Stereotyping

A small town; some serious shit was pulled; the comment: ‘It must have been that drunken Indian.’ Friends split a meal and drink from the same ice tea, there are two straws, so why not, the joke is about one coke and six straws for Dutch people and they are not Dutch, so they can do that. ‘I thought he was a cranky old man, but once in a while his Irish charms shows.’ 'That is Mexican parking,' You drive like a cowboy'… All these sayings are prejudices that will reinforce the perception others have of that particular group, it reinforces stereotypes and stereotypes hurt souls and hearts. These offhand comments diminish a group's dignity and lower each individual's self esteem. It is hard to break the habit of stereotyping. I hear people speak of rag heads, money wise Jews, or dirty fagots, arrogant French, Bohemian artists and loud Americans… How does one stop these skewed perceptions of the world? How does one, when on a daily basis this kind of talk abounds, defend everybody’s human rights? By framing our perception of groups, inventing words like illegal aliens, undocumented aliens, calling Africa the dark continent where hope cannot live, by preferring one religion to another and certainly over secular humanism, our vision becomes blurred. The risk is that we forget it is not 'them' and 'us' but 'we' and that we don’t see, don’t remember that all people are born equal and have an unalienable right to dignity whatever color, sexual preference, religion or gender. Also all people deserve the same protection under the law. Some good advice:
Choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. Choosing your socks by their character makes no sense and choosing your friends by their color is unthinkable.—Anonymous