And now, a bit about stereotypes:

I suppose the way I would have to define them would the perception I have about any person or group that I have made without having had much contact with them or with anyone else knowledgeable about them. Lippman says, and quite rightly, “ we define first, then see. ” ….and he’s right. I think in a lot of cases, people just have to have some sort of opinion.
People know that a lot of the images they’re being fed aren’t entirely accurate, but maybe if they cobble together some views from a few sources they like, (or maybe just the ones with the best PR) then they can probably conjure up a semi-factual opinion. The pictures in our heads are fueled by a million different influences and it gets very difficult to even know which ones we are playing off of. Maybe something I saw when I was little that I didn’t understand at the time, I later tried to explain by fitting it into the stereotypes I’ve learned from TV, friends, magazines and God knows what else. After some time I would probably begin to explain the story as though that’s actually what happened. We can write and re-write our memories all over again with our changing influences and that’s a rather scary thing in my opinion.
Minds are interesting places. I’m fairly sure my brain must be leaking something after thinking about all of this. I’m off.