Stereotyping. It seems to happen more often than ever in the time period we are living in, especially since people can post their opinion in seconds on a hundred different platforms. The media feeds off of the public's fear and ignorance, continuing to build walls between groups of people that shouldn't exist in the first place. They feed us stories about every group, all having the same conclusions:
"Black people are thugs."
"White people are racist."
"Mexicans are criminals."
"Women are crazy."
"People with mental illness are dangerous."
"Democrats are irresponsible."
"Republicans are close-minded."
"Muslims are terrorists."
"Christians are judgmental."
"Atheists are immoral."
"Police officers are violent."
"Humanity is bad."
I work at a day camp as a counselor, and the campers are split into three age groups. Each group of campers has a jar with their name on it. As an incentive to encourage good behavior, if a camper or the group of campers does a good thing, they are awarded a marble to put in their jar. When they fill their jar, the group gets to pick a prize as a group, like a pizza party or an extra trip to the playground.
However, if there is negative behavior, marbles can be taken from the groups' jars. That means if Jimmy is throwing rocks, a marble is taken from Jimmy's group's jar. This caused Jimmy's group to get mad at him, and maybe even caused the group to push to do more good things to earn back the lost marbles. We've since stopped doing this because the few kids who cause the problems tend to not care if their entire group is punished for their individual actions.
You see, though Jimmy is the only one in his group that made a bad decision, his entire group suffers from his actions. His entire group may be made up of good kids, but they all lost a marble.
Police brutality is a problem. We can't deny it anymore. No matter the reasons behind it, whether it's racism, poor training, or just plain ignorance, it happens. There are bad police officers out there. But we know that the majority of police officers are good.
Black Americans are more likely to have lower socioeconomic statuses, causing them to be more likely to get caught in situations including crime. This doesn't mean that all Black people are criminals. Most are not.
What I see from people on each side of this fight that has emerged since the recent police killings seems to be a lot of yelling at each other.
"Black Lives Matter? Well, All Lives Matter!"
"Blue Lives Matter? Cops need to be held responsible!"
Just stop yelling and listen. Both groups of people are suffering right now. Yes, Black lives do matter, and bad police officers need to be held responsible. Yes, police lives do matter, and we need to respect those who are protecting citizens and themselves.
When Jimmy was making bad decisions, the rest of the campers didn't defend him. They didn't get mad at the counselors for being upset with him. They recognized Jimmy's mistake and tried to make up for it by being even more well behaved.
Why can't we do that?
This world needs improvement, so we all need to be a part of that. Stop defending what you know is wrong. Stand up for what you know is right. Break stereotypes. Show the world that you are good, and so are the majority of people.
Humanity is good.
Show us that.
