All Indians are dirty!!!
All Indians are great at Math!!!
All Indians live in villages in India.
All Indians live in villages in India.
All Indians are poor and malnourished!!
All Indians have arranged marriages!!!
All Indians have family values!!!
All Indians speak Hindi!!
All Indians are poor!!!
All Indians are smelly!!!
All Indians eat curry!!!
All Indian women are pretty!!!
This are only a few of the perceptions that non-Indians have about us Indians. Some may be right. Some may be wrong. Some stupid. Some worth a thought. Some plainly to be ignored. Maybe some of you are FURIOUS at what others have to say.
Want to know the psyche behind this thought process? It is called OUT-GROUP HOMOGENEITY BIAS. Yes. There is a name for it. What it means that we humans believe that all those who do not belong to our group are the same while we all in one group are different!! Now before you get furious too much, stop to think. Don't we do that too at some level or the other?
Want to know the psyche behind this thought process? It is called OUT-GROUP HOMOGENEITY BIAS. Yes. There is a name for it. What it means that we humans believe that all those who do not belong to our group are the same while we all in one group are different!! Now before you get furious too much, stop to think. Don't we do that too at some level or the other?
All Chinese look alike.
All women take too much time to get dressed.
All men are practical.
All Gujjus are business-minded.
All goris are good in bed. (Read this post of mine on Short and Sweet if you have not already done so!)
All Westerners have no family values.So the next time, someone says something about Indians that offends you, take a chill pill. Forgive them for the outgroup-homogeneity bias, educated them about the truth, tell them about the bias they committed, and then do not go and tell someone else..."ALL THESE PEOPLE FROM SO AND SO COUNTRY ARE SO DARN IGNORANT!" Not all of them are.
Good post Sol! Very informative.
ReplyDeleteI know some Westerners who hv those perception abt ALL Indians.
Also I know some Indians who hv those perception abt ALL Westerners.
So none of us is innocent of it.
The truth is, it's INDIVIDUALS that r BIASED. Not COMMUNITIES.
Alot of these ppl fail to u'stand that. And that is due to the lack of exposure, education and proper judgement.
I never get upset when someone says ALL Sri Lankans r dirty/poor etc. Cos I just KNOW that's just a perception of the INDIVIDUAL who's saying it.
A great post here!
Keshi.
Agn..its abt majorities...so ya majoritively[Not all]..indians have family values n eat curry....n majoritively[not all] chinese look alike n gujjus are business minded
ReplyDeleteReallly....do ppl think indians are dirty, smelly???i knew they think the ctry is dirty..which is actually true!
But yes..u have a point..the next time i get bugged at someone who make a motherhood statement abt indians..i ll remember that i probably do the same abt something else!
Hi,Sol-you didn't mention
ReplyDelete- All Indians are snake charmers
- All Indians ride on elephants instead of cars.
---
As Keshi says,it's all perception.
Some further perceptions in the Gulf are:
-Goras will always get paid thrice of Indians,and do 1/3rd the work.
-Indians never meet their commitments.
-Keralaites(I hate to call them Mallus-sounds so rude)always spoil the work atmosphere.(Well,sometimes they do,but,it cannot be a general perception)
---
Re. the others which you mentioned:LOL:
- All Chinese look alike.
...don't they?
- All women take too much time to get dressed.
That's based on experience,right?
All men are practical.
- not really.:)
All Gujjus are business-minded.
- Isn't that a great perception?
All goris are good in bed.
This comes courtesy Hollywood.
All Westerners have no family values.
Again,courtesy Hollywood and the promiscuity shown in there movies.
Nice post,as usual!:)
And like Amit said, one's Perception depends on their Exposure, Culture and Experiences. Unfortunately they can be limited in scope, therefore their judgement can be quite BIASED.
ReplyDeleteThe key to breaking that Bias is Education and Sol ur doing a great job there thru this very post!
Keshi.
--perceptions that non-Indians have about us Indians.
ReplyDeleteI guess it would be more appropriate if it is read like
--perceptions that some non-Indians have about us Indians.
does pschiatry have an excuse for everything? (ok...not an excuse, definition :-))
ReplyDeleteI would say that more than exposure, education et al; its just the mindset of the person that matters a lot.
