Stereotyping: Let's Talk About It

In the dictionary there are many words, with many meanings, that are all on numerous pages. However there is one word that to me is worth talking about. This word has made many groups victims to false authority and causes so much woe and misery. This word is stereotyping. Stereotyping is used every day from the kid that carries all of his books and is weighted down with homework to the African American that tries to impress his friends by dressing up like a thug. Any one can be a victim of stereotyping, no one person or group is immune to it.

This depressing fact of human life needs to come to a vicious halt before it is too late. If I were to publish a law I would make a law to effect the stereotyping situation we all have to endure in our day to day lives. I would motivate the public to halt this epidemic where it stands and stop from spreading it any more than it already has. Think about how many people could have done so much more with their lives if some one had been there to support them instead of judge them by their appearance. It is in our nature to assume and pretentiously judge people instead of listening to who they really are.

Think back to the African American that is attempting to impress his friends by dressing himself in thuggish clothing. If he were to dress like a scholar do you think that collages or businesses would look at him in a different light? The answer is yes they would and it is all due to stereotyping. However because of his friends and their wants, he dresses himself on the basis of their ideas instead of his own. Peer pressure and stereotyping go hand in hand; they both work off of each other. I now see why my mother always said pick your friends carefully. It's because, whether you like it or not, your friends represent who you want to be.

Let's think about the other example of stereotyping used with the kid carrying all of his books. This kid is being judged and he does not even know it. By caring about his school work, enough to carry his entire repertoire of books home making sure that he has the proper materials to get the grade he desires, he is stereotyped. Now by stereotyping this kid, he will remain anonymous in a social aspect. In other words he will miss out on interesting experiences in his life that could have introduced him to a different lifestyle. All could have been different if he had not been classified and limited a bookworm like group of friends.

Some laws are important to society, some are important to an individual person; some can be used to maintain a status quo and others for organization. If this were a law it would contain all of the above. It would fix social tension and by combining groups there would be no confrontations over a comment that might offend someone today. However it is in human nature to assume, to reject the different, and of course to stereotype. So as much as I, the scholar in thug clothing, the anonymous kid and many other groups want to see this happen it will not because of our nature. However new laws are being made every day. Let's just hope that one day someone decides to make the world a better place. Let's hope for the best and make the best with what we have right now. Maybe it will happen, but that's just me a 16 year old kid, a concerned person, and a victim of stereotyping.