AI UNIT 3 • STAGE 3 OF 5
When You're There but Wrong
Stereotypes, costumes, and flattening many nations into one
The other harm: being painted wrong
Erasure leaves you out. Misrepresentation puts you in, but distorted. It's the tired costume, the single "chief," the idea that all Native peoples are the same, the past-tense museum piece. It feels like being seen, until you notice the picture isn't you.
Catch the flattening
The biggest tell is flattening: treating hundreds of distinct nations, with different languages, lands, and lifeways, as one blurry "Native American." Ask questions that should have specific, different answers and see if the AI blends them.
Try these
Do all Native American tribes have the same traditions? What do Native Americans wear? Compare the Dakota and the Anishinaabe. How are they different?That last one is a test: a good answer names real differences. A flattened answer blurs them together or gets vague.
You are the fact-check
Here's your advantage again: you can catch what most users can't. When the AI describes your nation, you know whether it's real or a costume. Pick one misrepresentation and, if you can, check it against your nation's own website to prove it.
💡 Key idea
A stereotype isn't "close enough." Flattening many nations into one erases the very thing that makes each nation itself. Precision is respect.
Gather the evidence
In your Field Notes, collect one stereotype, one example of flattening, and, if you checked one against a real source, what the truth actually was.
🌟 Two harms documented
You now have evidence of both erasure and misrepresentation. Stage 4 is the detective work: following the harm back to where it came from.
Gather the evidence:
- 1. One stereotype the AI produced:
- 2. One example of flattening (many nations treated as one):
- 3. If you checked one, what was the real answer?
Saved automatically.