Ethnic Stereotypes

The ones about people from California.
We can all walk to the beach and live next to movie stars and drive past Hollywood everyday.

No, we all do not.
I live in freaking San Francisco, that's a 7 or 8 hour drive for me to get to L.A.

Since everyone is doing their states... I thought I'd include one of my personal pet peeves: New Jersey stereotypes.
Yes, I'm Italian. Yes, I live about five minutes from the beach. Yes, I frequent Philly and even New York (City). Yeah, I do know people with ties or former ties to the Mafia. And yes, I regularly use the Garden State Parkway.
That's basically all that applies to me and most people I know.

The truth about New Jersey:
-We don't all have "Joisey" accents. That's actually a small percentage and they all live right near New York City. What people think is a New Jersey accent is really a New York one - and even that's sketchy because it depends on the neighborhood and upbringing. We do not say Joisey, okay?
-What turnpike exit do I live off of? I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA! I just get off where it says Atlantic City. It's not like my house is right off of a highway, it's in the middle of a suburb!
-Our beaches ARE clean. I've never seen a needle or used condom on the beach or boardwalk. When our beaches close, it's because meds were dumped in New York or there's a shark alert. Both are very rare.
-There are places in Philly and New York that actually take our water because it's better. It IS clean. I don't drink tap, but at least I can't taste sulfur or fluoride in it.
-I've never seen a nuclear plant.
-The Mafia is really quiet. Nothing ever happens to be totally honest. And the families with the big names? They're regular people who happen to have an interesting grandfather or uncle... The last thing I heard that had anything to do with it was some bust at the Borgata. No big deal, no big names, no big anything. It's a dead (or dying) practice nowadays... Not that it's a bad thing. But life is NOT the Sopranos.
-Apparently it smells here? I think this one comes from the smell of the bays. We have loads of them - I live by one. If you're within a block or so of one, it smells at low tide... like a bay.
-We do not pump our own gas. We have attendants by law. If you ever see someone sitting at the pump as if waiting for something... They're probably from New Jersey or Oregon and don't know they have to pump their own gas. Or they don't know how. Gas here is actually pretty cheap compared to a lot of other states. Except on the islands - because they'd have to get off the island to get gas.
-I ALWAYS see "You know you're from New Jersey if you know there are no beaches in New Jersey - it's 'The Shore'".... NO! Never ever say that to me. It doesn't even make sense! "The shore" is wherever the sea touches land. That has nothing to do with beaches! The whole east side of New Jersey is not one beach! The only people who call it the shore are people who are not anywhere near "the shore". (Yeah it does piss me off that much)
-It's New Jersey, not Jersey. Jersey is a British island near Normandy. However, most people still like to call New Jersey simply Jersey.
-We do have farms, beaches, inner cities, vacation resorts, and mountains in this small state.
-We're nothing special. Ignore the idiots who think anyone who is not from here isn't worth being here. In reality, it's not worth being here because it sucks here. Go home not because I don't want you around, but for your own sanity.
-We have malls galore.
-Speeding is when you go more than 15 miles over the limit.
-South Jersey and North Jersey are different to us. Or rather, everyone but me. The only difference to me is that we have too much freaking farmland and more islands. They have more rough cities. The further south you go, the more you'll hear the awful "wadder" instead of water and up north is more the painful "Joisey" rather than Jersey. New Jersey people like to think it's two different states. They have to get over themselves.
-Wawa and Shop-Rite are huge. Donald Trump is mentioned in the newspaper often.
-We're aggressive drivers. But seriously, who isn't?
-We get mild hurricanes, lots of Nor'easter, and wild fires show up in the paper sometimes. But we've never seen a tornado, tsunami, earthquake, or volcano.
-Olive Garden is good. And I keep hearing that we call it Great Adventure and never Six Flags... My friends and I all call it Six Flags.
-We don't all have attitude. But there are way too many who do.

I think I covered the most important ones. Now you know more than you ever wanted to. If you read any of that...

