Stereotypes of white Americans

Stereotypes of white Americans in the United States are generalizations about the character, behavior, or appearance of white Americans by other Americans in the United States.

As the definition of white Americans has changed over time, so have stereotypes about white people. Different groups of minorities have different stereotypes about white Americans. Historically, stereotypes about white people were more likely to be based on specific ethnicities. Stereotypes of white people also generally tend to vary according to class lines.^[1]

In the media, White Americans are often stereotyped to be white-collar suburbanites who are middle class or wealthy.^[2] The term Chad refers to a handsome, athletic white man who is seen as the most desired by heterosexual women, while the terms Karen or Becky refer to white women who are annoying or aggressive.^[3][4][5]

The term Chad refers to a stereotypically masculine white American male, who is handsome, gainfully employed and blond-haired.^[3]

Becky and Karen have been used as terms to refer to white women who act in a clueless, condescending or entitled way.^[4] These stereotype names are derived from names that white women commonly have. Kyle, a similarly named stereotype, refers to an angry white teenage boy who consumes energy drinks, punches holes into drywall, and plays video games.^[5]

The blog Stuff White People Like addressed early 21st century stereotypes of white hipster bohemians in a humorous way.^[6] Comedian Dave Chappelle also used humor to address the stereotype that white Americans cannot dance in a sketch in which groups of whites erupt into frenzied dancing every time they hear an electric guitar.^[7]

Stereotypes of white Americans have been shown to vary according to socioeconomic status.^[1] In general, stereotypes of white people portray upper class white Americans as WASPs and they portray lower class white Americans as "backward", "barely-educated" rednecks.^[8] Rednecks, conversely are seen as "racist, hot-headed, too physical, violent, uncouth, loud, mean, undereducated—and proud of it."^[9]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, entitled White women were often stereotypically dubbed as Karens while displaying unhinged behavior.^[10]

An early study of stereotypes of white people found in works of fiction which were written by African-American authors was conducted by African-American sociologist Tilman C. Cothran in 1950. White Americans were commonly viewed as feeling superior to African Americans, harboring hatred for Blacks, being brutish, impulsive, or mean, having a sense of pride, and anti-Semitic beliefs.^[11] In another study on stereotypes in 1951, Cothran observed that the black lower and upper classes at that time had the least favorable stereotypes about white people, and the black middle class the most favorable.^[12]

In a 1972 study, American whites were stereotyped as "materialistic and pleasure loving" when compared with Asian and African Americans.^[13] In a study among college students of different races in 1982, White Americans were described as materialistic, ambitious, intelligent, conventional, industrious, and conservative. The study's author noted that the white stereotype had decreased in favorability over the years while the black stereotype had increased.^[14][15]

In a 2018 study of children of different races, six year olds chose photos of white men as being "really smart" over photos of white women or black and brown people.^[16]

As the social definition of "white people" has changed over the years, studies have shown that members of different races, ethnicities, and nationalities have different stereotypes of white people.^[17][18] Before the 1980s, ethnic groups such as the Irish, Italians, Armenians, and Polish people were portrayed in popular media and culture in a negative fashion.^[19] Stereotypes of West Virginians and Alabamians include incest and inbreeding.^[20] Poor whites in the Appalachian region have often been stereotyped as hillbillies.^[21] White Hispanic and Latino Americans are often overlooked by the U.S. mass media and frequently, American social perceptions incorrectly give the terms "Hispanic or Latino" a racial value, usually mixed-race, such as Mestizo,^[22][23] while they, in turn, are overrepresented in the U.S. Hispanic mass media, are admired by it, and shape social perceptions of Hispanic and Latino Americans.^{[24][25][26][27][28][29]}