Expectations—How I fell prey to stereotypes

In one month I’m headed off to my first year at The Schreyer Honors College at Penn State. Yet whenever I’m asked what school I will be attending in the Fall, as recent high-school graduates are invariably asked, I usually just say Penn State, leaving out Schreyer altogether. While I certainly recite that entire title in a business or professional environment, I find it a bit pretentious to include “Schreyer Honors College” in social settings. This may be especially so because I am not trying to imply to the 60 other kids from my school going to Penn State that I am better or smarter than they are. So I resolved to say that I just go to Penn State, at least in social settings. 

But when one parent asked me what school I was going to, something surprising occurred. Arriving at my friend’s house one day, I greeted his father who was gardening outside. After exchanging pleasantries, the conversation shifted to my future school as I had expected it to. “So where will you be going next year?” Without hesitation, I responded: “Schreyer Honors College at Penn State.” 

What had just happened? 

Why, after deciding that including Schreyer sounded pretentious, did I say it? I felt the words form in my mouth but was powerless to stop their emancipation. And it did sound a little pretentious. I thought at the time that because my friend is going to an Ivy League, I had included Schreyer to give Penn State more comparative weight. But this exact same scenario happened again with another friend’s parent, and this friend was going to a school similar to Penn State. I anticipated the question and tried to suppress the response, but Schreyer fumbled gracelessly out of my mouth like a barrel crashing down a waterfall. Why was I suddenly losing power over how I wished to describe my school?

After mulling this over, I finally understood why I think this happened: the parents, like my friends, were Asian.

As I’m sure you all know, one of the stereotypes surrounding Asians is that they are smarter than the average person, especially in mathematical and scientific areas. I certainly am not saying that I believe those to be true, or that I am racist or biased towards Asians in any way. Rather that just the knowledge and presence of those stereotypes induced me to expect those parents to have higher standards to which I should appeal to—prompting me to include Schreyer. Even before speaking to the second parent, I consciously reminded myself of the previous outcome, but Schreyer came out regardless. I succumbed to these stereotypes just as anyone else could have. 

This is not a testament to my individual beliefs, but rather to the powerful implications of stereotypes on behavior and thought. Even though we may not believe these stereotypes, we need to acknowledge that these stereotypes exist and that, no matter how much we believe we don’t, we act upon them. Only then can we begin to overcome them.

Ideas for Improving Voter Registration

In my recent post about primaries I discussed how filling out my voter registration card prompted me to look into primaries, thus delving into how closed, semi-closed and open primaries function with regards to different party affiliations. I later realized that there is an inherent problem with the actual voter registration forms we all fill out: obtaining and submitting them.

The National Voting Registration Act of 1993 (the Motor Voter Act) enabled those obtaining their licenses to simultaneously receive voter registration forms. But even then a large amount of people getting their licenses were only 16 years old, two years too young to vote. This creates a problem: these 16-year-olds are given their voter registration forms to maintain and eventually submit, but there are plenty of teenagers who, expectedly, misplace their forms or lose interest in registering after a 2-year waiting period. 

To fix this, the DMV or another government organization could mail the voter registration forms to registered drivers on their 18th birthday. It is a very simple idea that could yield impressive results. And perhaps if these adolescents receive a voter form on the advent of adulthood, they will better understand their responsibility as American citizens and feel more inclined to participate in the voting process.

Why not take this a step further? Perhaps we should mail those voter forms to every American citizen on their 18th birthday. The ones who don’t care about voting wouldn’t go to the trouble of filling out the form and returning it. And even if apathetic voters do register, I don’t believe they would regularly exercise a right they do not want. But for those who had always wanted to register but either didn’t know how to, couldn’t find a form, or simply didn’t have the time to, this would be a generous and helpful action.

Though one can find state websites for registering to vote literally just by Googling “register to vote,” most people either do not know this or do not think voting matters enough to warrant the time registration takes. Though mailing forms to every 18-year-old citizen may not be feasible, it would be effective. 

People respond to incentives: providing people with accessible and simple ways to register as voters would increase our voting-eligible population and enhance our democracy. More advertising could be done for registration. Forms could be placed in more frequented locations, like banks. They could even be mailed out to immigrants who complete naturalization tests, or better yet, given to them on the spot--unless of course they’re under 18!