I'm from California and far too many people believe that automatically means i'm blonde haired blue-eyed and love to shop and party every day. They also have this bizarre tendency to believe that LA is close, that we're all very well off if not incredibly wealthy.
Then taking a look at my heritage i'm 3/4 mexican so people automatically assume that i'll look and act like what they believe a typical mexican is. Then of course comes the great debate of my hair, it's long and curly so i must either be jewish or irish which i'm not. For the most part i have to say i find the whole thing rather amusing, it's interesting to see the conclusions people draw on their own and even more amusing when you let them in on the truth. However if your asked the same question over and over again in the same day i could definitely see how it would quickly become annoying. Kinda makes me feel bad for all the exchange students we have on campus.

According to all of these "You know you're from New Jersey if..." lists online, everyone lives in the 80s and women have big hair. Let me tell you now that everyone I know is all about what's in and popular this very second. And if you don't have stick straight hair down to your butt, you're not worth looking at.
I have thin, short, naturally straight hair and I get asked all the time why I don't grow my hair out and what straightener do I use? Because I like it like this and straighteners don't do a thing to my hair. The funniest thing is when I get a body wave and scrunch my hair into curls or waves. My hair refuses to have any body to it, so by the end of the week it's straight again. It messes with their heads.

I'm South Korean. People automatically assume I'm good at math, play piano, aim for IV League Schools, and incapable to annuciate my "r's."

I sucked at math during high school; I played piano for two years before I quitted; I was born and rasied in the U.S; and I go to an art school XD

I'm Native, but my tribe is Apache.

So far all the stereotypes I've heard are:
-We still live in tepees. (Apaches have never lived in tepees)
-We ride a horse everywhere.(Nah, we use cars.)
-We don't know how to speak English, so you have to talk to us like we're stupid. (That happened to me more than once.)
-We're great trackers. (I'm not gonna lie I'm an amazing Elk tracker but yeah.)
-We're wild Indians who will kill you. (Uh, I don't even know.)
-We're wise and can solve all your problems with magic. (The medicine man can but not everyone.)

The more modern Stereotpes are:
-We're all drunks. (There's winos everywhere.)
-We're all fat asses. (Look around, we're not the only ones.)
-We're freeloaders and get everything handed to us. (The US Gov. screwed us over & tried to massacre us. It's the least they can do.)

I was wondering if you knew about the Aussie 'ocka'?
It's always interesting to know what other countries know about the Australian culture.

MayhemMaken:

I'm Native, but my tribe is Apache.

So far all the stereotypes I've heard are:
-We still live in tepees. (Apaches have never lived in tepees)
-We ride a horse everywhere.(Nah, we use cars.)
-We don't know how to speak English, so you have to talk to us like we're stupid. (That happened to me more than once.)
-We're great trackers. (I'm not gonna lie I'm an amazing Elk tracker but yeah.)
-We're wild Indians who will kill you. (Uh, I don't even know.)
-We're wise and can solve all your problems with magic. (The medicine man can but not everyone.)

The more modern Stereotpes are:
-We're all drunks. (There's winos everywhere.)
-We're all fat asses. (Look around, we're not the only ones.)
-We're freeloaders and get everything handed to us. (The US Gov. screwed us over & tried to massacre us. It's the least they can do.)

I've heard that there is a higher percentage of alcoholics on reservations. It was explained that it was because of lack of employment, or lack of community and aid from the government. I don't know how true that is in general. A couple years ago I took a trip through New Mexico and Arizona, and we drove through an Apache reservation, and I can say it was the most beautiful place I've ever seen. And at the Four Corners, the natives were pretty darn friendly.

I would be proud to be recognized as Native American.

I'm from Slovakia. As for stereotypes connected with the country (you know, after we get it solved that we're not Czechoslovakia anymore, nor we have the sea - that's Slovenia, nor we are/were in war), I've mostly come across these:

- we live in huts, grow potatoes and wear traditional costumes (actually, no, we are pretty normal and guess what, we even know electricity! )
- those linked with Hostel movie (whatever you have seen, for love of God, do not believe it)
- those linked with Eurotrip movie (no, two dollars will not be enough to get you all the stuff the guys in the movie did)

My family's all from India but I consider myself 100% British.

Basically all Indians own cornershops or become doctors. And if you're not either of these, you work in a call centres.
And we all eat samosas and chicken tikka masala.

Personally, i only eat chicken tikka curry when my mum buys it. She doesn't make it much.
But yeah, my parents are doctors. Can't get out of that one.

