There is a difference between the two both are heavily racially fueled. “Stigmatization has played a major role in the racial profiling of black men. The stigmatization of black men in America as violent and dangerous, indolent, nonachieving, and criminal has created a context in which many black men, particularly those of low-income status, are viewed as suspicious in a variety of social encounters (Bonilla-Silva, 2006; Wilson, 2012). As a form of social identity, stigma is socially constructed and has been referred to as a virtual social identity whereby one is viewed as deviant, flawed, and having an attribute that deeply discredits the individual” (Teasley, M. L., Schiele, J. H., Adams, C., & Okilwa, N. S. (2018))

The makers of rice brand Uncle Ben’s have revealed a new name for the product following an outcry from shoppers.The popular line of rice and side dishes has been fronted by the image of an old black man called Uncle Ben since 1946.However, in wake of the Black Lives Matter movement earlier in the year, customers criticised the brand for perpetuating racial stereotypes.What is the new name for Uncle Ben’s?Mars Food, the company behind the brand, announced on Wednesday, September 23, that Uncle Ben’s will be renamed as Ben’s Original.The company said the move will signal the brand’s ambition to ‘create a more inclusive future while maintaining its commitment to producing the world’s best rice’.” (Tatum, K. (2020, September 27)

Amanda Couglin

Teasley, M. L., Schiele, J. H., Adams, C., & Okilwa, N. S. (2018). Trayvon Martin: Racial Profiling, Black Male Stigma, and Social Work Practice. Social Work, 63(1), 37–46. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/SW/SWX049

Tatum, K. (2020, September 27). Uncle Ben’s reveal new name for the rice brand after racial stereotyping row. Leigh Journal (St. Helens, England).

Hi professor and class,

Racial stigma is the manifestations of inequality and discrimination characterized by racism in everyday life may be less noticeable than in the case described above. In other words, it is not always a question of the expression of racism as marginalization but only of the problem of difference. In addition to racism on a daily basis, people have experienced institutional racism, whether at school where registration may sometimes be refused by the school principal, or at the workplace with restrictions on hiring (Pittman, 2020). Due to discrimination against a race is not just linked to everyday racism; the violence of the far-right gangs evoked in the introduction. Boys and girls remember attacks or threats from a very early age. Racial stereotyping is assumed that a group of people with the same characteristics share common attributes. In other words, a person has a strong opinion because of who one is. Stereotypes are often: damaging; too simplistic; dangerous and unfair. People mistakenly believe that an individual is hostile to them when they actually want to be helpful to them and they will walk away from the interaction without too much damage. Conversely, if one predicts that they are helpful to them when one actually wants to be hostile to one, one will have serious problems (Pittman, 2020). Multiply it with evolutionary power over billions of interactions, over hundreds of thousands of generations and one has a brain ready to draw on false positives faster than its shadow.

Reference

Pittman, C. (2020). “Shopping while Black”: Black consumers’ management of racial stigma and racial profiling in retail settings. Journal of Consumer Culture,20(1), 3-22.