I don’t think we as humans will ever get over stereotypes as a whole. I believe it takes small individual steps to change how we think for ourselves.

To that point, our first making sense of the world is by naming the things around us and then we group those things up and we can function because we know “some way” to handle said “thing”/”person”…

 It is human nature to want to belong- think about how we currently form our own “tribes” within “tribes”… In our society, we have an abundance of affinity groups (brought together by ethnic/racial identity, location, status, class, activities, significant experiences etc)- the thing is we need to belong, but belonging also assumes there is MY GROUP and there is NOT-MY-GROUP or Others.  Also can be seen as Insider/Outsider. 

For humans, there is a need to belong and know that we are safe in this belonging to a group.  Anyway from this place, we form what we know about ourselves and others and it helps us delineate these lines among groups.  This is why gang culture is prevalent (not about criminality at its core, but the basic need to belong, know who I am in relation to others, and to feel safe) and why healthy family culture is so important- this is where we first “belong”.  We can belong AND feel safe and STILL feel OTHERS (outside groups etc) are NOT a threat to us.  We can let go of negative stereotypes that are no longer necessary to draw lines between tribes, so to speak, but probably for  our own sanity we do need generalizations framed in appropriate contexts so that our brains can handle the information coming from the world.  And in fact, in academia, many of us our preoccupied with finding generalizations- what can we say about as many people as possible.

In day to day life, people use stereotypes because it is something recognizable.  We poke fun at our OWN groups and others (think “The Sh** People Say” youtube phenomena) in this way or they can be used AGAINST others to oppress, discriminate, and disrespect. Stereotypes work because it is clear what group is represented, for better or worse.

At the end of the day, when confronted with a negative stereotype, we need to speak up, share information (friends have shown their ignorance and even racist mentalities but were clueless- and by the way, we all have to recognize our own bigotry, racism, and self-hate to better serve others) and try to be better people one by one…
  

Someone may thing that a statement like “All Mexicans eat tacos” isn’t a big deal, but when my husband can’t even talk about food with people getting confused that tacos aren’t all he eats, that’s a problem.

Especially for minorities and anyone who doesn’t have a well-rounded story told about them or shown in the media…the FULL STORY. It’s sad how many people just don’t know and it’s downright abusive to hear people argue with my husband about what he’s “supposed” to like, “since he’s Mexican”.

As for needing stereotypes to make sense of our world… That’s more difficult to answer. It’s kind of hard to imagine a world without these kinds of generalizations since it’s such a part of human nature to want to put things into neat, easy to understand categories, (people and otherwise.)

This is really a question about human psychology, how we function and whether this is something we choose to do or are programmed to do. In the end, I don’t know how much of a choice we have in the matter. We can choose not to perpetuate stereotypes through what we say and what we do, but the thought process most likely is still going to happen.

Here’s an interesting article to check out: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199805/where-bias-begins-the-truth-about-stereotypes