Prejudice and Stereotype (I) - I Buy a Car

  I recently bought a car. (!!)  For those of you that know me, this is a really big deal.  For those of you that don't know me, well, I can tell you're not impressed.  It was a big task, choosing a car.  I started by deciding I wanted a used car.  Then I decided the car needed the following characteristics: 1) Nice, 2) Reliable, 3) Sporty, 4) Manual Transmission, and 5) 4-door. 

  The first two items meant that I could easily ignore all American brand cars.  As I looked at different cars online I decided it was time to upgrade and look at luxury car models.  After comparing a few car models (based on looks), I settled on buying a 5-8 year-old BMW 3-series or 5-series.  I just kept drifting back to those cars.  I took two weekends to visit various private sellers (the dealerships kept being closed on Sundays and their prices were out-of-sight).  After some false starts, I found what I was looking for, bargained hard (to no effect) and drove away $8000 lighter but in a blue, manual 2002 BMW 325i.

 Now, these aren't pictures of my car but they are just like photos of my car.  I decided that these photos are better than any I might take.  I'm really happy with the car and the only thing that broke within the first week was the automatic sun-roof.

  What does all this have to do with prejudice or stereotype?  I'm getting to it.  The first inkling I had that anything was wrong was  when I was visiting people to look at the BMWs they were selling.  Almost every one of them was South Asian (even the guys with names like Sam).  I'm a little slow so I didn't get it at first.  After I bought the car and showed it off to some friends, a few said, "Great car.  All Indians choose BMWs."

  Hey!! I didn't know that!  I looked around and sure enough, a lot of BMWs on the roads with Indians in the driver's seat.  How did this happen?  I do know that when I was figuring out which car to buy, I seemed to naturally gravitate to the BMWs.  Most of the competitor models just didn't hold my interest.  I thought back to my upbringing and my parents didn't have a BMW.  There aren't a lot of BMWs in India (and certainly not when I was younger).  I simply can't figure out what in my cultural upbringing pre-disposed me to these cars.

  Despite this, this is the car I wanted.  Culture can be a funny thing.  Stereotypes are even more subtle than people may imagine.  Somehow, culture can affect you in ways that you can't trace and can't even recognize until you make a certain choice.  I like my car and I don't know why.  Maybe the styling is evocative of the design on the chariots in the illustrated version of the Ramayana.  Maybe??