Stereotypes

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

Camila Lopez still recalls the oily smell of the greasepaint she carried to school when she played an Indian girl in the "Mission Play" in San Gabriel six decades ago. The paint was red. "Red, really red. We had to look like redskins," Lopez, 73, said. Lopez, whose complicated bloodlines trace back seven generations to Gabrielino Indians who lived and worked at the San Gabriel Mission, was blissfully unaware of the stereotype in 1947 -- the year she appeared in the drama, the grandest and most successful of the historical pageants that swept California in the early 20th century.

Of all the drives, dunks and dazzling shots Jeremy Lin is forcing upon the stars of the NBA, none of it compares with the moves he's putting on a larger collection of everyday people. Jeremy Lin has dribbled America into the previously quiet corner of its casual prejudice and lazy stereotypes of Asian Americans. The true beauty of his story is in awareness of the ugliness that has been found there. It's been barely two weeks since the beginning of a tale that rocked the sports world with great basketball and bad puns, but so much already has changed.

Of all the drives, dunks and dazzling shots Jeremy Lin is forcing upon the stars of the NBA, none of it compares with the moves he's putting on a larger collection of everyday people. Jeremy Lin has dribbled America into the previously quiet corner of its casual prejudice and lazy stereotypes of Asian Americans. The true beauty of his story is in awareness of the ugliness that has been found there. It's been barely two weeks since the beginning of a tale that rocked the sports world with great basketball and bad puns, but so much already has changed.

Like countless misunderstood mistresses, the title character of "The Other Woman" didn't set out to wreck an already busted home. Nor did she shy away from her love for a married man. Now, on the other side of the looking glass, she's ostracized by elementary-school mothers for being a "second wife" and for not conforming to the new-millennial, uptown Manhattan ideal of child-rearing. She's also grappling with capital-G grief over the death of a newborn, trying to forge a bond with her precocious stepson and struggling to save her marriage.

Tim McGraw's "Indian Outlaw" is the fastest-rising country single on the pop charts since Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy Breaky Heart" in 1992, but not everyone is celebrating. Two country radio stations in Minneapolis are refusing to play the song after complaints that some of the lyrics are offensive to Native Americans.

Disney's movie "Dick Tracy" is big at the box office, but some local Asian and Latino groups are unhappy with Disney-owned KCAL Channel 9 for reviving a 29-year-old "Dick Tracy" cartoon series that they say contains ethnic and racial stereotypes. "When you exaggerate racial and ethnic mannerisms and characteristics, that is racism, no matter how you slice it," said Raul Ruiz, Chicano studies professor at Cal State Northridge.

When Van Nuys First Baptist Church acquired land two years ago for a new building in Chatsworth, the congregation also decided that it needed a new name. After surveying people in movie lines, ballparks and shopping malls, members settled on Shepherd of the Hills Church. "We're interested in the people who don't go to church and may have an aversion to church," said Pastor Jess Moody.

Even as American audiences gush over "Slumdog Millionaire," some Indians are groaning over what they see as yet another stereotypical foreign depiction of their nation, accentuating squalor, corruption and impoverished-if-resilient natives. "Slumdog," which earned 10 Oscar nominations this week, including one for best picture, is set in Mumbai, is based on an Indian novel and features many Indian actors. Yet the sensibility is anything but Indian, some critics argue.

I am 18 and in my first year at UC San Diego. I am writing in response to Youth Opinion (Voices, Nov. 30) that featured teen-agers' feelings on stereotypes. I have never read a newspaper article that I could relate to more than this, especially the excerpt by Aburee Duggan. My mother is white and my father is a Spanish-Filipino. I have been labeled everything from Filipino to Mexican to Native-American. It makes me feel as if I don't have any real identity. I tell people I'm half Filipino, half white.

Say what you will about the latest Internet video sensation - in which someone lampoons one group of humans or another based on certain conversational proclivities - but if nothing else, we can credit it with bringing mainstream awareness to the word "meme. " That's the term coined by Richard Dawkins for the way evolutionary principles can be used to explain how cultural ideas take hold. It's now basically turned into a fancy way of talking about things that are popular on the Internet.