There are was my maternal grand uncle who had hardly ventured out of his native village for all his life and had just basic rudimentary education but once, when I commented caustically about a particular groups idiosyncrasies during meals, he gently explained to me that its our perceptions about etiquette that is clashing...etiquette differ from place to place and there is no right or wrong there...
This incident many years ago shaped my understanding quite a bit...
Sol
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and thnx for the Gyan..
such generalizations are part of our life, is not? to add few some others i have heard/read across are
all keralites wear lungi's
all madiraasi's pronounce MBA as YEM BEE YEA
all men want is only sex...
all women are emotional..
blah blah blah...
"So the next time, someone says something about Indians that offends you, take a chill pill. Forgive them for the outgroup-homogeneity bias"
i loved it
:)
thats true.
ReplyDeleteI dont care for such stereo typing
lol
ReplyDeletemast post tha...
yeah psychologist kya kya dhund nikalte hai :P
Wow!super post gurl.....and i loved every bit of it. :) Yeah i used to get irritated earlier but nw i jus laugh at their ignorance. And someone hs rightly said "Ignorance is Bliss". Perhaps for some ppl it is!
ReplyDeleteoh...what a lovely post to read after long time.
ReplyDelete(does not mean you dont write , i cam e after a longtime)
The comments are as wonderful as the post..!
VERY INFORMATIVE!
great job sol!
we are pretty quick when it is about telling our opinion on the other nations and quite intolerant when something is being told about us.
ReplyDeleteEven the most intelligent educated people might have some wrong perceptions due to the sources of informations they are forced to use.
Biased TV, Media articles, Internet stuff, someone's jokes etc etc
When someone asks me if it is true that bears are walking in the streets in Russia or if all Russians drink vodka on a daily basis i already stop explaining things and ask people to come and check it here.
I wonder up to wich level we are dependent on information fed to us through different media and if we ever will be able to analyze it properly.
Have seen and heard many such people,and it's hard to stay quiet at times when they voice out such dumb assumptions.Most do not realize the fact that in the end,we are all homo sapiens.
ReplyDeleteyes sometimes its sad to know the perception the goras have abt indians inne......
ReplyDeletei remember how ppl wud ask me if women r allowed to work in india, can i wear jeans n trousers n how my english was so good as they thought we r not taught in english....n so many more....
but yeah so true we do the same for em.
hmm ok nice post
ReplyDeletei could not understand anything wht u wrote at beginning and came to know after reading first 10 lines of urs
good post.....
well very few ppl say that ....coz i know many non indians who are my best frnds and they love india as we love our country ....
yeah its and individuals perception
when some one speaks about our nation then we really get hurts
and when we talk about other poor nations lol
u negate every statement that u wrote in the first few lines :)
good post!
peace!
www.thesolitarywriter.blogspot.com
dont want to quote but there are some other such biases which are extreme and sensitive ...
ReplyDeleteanyways good to know that there is some medical reasoning behind such human behavior ... and yea we all surely do this knowingly or unknowingly.
Finally, agree that most of the stmts u mentioned about Indians are biases except for one - all indian women are pretty ;)
I got to agree on the dirty part.
ReplyDeleteEither their thinking is shabby, or their surrounding or their behaviour.
Something or the other is shabby.
I will try to remember this "OUT-GROUP HOMOGENEITY BIAS".
Ciao
nice post...v true i myself think all chinese people gals and guys alike look the same...:)
ReplyDeleteLots of people like to trust what others say with their experience. Very few people like to actually find the truth. We are also like that many a times. We have lots of prejudiced thoughts abt many things!
ReplyDeleteMy own experience of this is, I am Maharashtrian, and my husband is Christian! When I told my parents abt him, their image of a Christian guy was like: Bewada, always drinking, ekdum stylo.. n all.. And when he told his parents abt me, they thought, I will be ekdum ghaati, my family will be paan eating people, who can’t speak proper English n all.. When we all met, everyone knew that whetever they thought was so wrong. Both the families are so nice and well educated! But till then..
wish more ppl understand this :)
ReplyDeleteas usual a great post solitaire....u r right its not just the west but we too r biased in our opinions...its just that its easy for us to point out fingers at others before looking at r own deeds...
