Whether you believe it or not, stereotyping is just of the many things that come natural to your brain. We have all grown up watching movies, reading books, cartoons, and listening to music with hidden subliminal messages of stereotyping and portraying certain ideas of specific groups of people. For those of you who might not know stereotyping is a "preconceived, standardized idea about a specific group of people." (Hudson 2010:18)
So what are stereotypes for Israeli people or more know to us as Jews. Well, when talking to a friend I asked "what would you say the most common stereotype is for Jews?" they replied with "Jews are cheap people." How do we know this to be true? Where did this even come from?
The answer: Jews were not allowed to own land and have many jobs. One job they were allowed to have was to be a merchant "to manipulate money as the ruling class considered such activities beneath upper class dignity." (Answers.com December 19, 2011) By having these jobs we can assume that they were very well aware of how to manage and handle money.
Reference:
Answers.com. Latest Revisions: September 20, 2010. [Why are Jew's called cheap?] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_Jews_called_cheap (19 Dec, 2011)
It's true that we can generally trace stereotypes back to some point in time. Then we realize how completely skewed they become when people who don't bother to question what they are hearing pass them on to their children and grand-children and great-grandchildren who just keep repeating what they are told....
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