypes in race, culture, profession, places, gender and etc. Women are also mostly at the receiving end of the stereotype in gender. Indeed, there is also a risk or it could already be a reality that some women around the world have already conform to the negative stereotype of being lower than men thus, cruelty and abuse are rampant and voices had been suppressed. Women are a subjected to genital mutilation in African countries and cultures because of their being women. Some are not allowed to go to a school such as the Taliban ruled areas in Pakistan and some are killed even when they are not even born in India due to the toll of dowry to their families. African Americans, as discussed in this paper are one of the races who experience stereotype. They are often stereotyped as drug addicts and drug dealers that having a lot of them in prison seems to be what they deserve. They are stereotyped as poor. They are commonly working as cleaning ladies, cooks, maids and nannies for White establishments and families (Williams 2011). In one study made by Solarzano, Ceja and Yosso in 2000, identified that African American students experience microaggressions and stereotype among their professors, classmates, and schoolmates. Their schoolmates think they are dumb while their professors, on the other hand, have low expectations on them despite having seen conflicting proof. One example is a student they had interviewed. The student was doing well academically and was especially good at math. They had their first quiz and the student got 95. Yet the professor called the student and instead of praising the student for having done a good job, the student was reprimanded and was told that the student cheated. The professor had the student take the same exam in front of him and the student got 98(Solarzano, Ceja, and Yosso, 2000). I do not doubt the results of the study as it was conducted on Standford student’s which meant it was greatly credible as Standford is one of the leading Universities. Stereotype threat might indeed hinder one’s student’s performance yet the example above would at least confirm that ste...