What is Stereotype Threat?

To put it simply, stereotype threat is the experience of not living or carrying out your full potential because of stereotypes. These stereotypes negatively influence one's capabilties and levels of success because of ethnic or social backgrounds.

My experiences

Academically, I have not felt stereotypical threats. If you asked me about other Asian stereotypes it would be an obvious yes. Asian students have the threat originate from their parents. "You become doctor...lawyer or you dishonor your family!" Ahaha. But in all seriousness, Asian parents have rather high expectations for their children. It is because of these high expectations that you see the majority of Asian students perform so well in their academic studies.

Although I have not experienced negative effects of stereotype threat I have seen it in the workplace. Back when I was running things at a local company, I worked with Hispancic employees who had really low expectations for their children. They believed that graduating from high school was as good as it gets. I discussed with them that there has to be more to life than living paycheck to paycheck and because we come from low-income families we already know the struggle, labor, and the value of the dollar (even if it is nothing). We need to improve ourselves so that we don't have to save up for months just to pay a repair bill. We need to use our minds to make our money, not our bodies. I have always liked the cliche "work smarter, not harder". As much as I like working with my hands building, repairing, and troubleshooting production equipment I knew I couldn't continue working there even when they bumped my pay up.

I do not come from a family of doctors, lawyers, nail, or hair salon owners so I know all about how hard the majority of people work for a paycheck before the government takes their share. I've never or at least do not remember judging people by their financial backgrounds based on stereoypes. Anybody could be poor or rich and we all have different problems or living circumstances. Success is not measured by a number in a bank account or how many awards are on that shelf. If I saw someone or some people experiencing stereotype threats I would like to believe I would speak up for them. At the very least tell the affected person(s) to ignore the negative expectations. Ask them if they were happy with their lives and themselves. True success should be measured by happiness. If you are happy with what you do, continue doing. If you are unhappy with what you do, find ways to improve yourself by setting goals. Not everyone has that "I want to be.." dream. Most of us just want to be happy, successful, with what we do and why should we let anyone or anything stand in the way of that?