Stereotypes in Morocco

Our first official project! And my, how successful it was!

Chris had managed to round up 20 Moroccans between the age of 15 and 21, plus two translators from the community of Tinjdad, for an intense two hour discussion! They were a great group - well prepared, and very insightful on our chosen topic of stereotypes!

We led through some examples and jokes about what a stereotype is and kind of how they exist. Our participants caught on quickly and we immediately had a sound discussion on our hands.

Tim and I asked them to brain storm some common stereotypes in their lives. The first one mentioned had to do with the level of conservatism in their town with respect to how women are supposed to dress. We talked about that a little bit, and found that the stereotype made some women uncomfortable - as you can imagine. It didn't take long, after that to start hearing other stereotypes.

They had a list of many different kinds of stereotypes and then we broke them up into four groups of four or five people to: choose a stereotype to discuss, vote on whether or not the stereotype is consistent with the truth, give examples of how the stereotype can be corrected or broken down, and finally to discuss the consequences of such a stereotype.

For their discussions, the four groups chose the following four stereotypes:

• Americans teach us well.
• Americans are rich and have nice lives.
• Americans look down on other people.
• Islam = terror.

Americans teach us well.
This stereotype came about because there have been five Peace Corps Volunteers at this site, and they have effectively created a reputation of being good teachers. While this felt like a compliment to me, I had to dig a little deeper. Turns out, this perspective was generated because the Americans that they know are better at teaching them English than the Moroccans they know. To their surprise, I explained that there are a lot of people in the United States that don't even speak English!

Americans are rich and have nice lives.
This group dispelled this stereotype after talking about what they had seen on the news after Hurricane Katrina. They decided that, in fact, there are people in America who aren't rich and who don't have nice lives. They also brought Rap music into the discussion and pointed out that the Rappers sing about how hard their lives are... I felt the first example was quite a bit more powerful.

Americans look down on other people.
The third group felt this way because in many popular movies they see Americans depicted as more powerful or "better" than Arabs. They then reinforced their stereotype from what they see happening in the news with respect to international politics. After voting and discussing for a while, they came to the conclusion that not all Americans look down on other people, and used us Peace Corps Volunteers as examples. By being here, in Morocco, and by forming friendships and bonds with these students, they can see a contrast to what different forms of media are telling them.

Islam = Terror
Of course this is not a stereotype belonging to our participants, but they are well aware that it exists in Europe and across the ocean. It was clear to see that they were quite offended by this stereotype and were quick to point out it's falacies. They contradicted the misled belief that all Muslims are terrorists because they themselves are Muslims and are, in fact, not terrorists. They further supported their argument by stating that terrorist groups exist who are not Muslim, citing the ETA in Spain, and the IRA in Northern Ireland. They concluded their argument by citing that the Koran and Islam teach Muslims to be tolerant of and peaceful to other religions.
We talked about the consequences of these stereotypes and explained that stereotypes beget stereotypes, throwing those involved into the realms of a destructive state of fear and anger over what people do not understand.

In conclusion we discussed further the consequences of stereotypes and emphasized that it was important for all people to not always take things at face value - to think about what they're hearing and to consider that it may not be true for all people.

Our group was a great, intelligent group and they were extremely insightful about how Moroccans view the West. It was nice to hear what another culture thinks about my own culture, but at the same time, I found it a bit disheartening that some of these stereotypes exist about my home. I completely understand, though, because stereotypes from my home must certainly equally dishearten them. In the end, my opinion is still to not judge a person or a culture based on hearsay and rumors. It's an opinion that I feel was shared this night by all participants.