Essay On African American Stereotypes

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Apes appeared on the earth 14 million years ago and throughout the time have encountered many situations that have caused their genotype and phenotype variations. These variations allowed for the evolution of Hominini to Homo-erectus then finally Homo-erectus to homo sapiens. During the creation of human culture, our ancestors learned to adapt to their environments through natural selection to created our modern day genotypes and because of these factors, no homo sapiens is completely like the next. Not only are no two homo sapiens alike, but because of migration and interbreeding between continents, it is easy for a person to have a genotype with multiple traits from different regions. With this being said, the typical modern day depiction …show more content…
For example, because I am a girl with the skin tone of a typical African person and I live in America I am under the racial category African-American despite the fact that I have no proof that any of my ancestors are actually of African descent. However, though I do not have biological statements saying I am one hundred percent African American, It is presumably safe to say I am in this racial group because I share similar phenotypes like coarse hair, big lips, and darker skin and enjoy cultural norms like eating watermelon and listening to hip-hop. However, Like any other race, African American does not just stop at the phenotype. Stereotypes for African Americans differ between regions but according to the typical persona of an African American, we are known to be loud and sassy, know how to dance, be violent by nature and have an extreme appreciation for foods like watermelon and fried chicken. As specific as these characteristics may seem, this is the modern depiction of an African American and though many other individuals grouped in different racial categories fall under multiple if not all of these characteristic, this stereotype is set for African Americans. If an individual had these characteristics and was not presumed African-American, It would not be surprising for that individual to be considered trying to ‘act
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