Why I am against stereotypes
I think it is funny how preconceived notions people harbor about other people are almost always inherently wrong. From simply hearing a person's name, viewing a person for the first time, hearing a person speak for the first time, one could draw all sorts of conclusions. Those are just guesses and nine times out of ten, they are going to be wrong. How can you possibly know anything about a person without spending the appropriate amount of time to get to know them?
This is what I've heard from people in the past two weeks: "Leland? Are you from the South? Leland is a very common name in the South."
Nope.
"With a name like Leland, you must be Irish."
Nope. Thanks for guessing.
I'm glad that you think you are experts at guessing people's backgrounds based on their first names, but don't quit your day job. I tend to think of myself as a pretty complicated person. People who have known me for years still to this day do not know what I am all about. Can I blame them for that? No.
In my opinion, it takes an incredibly long time to get to know a person well enough to just assume things about them. And like me, I believe everyone is a complicated person. Everyone is completely different (except twins, freaks). Nobody is going to give away signs that tell who they are deep down inside. That is very valuable information. Assuming stereotypes get you in trouble. And when you think about it, it is a very conservative thing to do.
Assuming a stereotype automatically dismisses the option that a person might not be all about what you think he or she is all about. It is dangerous because if you are wrong, and most likely you will be, you have already built up an image of that person that cannot be dismissed. Why even when you find out I am not Irish, you are still going to have in your mind that you thought I was Irish at one point. This is not so bad if you think of being Irish as a good thing, as I do, but if you have a bad opinion of being Irish, you are going to have a bad opinion of me, even after you recall that I'm not Irish. The fact is the opinion will be there, even if only subconsciously, and it might rear its ugly head to me or anybody, for that matter, but it will still be there eating away at one's subconscious until those negative feelings are harnessed in some way.
This is why racism hurts me in such a way. I grew up in an age where I had no choice but to learn about the past mistakes of American and world culture because of the assumed differences race presented. In reality, the difference among people with different-colored skin, and in turn their heritage, is, initially and only, the difference in the color of their skin. To think any more than that, the most obvious observation, is preposterous. So to think that because a person is black, he or she is going to rob you, or to think that a person with tan skin is a Mexican and therefore an illegal immigrant out to get your job, or to think that because a person is white, he or she has plenty of money to give away if you just ask for it.
I truly believe that racism is not as big of a deal any more as it used to be, and that is a given. Honestly, though, I feel that only the remaining stupid people left around from the past that used to believe with the majority that because people were different, they were less, maintain that point of view and the rest of us are just waiting for those stupid, ignorant individuals to die off so the world can be that much more equal when those people are gone.
Obviously racism is still an issue. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be talking about it. But hopefully, by keeping talking about it and bringing the attention back around to it, those individuals who choose to remain ignorant and stupid might change their ways without actually having to die off. It takes a great deal of will power and mental strength to overcome a precedent that has been instilled in you from a very early age, which is why it is hard for me to believe other than what I was told as a youth, which was that all people are created equal. But that is why time heals all wounds. Because sometime it heals by killing off the old way of opinion. It's all about perspective.
This is what I've heard from people in the past two weeks: "Leland? Are you from the South? Leland is a very common name in the South."
Nope.
"With a name like Leland, you must be Irish."
Nope. Thanks for guessing.
I'm glad that you think you are experts at guessing people's backgrounds based on their first names, but don't quit your day job. I tend to think of myself as a pretty complicated person. People who have known me for years still to this day do not know what I am all about. Can I blame them for that? No.
In my opinion, it takes an incredibly long time to get to know a person well enough to just assume things about them. And like me, I believe everyone is a complicated person. Everyone is completely different (except twins, freaks). Nobody is going to give away signs that tell who they are deep down inside. That is very valuable information. Assuming stereotypes get you in trouble. And when you think about it, it is a very conservative thing to do.
Assuming a stereotype automatically dismisses the option that a person might not be all about what you think he or she is all about. It is dangerous because if you are wrong, and most likely you will be, you have already built up an image of that person that cannot be dismissed. Why even when you find out I am not Irish, you are still going to have in your mind that you thought I was Irish at one point. This is not so bad if you think of being Irish as a good thing, as I do, but if you have a bad opinion of being Irish, you are going to have a bad opinion of me, even after you recall that I'm not Irish. The fact is the opinion will be there, even if only subconsciously, and it might rear its ugly head to me or anybody, for that matter, but it will still be there eating away at one's subconscious until those negative feelings are harnessed in some way.
This is why racism hurts me in such a way. I grew up in an age where I had no choice but to learn about the past mistakes of American and world culture because of the assumed differences race presented. In reality, the difference among people with different-colored skin, and in turn their heritage, is, initially and only, the difference in the color of their skin. To think any more than that, the most obvious observation, is preposterous. So to think that because a person is black, he or she is going to rob you, or to think that a person with tan skin is a Mexican and therefore an illegal immigrant out to get your job, or to think that because a person is white, he or she has plenty of money to give away if you just ask for it.
I truly believe that racism is not as big of a deal any more as it used to be, and that is a given. Honestly, though, I feel that only the remaining stupid people left around from the past that used to believe with the majority that because people were different, they were less, maintain that point of view and the rest of us are just waiting for those stupid, ignorant individuals to die off so the world can be that much more equal when those people are gone.
Obviously racism is still an issue. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be talking about it. But hopefully, by keeping talking about it and bringing the attention back around to it, those individuals who choose to remain ignorant and stupid might change their ways without actually having to die off. It takes a great deal of will power and mental strength to overcome a precedent that has been instilled in you from a very early age, which is why it is hard for me to believe other than what I was told as a youth, which was that all people are created equal. But that is why time heals all wounds. Because sometime it heals by killing off the old way of opinion. It's all about perspective.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 9:43 PM
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