ReplyDeletecheers
parul
all Chinese look alike, is my perception wrong ;)
ReplyDeletei dint like the title though! :(
hmmm.......guess its true!!!...
ReplyDeletelike we think that all westerners are sex addicts!!...
People who say this are certified Jerks! :)
ReplyDeleteThat says it all.
Solitaire,
ReplyDeleteHow true! We too have to change our mindset.
Take care
So So SO TRUE !
ReplyDeleteoh you forgot...
Indians still ride elephants....
Seriously to that one i answered
Yeah we have carpool and have special parking for them :) and the stupid dame believed with wide eye surprise...
I give up on educating them.... now i just enjoy the humor :)
Very good post! I really dont know what else to say. I guess each of us IS biased in some way or the other, intentinally.. unintentionally.. whatever!
ReplyDeletehats off da :) ...very nice one :)...
ReplyDeleteAre you starting some kind of an Anti-Stereo typing movement????
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be a common theme in many of your posts since babble restarted...
thanks! I was sure there must be a name for it and was looking for it!
ReplyDeleteYou're post is dead on in terms of perceptions..it is what it is I suppose...no sense fighting myths!!
ReplyDeleteWhy/How is it different from Fundamental Attribution Error??
ReplyDeletedidn't know there was a term for this as well.
ReplyDeletei thought this was plain old stereotyping...
oh yeah,while on this... have i told u... i had a dutch colleague.. and he was visiting b'bay for the 1st time. poor guy called me a day prior to reaching and said "don't get me wrong pls... but will u come in a horse chariot to pick me? i'm wary of elephants."
ReplyDeletei told him i'd be there in a 1000 horse-drawn chariot.
he got the shock of his life when he landed and saw only cars around.
Yes, we must get rid of all racial slurs and bigotries. We can not typecast a particular race. Each individual is unique and different from the others. We can only admire the individuality and talent of each individual. Thanks for the relevant post. God bless.
ReplyDeletei love the way Akshay educated ppl in Namaste London, it was the best way and i loved it!!
ReplyDelete@ ceedy,
ReplyDeleteYes you can say so. Are you bored or something? Sorry. That won't stop me because we all can benefit from this so called movement.
*phew*
ReplyDeletethe start almost took away my breath..
Yes people live in misconceptions..and thou shall not mind that :)
awesome post :)
Very nice educative post...
ReplyDeleteA positive thing I hear at my work is: All Indians are good at Math :)
Well if you feel that you write boring stuff and dont want me to read it - then so be it....
ReplyDeletei never knew that they had a name for this kind of stereotyping!!!
ReplyDeleteit also is a matter of perception...
It's been long since I last read truth;
ReplyDeleteuntil now, that is.
"All women take too much time to get dressed.
All men are practical."
http://tinyurl.com/6m5b55
"Women spend 136 days of their lives getting ready for a night out - enough time for an astronaut to fly to the moon and back 22 times."
chaand ka tukda vs. chaand ka tukda?
hmmmm...will have to take some views from all the people in office and will post all the comments from colleagues and post them here..
ReplyDeleteurs..hemu..
I soo agree.. we are put into groups of adjectives...dirty,smelly, pretty. Sometimes its easier to remember just these prefaces rather individual guess. But with the world shrinking, i hope that this thought process goes away quick
ReplyDeleteVery nice post.
ReplyDeleteI hate when someone generalizes, but you are so right..sometime I do that too without thinking!!
@ ceedy,
ReplyDeleteYou must be mistaken. I do not think my posts are boring at all.
i hate streotypes !!
ReplyDeletesome more are
" no bengali can speak in normal hindi "
all filmstars come to kolkata & say
" i love misti doi, bengali women are very beautiful , & of course i love kolkata"
"rich people are bad"
whats the logic yaar??
"meek girls make good wives"
gaaaaaaawd can someone save me from such people.
let them think anything abt. about indian...i do not want to waste my time by educating them....u r sample is not good enough to give reports like this..please choose large sample and give ample evidence that people think like this.
ReplyDeletedamn ur jumpy!
