As I think about how the past couple of classes have affected me I have to look at my own behavior and beliefs first. I have never liked being a person who gets involved in controversial issues. I do not give my political view, ESPECIALLY around friends, because I like to avoid being told that I am wrong having to fight to think that what I think is right. I find that this class is full of this same kind of problem and I am trying to get around it.

When we looked at the pictures on the first days of class, I immediately placed all of those people into little boxes based on what I thought they would be like from a glance. I was worried that I would be told that I was a racist, or sexist, or any other terrible name because I believed that these people might actually be what they were stereotyped as even though I had never met them. I thought that everyone would jump on me for being the white male who was ignorant and stuck up. I was so glad to find that we were allowed to do them anonymously. Seeing that my answers matched many of the other students' gave me a bit of peace. I know that I am not racist for prejudging people but it still feels bad to have someone tell you that you are. It is a human trait based on instincts to judge quickly.

I found that the book was very easy to read. It is facts but it is not too wordy. It does repeat itself A LOT but that is alright as long as he gets to the point. I liked the discussion of chapters 1-3 because everything was fresh. The experiments that he did showed remarkably strong results and I feel like the class was in favor of the book at that point. I was surprised that the studies all worked out exactly as he had hypothesized they would, but what was more interesting was that it seemed like the students in the class had no objections to the fact that stereotype threat exists. It seemed odd until I realized that it probably meant what I realized should have been obvious: they had all EXPERIENCED stereotype threat. Since the idea of stereotype threat is a universal concept in that all people have some positive or negative stereotype that they are aware of if at no other time, when stereotypes are brought up. This made me start to think things through a little more carefully and actually observe them to find their hidden traits that might stigmatize them. The boy tapping his pencil and fidgeting might have ADHD. The one student who had alternative schooling worried others will not accept them or their reasons for doing it. I have found that I still judge people when I first meet them, but I do it in a new way where I attempt to find their stereotypes and understand how and why that might affect their personality

As the discussions have gone on, I have continued to grow more open about my own stereotypes. I know that I have always had small reservations when telling my friends and especially girls my age that I sing and took dance and was in show choir because of the stereotype that goes with that: being gay. I know that it is not the only one but it is the one that I was most worried about in high school. I knew that I was nerdy so that did not bother me, I just chose friends who got similar grades. I was concerned that I could never get a girlfriend and I began to wonder if they had judged me wrongly because of my activities. I later found out that was actually the case for some of them. I have found the most remarkable thing, however, that directly parallels the book. When I left high school and came to college, all of the stigmas had changed. Now singing was sexy and dancing, as long as it was the right kind and "good", was considered cool. I had changed my location and found that the stereotypes there were different. I think that the final question I have now is whether or not we can force a good stereotype to cover up the bad ones for each race instead of just getting by with little quick fixes for specific tests.