"Are you a racist?" This was the third question I was asked by a kid I had just met. The first was my name, Liv. The second was where I'm from, to which I responded "The South, like Florida." In a lot of people's minds, if you're from the South, you're most likely a racist. People say that where you're from decides what you think, wear, act, what music you listen to, or what your political views are. So, since I'm from the South, I'm an uneducated, country music loving, cut-off jean wearing, right-wing racist. That's not prejudice at all, right? No more so than saying all young, African American men are violent and in gangs. These are stereotypes. Stereotyping is something we all do, whether we are conscience of it or not.
Humans love to group things together. We like to group things in as many ways possible, so we can better comprehend them. "Common properties" are what we use to justify our groupings. We make broad, all-encompassing comments we say apply to everything in that one category. These properties may work in math, science, history, or English but they do not, however, work with human beings. When I say "southerner," you think of someone who is probably uneducated, not very informed, a diehard Republican, gun-wielding, and a confederate flag-waving fanatic who hates African Americans. When you say "northerner," I think of someone who is a arrogant, wrongly informed, completely anti-gun, Democratic Yankee. The stereotypes we have go on and on. Every time someone identifies themselves as something, we put them in a box. If someone were to say they were a feminist, many people think of the crazy bra burners who appear on TV, not someone who wants gender equality. If someone were to say they were Muslim, many people would think of someone who holds similar beliefs to ISIS or Al Qaeda. Are there people who fit the stereotype? Sure, these stereotypes came from somewhere. But we humans are so much more than one label. What would you think of a feminist Muslim? You might think that's not a possibility, but why not?
Many people are so tired of hearing about stereotypes, myself included. Could we please move onto something else? Why are stereotypes such a big deal, most of us don't stereotype anyway...right? Stereotyping will stop being a problem when we stop seeing each other as X, who happen to be human. Instead we need to start seeing each other as humans who happen to be X,Y, or Z. Google what makes someone human and you'll see that we are all human, first and foremost; everything else is just an addition.
