Stereotypes

I live in a country where people like Eugene Terreblanche and Julias Malema pop quite often in the news providing people with a satisfactory stereotype of various race groups. Of course now that Eugene Terreblanche is dead there is a need for a new version of this stereotype, so far we have a good candidate in Andre Visagie to see what I mean you can watch here here.
Now my intention is not to take sides in this debate, personally I don't think either side is serves me, what I do want to address is that these are the stereotypes that people across the world will see before they think about coming to the soccer here. I would mention the name of the competition but I would probably get fined and arrest by the world's governing body for soccer but that might just be my stereotyping them as a big bully.
It is so easy to create a stereotype, simply repeat something often enough, even if it is not in context and people will assume the rest for themselves. Simply put the brain does not want to think too much so it loves stereotypes because they make our world a little easier to understand. If I can fit you into a little box and label you then I don't have to really think anything more about you.
One would think with the advent of modern technology we would come in contact with more and more different and diverse people that we would realise that stereotypes do not hold up under scrutiny. Unfortunately it seems that hasn't happened, TV and film love to broadcast stereotypes. Even the internet seems to bring out the stereotypes perhaps because even online we still stick to the same groups and associations we have in the 3D world. We notice when we run across the extreme and the news that gets filter to us is the same as what we see on TV, stereotypes get highlighted. Why? Not because they represent the truth about people more because they are the exception, they are interesting, they don't challenge people's thinking and they are what people expect.
Then again I might just be a stereotypical blogger moaning about the world I live in, without doing anything to change it.