ReplyDeleteure so right, and its not only ppl having wrong perceptions abt ppl here in India, we do the same thing maybe just subconsciously but we do...
ReplyDeletebesides the bias, i guess its generally easier to group and attribute than to have to account for the differences...
great post! (as usual) :)
@ Vandita,
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
I agree that sometimes its better to lump people together than to understand their differences. But then people should not get mad when they themselves are lumped together by another group!
@ Paratrooper,
ReplyDeleteHaha! Only sometimes....
@ Rakesh,
ReplyDeleteThis is not a systematic study nor an experiment. It is mere observations over more than a decade.
@ I'll try,
ReplyDeleteNooooooo...no one can save you from such people because they are everywhere, including you and I!
@ P,
ReplyDeleteYes, I do too. :(
@ Anu,
ReplyDeleteThe world may shrink and we all may be educated more but the basic human nature of generalizing...will not go soon!!
@ Hemu,
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good idea!
@ Metrosexual,
ReplyDeleteHey bhagwaaaaaaan!
Maybe I am an exception to those women and maybe I am not a chand ka tukda.
@ Suma,
ReplyDeleteThey have a name for EVERYTHING!! :)
@ Shachi,
ReplyDeleteYa...we all lap it up when its good. The moment its bad, we say, "WTF!!"
@ Sach,
ReplyDeleteHaha! Sorry about that! Thanks!! :)
@ Ankur,
ReplyDeleteNamaste London? Woh kaha se tapka? sorry have not seen the movie.
he probably means this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e6akU0cAVU
ReplyDeleteyes, true!
ReplyDeleteGuess I also have some of these perceptions (not about the Indians, the other ones u have pointed out)...
solitaire i just to tell that we should not use the word dirty at least for indian if ur blog is read by indian..since u r indian and even u obserevd these things...we should bring these things in other way...i appreciate ur effort but i think its not good to use word dirty i...?
ReplyDeleteHaha - so true!
ReplyDeleteWe can all be so biased sometimes :-)
hmmm...cognitive biases haa?
ReplyDeleteits so much interesting!!!
and ther are many of them...:D
Groupism and stereotyping are the biggest issues! we all get carried away and pass comment about other Ethnicity. I tried to educate them, if its doesnt work I tried to ignore them, if they truly test my patience, I give them piece of my mind and they`ll remember me forever(not the best thing in the world...sometimes u just have to take care of bussienss!).
ReplyDeletelol...i hav some such perceptiosn too...like all chinese/koreans/vietnamese..(u get the idea)look the same....
ReplyDeleteone more myth (or non-myth depending on which side you are): all indian engineer-girls are non-males :D.
ReplyDeletePeople believe what they wanna believe. We can't do much trying to change what they believe about us. But we can avoid them :-)
ReplyDeleteBut talking about generalization.. even we are guilty of that crime at times isn't it?
ammu.
All Indian are Dirty!!! Not in the list! Rest all OK..But never heard of been called as Dirty!
ReplyDelete@ Keshi,
ReplyDeletePrecisely! We ALL do it. If not all together, we have at some point.
Thanks!!
@ Pavi,
ReplyDeleteBut who decides this majority? There are more than a billion Chinese people in China alone. Have you met all of them? So how do you know that majority of them look alike.
Did you know that Chinese people say the same about INDIANS?
@ Amit,
ReplyDeleteThanks!
***All Chinese look alike.
...don't they?
That's what they say about us Indians too.
***All women take too much time to get dressed.
Since you are not a woman, you just committed the bias that I talked about. :)
***All men are practical.
- not really.:)
SEE...now that you are part of that particular group, you are able to say that not everyone is the same!!
***All Gujjus are business-minded.
- Isn't that a great perception?
Maybe, in your mind. Its all about the perception, isn't it?
@ Keshi,
ReplyDeleteHaha! I am trying my best to but I cannot please everyone. :(
@ Nitin,
ReplyDeleteEkdum perfect! You are a fast learner.
@ Harish,
ReplyDelete***does pschiatry have an excuse for everything? (ok...not an excuse, definition :-))
I think so!! BTW, its Psychology! :)
***I would say that more than exposure, education et al; its just the mindset of the person that matters a lot.
But sometimes the mindset is shaped by the exposure and education.
