The biggest problem I have is the difference in people from where I grew up near Washington DC and where I live now in Tampa Florida. Where I grew up, I was the white minority and I learned how to be color blind and not judge people simply because they happened to be darker than me. Well, I move down here (initially for school) and, though at college everybody was treated equally, I really have a problem with one of the girls I work with now. I mean, I understand you may not like blacks, but there was this one time where this black guy had tipped her good on stage and she went, thanked him, and then walked over and started talking to this other kid. Well, I wasn't sure if she was finished talking to him, so I went over and asked if she was going to get a dance from the guy, and she sits there and tells me "Oh, I don't dance for them." WTF?!? I'm sorry, but up to that point, I'd thought she was a nice girl. Guess not.

But, to return to the original topic at hand, I agree that those people who feel that sterotyping people is okay are either ignorant or stupid, or have some reason why they "can't" like those kind of people.

 

 

 

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i used to stereotype for real stupid things like if someone wasn't vegetarian I would think they were mean and stuff. Kind of dumb.

kids on my bus scream at hasidics and stuff, its evil. Some of them tell stories about how they threw rocks at Hasidics walking by. And tons of people in my school make fun of mexicans too, for no reason.

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I think a lot of this has to do with how we size up people we see. We feel more comfortable I think when we feel we can place people in a box. It can be almost a matter of pride to size up someone and feel we know what they are or are not capable of. I think we need to realize that each person is unique and that there is no one-size-fits-all way of treating or reacting to people.

Maybe it also has to do with our nature trying to group people so that we can act accordingly depending on what we think we know about them. I think the average person uses many facades or fronts and depending on which people they are around, they are seen differently. When we reach the point where all people around us see us relatively the same then we can know we are no longer stereotyping and treating all equally indeed. I think that that in itself is a tough goal to reach, and something rarely achieved.

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