英语听力文摘 English Digest 519、种族刻板印象

 　　Racial Stereotypes² and Memory

 

　　Although there has been much debate about whether race has a biological or social basis, the bottom line is that race is a psychological reality for many people. That is, many folks assign other individuals to racial categories based on their appearance, and then make assumptions about them.

 

　　But racial stereotyping³ goes beyond classifying people into groups. When a group is assigned a negative stereotype¹, individuals that exhibit more of the physical characteristics identified with that group suffer more discrimination.

 

　　For example, in a recent study, participants were asked to read one of four news articles about a hypothetical African American man. The first story was about a professor receiving an award. The second was about an athlete, a role stereotypically⁴ linked to African Americans. The third was about a white-collar criminal and the fourth about a violent criminal. No matter which story they read, all participants saw the same photo of the man.

 

　　Despite that fact, when participants were asked to reconstruct the man’s face on a computer, they gave the man more stereotypically African features, such as darker skin tones, if he had been portrayed⁶ negatively as the white collar criminal, or–especially–as the violent criminal.

 

　　The fact that they didn’t associate more African features with the athlete, who was portrayed positively⁷, suggests the participants linked these features to negativity rather than stereotypes. And this happened regardless of the participants’ self-reported racial attitudes, which means that they weren’t even aware they were having these troubling responses.

 

　　If so, then it’s not enough to study the way the media portray⁵ racial groups. It’s also important to study how the public interprets and remembers–or misremembers–the news in a way that sustains racism⁸.

1 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

2 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 stereotyping   

v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I realize that I'm stereotyping. 我认识到我搞的是老一套。 来自辞典例句
• There is none of the gender stereotyping usually evident in school uniforms. 有没有人的性别刻板印象通常是显而易见的。 来自互联网

4 stereotypically   

adv.带有成见地(stereotype的副词形式)

参考例句：

5 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

6 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 positively   

adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实

参考例句：

• She was positively glowing with happiness.她满脸幸福。
• The weather was positively poisonous.这天气着实讨厌。

8 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。