tereotype as, "... a mental picture we carry around with us to help us deal with people on a day-to-day basis." (13) Stereotypes dealing with minorities are usually negative. The stereotypes of the group help strengthen the majorities' beliefs that they are superior and the minority is inferior. (Stewart 13)There are various stereotypes for various minorities. Blacks are usually thought of as being lazy or dishonest to the majority group. To men, woman are thought of as too emotional and too weak to handle responsibilities and situations. People who have Polish ancestry are sometimes pictured as being ignorant and slow-witted. With all the stereotypes of today, it seems that there is no end to the many different ways majorities refer to and categorize minorities. (Stewart 14)Certain use of words can hurt different people. If you were talking with a group of other people and someone used a negative stereotype, that person may be offended if it applies to them or someone they know. If a white person used the 'N' word to associate to African Americans, or if a man calls a woman a 'babe.' The person being offended can speak up by letting the other know they do not want to hear the language used around them. People should be very well aware that words hurt. If you know you have said something wrong, it is best to say that you are sorry right away instead of causing the person pain further on. By apologizing, it will help be more excusable. "Don't use negative words if you don't belong to that group." (Bowman-Kruhm 112)Over the past generations, the meanings of words in some contexts have changed. By changing the way a word is pronounced, or by accompanying a gesture with it, the meaning of the word might vastly change. The word bad, for example, literally means "not-good," however when it is pronounced slightly different as "ba-ad," it really means "good." The reason for this change in language was that the slaves had crea...