Costa Rica.
I love how when I say I'm from Costa Rica, they automatically think of some hot hispanic chick with a bikini on running on the beach.
Oh, and they always ask "Is that an island?"
And they think it's
a) always sunny or
b) a rainforest.
It's a cloud forest. And we have a rainy season and dry season. Sometimes it's really hot and sunny, other times it's miserable and rainy.

I am from lovely New Jersey.
Yes, I wear my hair big. But I am the ONLY person I know who does. Everyone else has pin straight hair.
Yes, I sometimes look like I stepped right out of the 80s, from my big hair and pumps to the music I listen to. Once again, I am the only person I know who's like this.
The north and south are very different. South is all woodsy, and north is ghetto, for the most part.
The shore has an amazing party scene. By amazing party scene, I mean guidos come here from New York and north Jersey, and we locals dislike it immensely.
Not everyone knows what exit they're from, though we do use the parkway all the time.
Everyone lives within fifteen minutes of a mall. No exceptions.
Nine out of ten people here either have a ton of Jersey pride, or they think it sucks here. Personally, I love it here.

I'm apparently the whitest black person people know.
I'm also expected to eat chitlens, and pig feet, and carry a gun at all times.

I am from France.
When people hear that they automatically assume that I smell bad, eat snails, and don't shave at all. >.>
Pff. False.

xXunleashthebatsXx:

I am from lovely New Jersey.
Yes, I wear my hair big. But I am the ONLY person I know who does. Everyone else has pin straight hair.
Yes, I sometimes look like I stepped right out of the 80s, from my big hair and pumps to the music I listen to. Once again, I am the only person I know who's like this.
The north and south are very different. South is all woodsy, and north is ghetto, for the most part.
The shore has an amazing party scene. By amazing party scene, I mean guidos come here from New York and north Jersey, and we locals dislike it immensely.
Not everyone knows what exit they're from, though we do use the parkway all the time.
Everyone lives within fifteen minutes of a mall. No exceptions.
Nine out of ten people here either have a ton of Jersey pride, or they think it sucks here. Personally, I love it here.

I'm from the north and we are NOT ghetto. That's New York City.
And not everyone is Italian most of us aren't.

panic! at the disco:

I'm from the north and we are NOT ghetto. That's New York City.
And not everyone is Italian most of us aren't.

Well, everyone I know who's from the north is ghetto. Jersey City? Elizabeth? Newark?
And the amount of Italians depends on where you're from. Central Jersey and pretty much the whole shore is full of us.

xXunleashthebatsXx:

Well, everyone I know who's from the north is ghetto. Jersey City? Elizabeth? Newark?
And the amount of Italians depends on where you're from. Central Jersey and pretty much the whole shore is full of us.

Those cities are in central Jersey. The north is like Bergen County, and we aren't ghetto. Although I will admit those cities are pretty ghetto.

be realistic.:

See, now I just wonder what people say about Americans.

Pretty much that we're fat, stupid, lazy and/or rich, and arrogant. Can't deny the truth in some of these but most Americans are hard-working people.

Cereal Killer:

Pretty much that we're fat, stupid, lazy and/or rich, and arrogant. Can't deny the truth in some of these but most Americans are hard-working people.

Thats practically true, a lot of people say you don't know much about the world, just yourselves. I had a friend there ask me yes, it's christmas there and i know you have it in summer rather than winter, but is it december there?

As for the Lazy, you're not stereotyped as lazy as us Australians.

sunny shines:

Well, I definitely don't fit the ethnic stereotype here then. Last time I heard we were all kind of Bogan like with our kangaroos and all. They don't really cater for the rather multicultural country we are do they? :file:

Speaking of Australian stereotypes, two boys from Australia moved here (meaning Alabama) and are in my homeschool group this year. We're in a writing class together, and lemme tell ya, all Australia stereotypes I had are now BUSTED, SHATTERED, LYING ON THE FLOOR IN PIECES. Lol.

These guys don't even know who Crocodile Dundee is. XD

They have absolutely no tans, no blonde hair, don't surf, have never SEEN a kangaroo, platypus, or koala in the wild, and don't like vegemite.

Dreams=Shattered.

Lol. Just kidding about the shattered dreams part, but seriously, they did bust up a few stereotypes for me. XD