Trapped In A Stereotype (Escaping The Scapegoat)
Stereotypes are some of the most harmful and degrading categories that people could ever become a part of and these categories can create situations or unfair reasons for (undercover) discrimination. They even cause negative reactions from the people who become a part of the stereotype. I believe that the best way to describe a stereotype is to call it a very big assumption.
Entire groups of people can be effected by the stereotypes of people that share things such as race, gender, and economic status; but it is not fair to generalize a person for any of these things or treat them as a whole when they are an individual that might not be anything like anyone that makes up the whole that they are labeled as.
Just because I am a Black Man does not mean that I do not work, that I sell drugs, that I do not take care of my children, that I wear my pants down to my knees, that I hang on corners, that I drink 40 oz's, that I smoke marijuana, that I disrespect women, that I am hostile, that I am uneducated or many of the other stereotypes that Black Men fall under. All of those things are negative stereotypes that Black Men sometimes fall are labeled as. Just because I am a Black Man means that I am a man that happens to be black from the level of melanin in my skin. This does not mean that you have to use profanity when you speak to me, offer me a blunt, assume that I am materialistic, or deny me anything because some Black Men have traits that would make them the wrong type of person that
you are looking for. If you want to do any of these things, do them because you have witnessed me do any or all of these things, because I might react in a way that is not anything close to the way that you believe that I will react. Maybe I MIGHT fall into one, some or all of the categories, but it would not be fair for anyone to assume that I do or to treat me like I do.
People who know me as an individual know me well enough to know the type of person that I really am, do not have to assume anything at all and they treat me like the person that I truly am. I do not know everyone in the entire world and there are some people that I will not ever meet, but the person that I present myself as is the person that I really am even though I sometimes have had biased opinions made about me (some good - some bad) just because of the way that I look or sometimes act. The reason that I am saying that assumptions should not be made is because the reaction that I have to an assumption is created by the assumption itself and the reaction might not be a good way to judge me since I was guided to a situation by someone who does not know me.
Scapegoats are ways to blame someone else for mistakes that are much bigger than they are capable of making or that they have nothing to do with at all. There are some scapegoats that I could not ever avoid, but I can fight being used as a scapegoat by not showing people that I am a part of the stereotypes that I mentioned above. It is much easier for me to defend myself from the facts when I do not place myself into situations or broad categories that are much more harmful than beneficial. Some things will come back to haunt people for as long as they live, but some things in the past can become a permanent part of the past when the present is consistently presented. In other words, the only way to change the way people look at things from the past is to change what people see today and show actions that are the opposite of stereotypes (when possible) to avoid becoming a part of a stereotype.
I am a Black Man. What is your perception of me?
Emmanuel Brown is the founder and editor of SeeingGrowth.com. He is responsible for making sure that the inspirational stories of the world are shared with the world. Please contact Mr Brown by email at Editor@SeeingGrowth.com or visit www.SeeingGrowth.com for use of his writings, interviews or other requests.
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