Thanks for sharing your personal experience in this space!
@ Sri,
ReplyDeleteThat's cause you are not in India. Thanks!
@ Vinz,
ReplyDeleteHaha! Yes they are a part of life. Though not always right, sadly there. That's why we should all take a chill pill!
@ La Vida,
ReplyDeleteBut we all do it.
@ Daydreamer,
ReplyDeleteHaha! Tujhe mazaa aya na...bus hai!
@ Ria,
ReplyDeleteIt sure is for them...not for us when we get asked if we have pet elephants at home! But ya....good attitude to laugh it off!
@ Amit,
ReplyDeleteThank you!!! I hope you visit often now.
@ Lena,
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that we will probably never be able to shed our disillusions and misconceptions about other nations unless we see it for ourselves. Therefore, we all should refrain from talking confidently about other nations that we have never visited and not take offense when others do the same!
@ Sameera,
ReplyDeleteYeah I know it can get quite frustrating. But we can try. One day, we might be able to ignore them. Some people already say they are able to do that!
@ Princess,
ReplyDeleteYeah!! We do the same to them. Just that we think we are only being curious, but that they are being stupid!
@ Hiren,
ReplyDeleteHaha! Then bask in the glory of that "non bias" and enjoy maadi!!
@ Tarun,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by "their"? Are you not Indian?
@ Aphrodite,
ReplyDeleteHaha! Thanks for admitting that. :)
@ Prachi,
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Thanks for sharing that. Experience does teach us a lot! I am glad both families were about to shed their wrong notions about the other!
@ Vishesh,
ReplyDeleteMe too!
@ Parul,
ReplyDeleteThanks for understanding the point I am trying to make here. :)
@ Lukky,
ReplyDeleteWrong!! They do not....
And the title is GREAT! It caught your attention, did it not?
@ Broca,
ReplyDeleteExactly!! And like how I think that all college students in India are currently having premarital sex behind closed doors not making them any different from Westerners.
@ Crystal,
ReplyDeleteDid you read the entire post?
@ Jack,
ReplyDeleteThanks!! Yes we do!
@ neeku,
ReplyDeleteGreat attitude!
@ Busy Writer,
ReplyDeleteYes, and its quite normal. Everyone does it. I hope the awareness reduces the frequency at least.
@ Raghu,
ReplyDeleteThanks!
@ Tuhin,
ReplyDeleteAll these biases are very similar and could be confusing. FAE talks about "attribution"...the reasons you give for others doing what they did or being the way they are. This is merely talking about how you feel everyone is the same but you are different.
@ Ranjani,
ReplyDeleteWe create the myths anyway, right?
@ Rayshma,
ReplyDeleteAS someone here said...psychologists come up with a term for everything!
@ Rayshma,
ReplyDeleteAre you serious??????? WOW!! Must have been funny to see his expression!
@ Mel,
ReplyDeleteWell said!!!
thats another thing ppl expect from everyone...to PLEASE them all the time.
ReplyDeletelol! dun bother.. just do ur thing cos ur fantastic!
Keshi.
Oops,
ReplyDeleteShould have replaced Theirs with something more reflective like US or ours.
:P
True Indian Sol,at least their is no confusion about this aspect of my being.
That's cause you are not in India. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI dont understand this...??!!!
Well mostly Bangladeshi are referred for that word.
boy i cant believe ppl still think like dat bout us indians!
ReplyDeletenice one Sol...
ReplyDelete4 so many Indians..everything Western is still taboo
n 4 so many Westerners everythng Indian is still exotic
I so hope such ppl take off their tin specs n get a life
good one Sol...
ReplyDeleteif it makes a few people think, well u've achieved a lot...
It is very true that the human mind ‘groups’ and ‘categorizes’ everything it comes across, including people! ‘Out group homogeneity’ is one such thing I guess. Mostly born out of ignorance…Or in other cases based on a dominant trend.
ReplyDeleteIt is fair to replace the word ‘all’ with ‘most’ in at least some of the statements u mentioned!
