Stereotypes

The article on Ebola describes the widespread hysteria in Western countries toward the Ebola outbreak in Africa; it has caused a variety of terrible decisions to be made prompting chemist Anthony England to make a map outlining just how limited the outbreak actually is. The article further discusses the lack of knowledge about Africa, especially it's geography. This story is a prime example of how ignorance can distort our perception, with people making false assumptions and exaggerated claims about phenomenons as famous as Ebola. I think prejudice for foreign cultures develops as a result of a multitude of factors like intolerance for difference and a lack of international education in schools; people also seem to have confirmation bias where they remember when their stereotypes matched a certain incident, but forget the thousands of times the stereotypes didn't. The implications of these kinds of stereotypes are difficulties in international diplomacy and conflict resolution, spread of war and fighting due to intolerance of the rights and needs of other countries, and incidences of damaging denials of rights like the one mentioned in the article in which a teacher who visited Kenya was forced to resign due to inaccurate and undeserved public outrage.