America is considered to be the great melting pot of the world, so why are we still dealing with issues such as stereotyping, labeling, and segregation? Whether we think about it or not people are constantly being labeled and categorized like a herd of cattle. Even the government wants to know exactly how we identify ourselves. Many political leaders argue that there should be a "mixed race" category added to the United States census. Acts such as these simply encourage our nation's citizens to segregate and encompass ignorant beliefs on other cultures. .
When do children begin to notice the differences between themselves and their peers? In racially mixed schools you will often times see children of diverse racial boundaries interact with one another without any problems. Once the students enter Junior High they begin to have more social interactions and segregation begins to occur. Groups amongst the teens begin to form and race may play apart in which group they end up in. Another main reason these groups begin to form is because of puberty. "As children enter adolescence, they begin to explore the question of identity, asking "Who am I? Who Can I be?" (Tatum 298). Young black youths, in particular think of themselves as a racial group because in their eyes everyone else does. .
Stereotyping is another form of racism that we deal with in everyday life here in America today. Many times the media will use their audience's ignorance and exploit groups of people to provide the six o"clock news or even a character for one of their sitcoms. The media likes to portray minorities in negative and degrading ways. "Film and Television have been notorious in disseminating images of racial minorities which establish for audiences what these groups look like, how they behave, and in essence, "who they are" (Omi 281). Many movies today have stereotypical characters for example the summer block buster smash "Bad Boys II" had a group of Colombian men playing the parts of drug lords.