Okay, so what, what I'd like you to do first of all is just to think about some of the stereotypes that you have heard about aboriginal or indigenous people or Indians. Whether or not you believe them to be true, but just some of the ones that you've heard of or, or are circulating out there in culture, okay? And then I'm going to write down some of these ideas. Again, I'm not >> Looking at you and actually thinking you believe these are to be true, but, but what are some of the notions that you've heard. Yeah? >> . >> Yeah, that's right. Other ones? Yep? >> Spiritual. >> Okay. >> Warrior. >> Okay. Just shout them out if you think of some. >> [inaudible] in touch with nature? >> Okay. Close to nature. Yeah? >> Alcoholic? >> Alcoholics. >> I read the link. They don't want an amputation. They don't, you know, they don't want to improve themselves. They're kind of like, I don't know, is it lazy or? >> Lazy. Okay. Well these are a few. I mean there's many others, [laugh] Too many others. One of the things that you notice right away though is that it's not really that there is truth or falsity to the stereotype. You can probably point out an example of any of these. Well, maybe not free gas, but certainly not, gas is not taxed, tax exemptions. But a lot of these, the problem is that's it an overgeneralization. So there's a sense that all members of that group share this characteristic. So, if you know one lazy Indian. It somehow speaks that the entire cultural group is, is lazy as a culture. And that's the, that's kind of where stereotypes both get their power. And, and also why they're so hard to counter, and, and combat. Because of this, this idea that, you can actually point to different reference in reality. And say, well, you see. There, there's someone who's lazy, or there is someone who's alcoholic, but without looking at the broader kind of context that leads to those actions or activities we lose sight of the bigger picture. Now the other thing that I found interesting about this I was trying to kind of. I probably should have put the gas one over here. But there's also, there's negative stereotypes and there's positive stereotypes, but they both end up causing harm. And I think that's important to notice that although the notion of being spiritual or being close to nature probably seem like, well that's a complement. Why would you not want to embrace that? Well, the, the problem is again, as an over-generalization, it sets a standard or an ideal that is very hard to maintain or reach as any one individual. So to characterize the entire culture that way, whenever any one person, strays from that ideal, then it's like they are not fitting within that. That norm, that parameter, the limits that have been set for that cultural group. And so it, it sets a, kind of a standard that can't really be maintained. The other thing too is that it denies full humanity as well. So again that, that's one of the reasons why stereotypes are, are problematic.
