By Heather Royalty
If one were to stand in a crowded room, the PPCC Rampart Range Atrium, for example, he or she would observe a diverse assembly of human beings. Who are these people? Where do they come from? What are they doing with their lives? The answers to these questions will vary, depending on who is being asked. In actuality, the only person who can answer truthfully is the subject of the question. Herein arises one of the biggest problems the world is faced with today. Stereotyping, no matter how convenient or common, is unjust and wrong.
Stereotyping or categorizing individuals based on appearance, lifestyle, etc., should be unacceptable. It should play no part in person to personal interaction. It should have no place in deciding the person’s character. Unfortunately it is something that runs rampant in today’s society. Any person with “Arab” characteristics attempting to board a plane is automatically assumed to be a terrorist, regardless of whether or not that person hails from the Middle East.
A teenager with any tattoo or piercing is looked upon as a delinquent, despite the fact that they have never even seen the inside of a courtroom. Black Americans are viewed as gang members, teenage mothers are seen as promiscuous, and if a person chooses to believe in something, well, he must be a fanatic. Our culture is overrun with the concept that originality is a crime.
People are terrified of living outside of a label. It’s as if they believe that they will cease to exist without a name to define them.
It is not the lack of a title that causes people to become invisible. Rather, it is the grouping of people into divisions that creates a loss of identity. The world has become an assortment of sub-divisions: black, white, skinny, fat, tall, short, religious, atheist, gay, straight, male, female, rich, poor, educated, unschooled, preppy, goth, punk, gangsta. It is a ridiculous jumble of titles and preconceived notions. There is really only one label that can truly be applied to everyone, and it is essentially more of a fact than a label. At the base of it all, after sorting through and discarding all of the lies, the discrimination, the insecurity and the misconceptions, we are fundamentally human. We belong to a race of beings with the same common goal. Our purpose is not to segregate and isolate ourselves from those who are different, but to survive, side by side, in an infinite journey called Life.
Stereotyping is not a genetic trait. People are not born with the notion that those who are different must be wrong. It is an attribute that is taught within their environment.
A woman is racist because her mother taught her supremacy. A man is sexist because his father ingrained the idea that women are inferior into him. Stereotyping is a vicious, angry cycle that thrives and feeds on fear and unrest. Mark Twain once said, “Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.” If a new generation never questions the one that came before it, the circle of fallacies and delusions can only repeat.
The next time you are standing in a crowded room, take a look around you. Rather than seeing black, white, skinny, fat, rich, or poor, look at people for what they really are.
When the lines separating stereotypes begin to dissolve, we may find that we are not as different as we have always assumed.
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