After countless years spent memorizing the Koran and subscribing to most anything that might make him more Muslim, Pakistani American college student Hayat Shah finally finds enlightenment - in the form of a pork bratwurst. "I lifted the sausage to my mouth, closed my eyes, and took a bite," recalls Hayat in the prologue of "American Dervish," Ayad Akhtar's debut novel. "My heart raced as I chewed, my mouth filling with a sweet and smoky, lightly pungent taste that seemed utterly remarkable - perhaps all the more for having been so long forbidden.

Michelle Obama says that claims in a new book about her relationship with the president and role in his administration are off base, and feed into the long-held view of critics that she is "some angry black woman" (see video below). In an interview that aired Wednesday on "CBS This Morning," the first lady said she has not read "The Obamas," the new book by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor. In fact, she rarely, if ever, reads any of the books that claim to have insight into the personal life of her and her family.

Theatrically speaking, Christmas is all about stock characters that return year after year — there's the jolly, chubby Santa, the aging greedy miser, the outcast red-nosed reindeer. But a new Christmas production takes these standard players in a whole new direction. After a successful off-Broadway run, Alternative Theatre Company founder and playwright Joe Marshall's gay-themed Christmas comedy, "The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever!" made its West Coast premiere Monday at North Hollywood's Avery Schreiber Theatre.

Robert Jeffress introduced Texas Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit on Friday. He started a great big hullabaloo by asking, "Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person, or one who is a born-again follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?" Before we go on, let me just say, I'd probably go with curtain No. 1. Don't get me wrong — I've got no problem with a born-again Christian being my president, my pilot or my chiropodist. But saying someone is a born-again Christian, for me at least, is not inherently synonymous with being a "good, moral person," never mind being transparently preferable to one. In other words, I might vote for a born-again Christian on the assumption that his professed faith makes it more likely he's a good person.

There's a lot more to culture in the Lone Star state than dry rub barbecue, the Dallas Cowboys and the collected writings of Rick Perry. For starters, there's the Rude Mechs, although rubes from cow towns like New York and L.A. may find it hard to comprehend that an ensemble-based theater company with the conceptual savvy of a semiotics professor and the physical explosiveness of the Sex Pistols could call Austin its hometown. Even now, roughly 17 years after a handful of renegades formed the collaborative then known as the Rude Mechanicals, company members and their co-conspirators still get dubious stares when they reveal their profession to Texans and non-Texans alike.

Most men with genital piercings don't fit into the usual stereotype of bikers, druggies or Goths, researchers said Monday. In fact, most who responded to a survey are nearly middle-aged, middle class married men, according to an online study performed by researchers from Texas Tech University. Men report many reasons for piercings, including increased sexual satisfaction, a need for rebellion and a desire for risk-taking. But they also endure a variety of complications, particularly infections and bleeding.

Picture yourself in a well-kept room — pictures neatly hung on walls, books organized on a shelf, floors clear of junk. Now sit yourself in a room with crooked pictures, scattered books and dirty laundry on the floor. Feeling any different? In the second room, you might be more apt to keep your distance from a person of another race, believe that Muslims are aggressive or think that gay people are creative, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The idea, said researchers from Tilburg University in the Netherlands, is that people in messy environments tend to compensate for that disorder by categorizing people in their minds according to well-known stereotypes.

Justin Bieber's line of perfume — for women — recently made its debut. He seems to know his market. One teenage girl gushed, "I love him! I love him! When I use the perfume, I feel him!" And it's not only Justin — I call him Justin although we travel in different universes. Last year, there were 69 new celebrity perfumes. There was Katy Perry's Purr, Beyonce's Heat and Jennifer Aniston's creatively named Jennifer Aniston. It got me thinking that we seniors should have our own scents.

In "The Help's" homespun story of racism in '60s-era Mississippi, some saw stereotypes. I saw pieces of my childhood — for better or worse. That's the inherent difficulty of deciding what is and is not a stereotype. How we view any character is grounded in personal experience — what you know well you see differently. What plays as exaggeration, even parody, can reveal deeper truths. And that was the case for me with "The Help. " When the subject is race, the stakes are ratcheted up, as we saw in the highly charged reactions in 2009 to "Precious" and "The Blind Side," very disparate films both pummeled for what some considered Hollywood's version of racial profiling.