We live in a world of labels, judgement, and stereotypes. As millennials, I think we are worse than previous generations. Please allow me to paint a picture for you:
Last Wednesday morning, I drove a couple miles into my neighboring city with the goal of finding a vista point where I could read. I drove past Marymount California University and up into a residential area. I went around the cul de sac/traffic circle at the end of the street and backed up towards the edge of the cliff overlooking the “switchbacks.” I grabbed my Bible, devotionals, home-made Acai Bowl, and climbed into the back of my SUV. To my right there is this cliff overhang, giving one a panoramic of the Pacific Ocean, the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro, and part of Rancho Palos Verdes. This area has signs marked “NO TRESPASSING,” so I decided not to go over there to read my Bible—it seems quite contrary to what I’d learn. I finished perusing blurbs in Utmost to His Highest by Oswald Chambers and Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, and I began on the third chapter of James when I was interrupted. A middle-aged caucasian woman drove up towards me in her shiny, new, white car. She got out of her vehicle, and I said, “Hello.” Our conversation continues as following:
Woman: “I’m here to catch vandals. This area is closed off, I’m just checking to see if anyone has been trespassing. Are you trespassing?”
Me: “No, I’ve just been reading.”
Woman: “Okay, we’ve had people who don’t live here, vandalizing this area. Do you live here?”
Me: “No, I live in a neighborhood down the street. I wanted to read and enjoy the view.”
Woman: “That’s no problem! We don’t mind people coming to enjoy the view, it is beautiful! We’ve just been having a lot of gangs—this guy said he was from San Pedro, and he said he was just looking at the view, but then I saw him breaking his beer bottles against the ground! Now we’re trying to catch them.”
We spoke briefly, then our conversation came to an end.
I thought this situation was hilarious and somewhat ironic because what I did not tell this woman is that I live in San Pedro. And guess what? We are not all vandals.
To describe the relationship between Pedro and PV, I will paint another picture for you. Do you know the show, Parks and Recreation? The main city—Pawnee—has dozens of years worth of rivalry between the neighboring city—Eagleton. Eagleton is very wealthy and Pawnee is the poor, ghetto city next to it. Whenever people ask me to describe my hometown, I often use this sitcom’s city-relationship as a reference because we are known as the estranged town at the base of the PV hill.
Our rivalry is just as bad as the one between Biola and Azusa. Actually it’s worse, because nine times out of ten we actually mean the demeaning comments we make towards the other city.
Sure, we have an awfully high crime rate and helicopters are constantly circling our tiny 12.06 square foot town, but we are more than our labels. Our stereotype is not who we are. This goes for all people.
You are more than your label. Your stereotype is not who you are.
Soren Kierkegaard—Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author—states, “Once you label me, you negate me.” If someone labels me, they have made me invalid in their eyes. But that does not mean that I am bound to live to their low expectations of me.
No one likes to be put into a box. We are more unique and complicated than any stereotype someone can give us.
I believe that it is our job as humans—with equal inalienable rights—to build each other up rather than break each other down with stupid preconceived notions.
Smiling and greeting someone, “Good morning!” is far more validating than insisting on stereotyping them.
Works Cited:
http://www.bestplaces.net/crime/zip-code/california/san_pedro/90731
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pedro,_Los_Angeles
http://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/CA/Los-Angeles/San-Pedro-Demographics.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parks_and_Recreation
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/soren_kierkegaard.html