But sometimes we need ‘generalization’ to take note of ‘exceptions’ :)
Here is a song by an Indian for Indians
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7ewYdchukQ
It goes on all areas, why country specific
ReplyDeleteAll MILs are basd
All sils are bad
all hubbys are bad
all......
do these also fall under the same category..lol
TC
CU
hmm
ReplyDeletem dirty..hav lived in village...value relationships n family...speak hindi...eat curry..
so ,saala kisi ke baap ka kya jata hai..
i really hate people wid such perceptions...
and does it make any difference..each one of us indian, american,british..etc etc..hav dere culture..
talkin more precisly..indians r furthur termed as..bangali..marathi..gujarati..punjabi..
I have experienced this myself and as easy as it sounds, it does hurt when you come across someone with prejudices or whatever it is you call it. Although whenever I've come across it, I've tried to reason out but then it's difficult sometimes coz when it is true, it is you yourself who learns a bit about your own country and well...that's quite uncomfortable. Coz you see the wrongs that we conveniently overlook..
ReplyDeleteNice post.
Thoughtful post :) Second your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI have subscribed to your blog on my reader :D
oh this is nothing... people are much more ignorant than that :-)
ReplyDeletebut this is a good one... i am not even Indian and sometimes i am surprised at how people perceive me when they mistake me for an indian :-)
lovely..thank u, i keep ranting about this habit of putting people in neat brackets...now u have given me the term to use for it.
ReplyDeleteHi...visiting ur blog for the first time...interesting blog dear
ReplyDeleteEveryone is biased in a way or the other. IT might be intentional or unintentional....
@ Diana,
ReplyDeleteThanks!
True! We have to admit that we do that though.
@ Pinku,
ReplyDeleteHaha!! Go forth. Use it. Educate more people!
@ Raaji,
ReplyDeleteReally? Perceptions change? Interesting!!
@ Manasa,
ReplyDeleteThanks!
@ Pranay,
ReplyDeleteYes. That is the point I am trying to make. We all try to point fingers at others with prejudices but we have them ourselves.
@ Joie,
ReplyDeleteYou are right! Kisi ke baap ka kuch nahi jaata but people talk as if they own the world!
@ Compassion,
ReplyDeleteYes. Its not country specific at all. It applies everywhere. I too have given other examples.
@ Jira,
ReplyDeleteSometimes is a good word but sometimes people do it everytime. :)
@ D Sinner,
ReplyDeleteI hope they have! Have you?
@ Comfortably,
ReplyDeleteI have noticed either everything Western is glamorous or then completely taboo. Nothing in between!!
@ Gunj,
ReplyDeleteThey do but that's not the point here.
@ Sri,
ReplyDeleteAre you bangladeshi?
@ Tarun,
ReplyDeleteYou sounded confused in that comment!
@ Keshi,
ReplyDeleteThanks!!!
@ Tulip,
ReplyDeleteYes we are. And that is the point.
@ Jitendra,
ReplyDeletePhew! That is confusing!
@ KP,
ReplyDeleteHaha!! Spoken like a true gujju..idhar bhi business!
@ Endevourme,
ReplyDeleteLOTS of them!
@ Ash,
ReplyDelete:)
Thanks for acknowledging that!
@ Rakesh,
ReplyDeleteI am not going to distort facts here. If people think Indians are dirty, then they think so. What can I do about it?
@ Anjuli,
ReplyDeleteYes we all do!
Okay now that i know there's a word behind the mentality i'll be a bit more tolerant...Because of a very stupid incidence in australia some 3 yrs back i vowed i'll never step on their soil in my entire life, even some months back i blatantly rejected a very prestigious assignment just coz it required me to go there and stay for some weeks....
ReplyDeleteI did not meant it to be confusing.
ReplyDeleteYes I am an Indian and yes all Indian (including me) are dirty,being shabby or thinking shabby, or anything in life realted to shabbiness, is what we (I included) take pride in.
hey sneha got all the views how do i post is it yaar its too big file..
ReplyDeleteurs..hemu..
Hey,
ReplyDeletei was thinking on these lines for a blog post - about the way we stereotype people.
But never knew that there is some science behind it. thanks for sharing.
You have been blogrolled :)
In Complete agreement with you views!!!
ReplyDelete