Reverse Racism And Stereotyping

Author’s Note: In this piece I have written about stereotyping, and reverse racism. I compared those two topics to a short story that deals with those concepts and teaches you a lot about them.\

Everyday people make assumptions about people and based on many things such as, looks, where they live and much more. This is just like how the mom acts in the short story, “ After You My Dear Alphonse,” because she demonstrates reverse racism in many parts throughout the story.  “After You My Dear Alphonse,”  is about a mom and her son comes home for lunch and brings a friend of his with him. His friend happens to be black, and the story is about the conversation between the mom and the black boy and how she makes many assumptions about him, his family and his home life. “ After You My Dear Alphonse,” by Shirley Jackson, demonstrates reverse racism  and stereotyping in many different parts.

Johnny’s mom demonstrates reverse racism towards Johnny’s friend, Boyd. One example of how she does this is when she offers to give Boyd old clothes and things, but she is very insistent that he not turn the clothes down or be ashamed to need it, when in reality he doesn’t need the clothes he is not like a stereotypical colored person.  When Boyd says, “ I guess we buy about everything we need. Thank you very much though,” in response to Johnny’s mom’s offer. When he says this it proves that he is not in need of clothes or any kind of charity from other people.

Not only when Johnny’s mom offers Boyd clothes is she demonstrating reverse racism, but also when she assumes Boyd’s dad does a lot of hard manual labor in a factory all day. When Johnny’s mom asks what Boyd’s dad does for work, Boyd says that he works in a factory. Johnny’s mom responds to this by saying, “And he certainly has to be strong to do that—all that lifting and carrying at a factory.” She assumes that because he’s black, he is automatically doing some underpaid labor intensive job, but is sadly mistaken when Boyd responds and says, “He’s a foreman.” When Boyd says this once again Johnny’s mom’s stereotypical assumptions about black people are incorrect, and the reader can tell that Johnny’s mom is getting a frustrated that she is constantly sounding stupid in front of her son.

Reverse racism and stereotyping are not only found in story’s and books, but also in life. For example when you meet someone you automatically make an assumption about them based on where they are from and what they look like. This happens so many times each day, whether you mean to or not, it’s automatic. But something you can control is what you say and do when you stereotype someone. What many people do, and what Johnny’s mom did was treat someone differently based on where they’re from and what they look like, but if you don’t want to treat someone like that you should keep your thoughts to yourself and not say anything until you get to know them. I’m sure Johnny’s mom wishes she’d done that.

In conclusion, reverse racism and stereotyping is common, in life and especially in the short story, “After You My Dear Alphonse,” by Shirley Jackson. Reverse racism has a way of backfiring and making you look ignorant which was proven by the author in this short story. In addition, stereotyping is something that leads to reverse racism, so think about what this author has taught you in this short story. The next time you meet someone new, don’t judge and stereotype them, talk to them and get to know them so that you don’t end up looking like Johnny’s mom in, “After You My Dear Alphonse.”