Intracultural and Intercultural Causes of Stereotypes

Many people have preconceived ideas and stereotypes about cultures and co-cultures. Most of these stereotypes are probably erroneous, and built walls between cultures. The problem presented in this essay is how to make people realize that their stereotypes of other cultures and co-cultures are probably erroneous and that they need to be changed or eliminated. To start this transformation of thinking and erasing stereotypes a person must be made aware that they have such a stereotype in their mind. Let’s take a look at three such stereotypes that probably aren’t noticed, even though they affect us almost every day.

“Intracultural communication” is often a trigger for stereotypes. First a definition of “Intracultural communication” is “the type of communication that takes place between members of the same dominant culture, but with slightly different values,” (Samovar and Porter, 2001), as opposed to “intercultural communication” which is the communication between two distinct cultures. An example of intracultural communication triggering a stereotype would be if a person in the dominant culture, let’s say of the United States, spoke Ebonics. If a non-Ebonics speaking person hears Ebonics, a dialect of English with slang,, they may assume the person is of low intelligence, and is a criminal or violent in nature. These initial thoughts are unfounded and more than likely incorrect.