School Assignment

1. Keely Hill
FYS
While I was home over the weekend, I saw some stereotypes of people who live in
Southern West Virginia. My friend’s father is a coal miner, my step dad assumed that because he
was a coal miner, that he lived in a trailer and owned a pick-up truck. Some coal miners do, but
he did not. Another one of my friends, which is originally from Maryland, came to West Virginia
for school. She is black. She was in an elevator with a white man who said “please don’t jump
me.” The man assumed that because she is black, that she would jump him. My mother recently
got a new job. We had our neighbors over for dinner. My neighbors were surprised to learn that
my mother now makes more money than my step-father. This is an example of a gender
stereotype. Because she is a woman, they assumed that she made less money than the man of the
house. I have a friend who is sort of a tom boy, she is a straight female. People assume that
because she is masculine, that she is a lesbian, but she is not.