Stereotyped
I used to think that only people of color would be harshly stereotyped. I am an African American and Filipino male who looks black on the outside but you wouldn't be able to tell if I was Asian just by looking at me. I'm always stereotyped as "average" because "my black side is dumb but my Asian side is smart, therefore I am average". What really angers me is not that fact that I'm "average" (which I don't think I am), but the fact that negative connotative words are always correlated with being black. Words like: ratchet, ghetto, stupid, and dumb. These stereotypes are always being associated with African Americans and it just gets worse for other people of color like Muslims or Hispanics. What I learned was that white people have been harshly stereotyped too and it's not just colored people. All around social media, you'll see pictures of "dad shoes" or "white girls" correlating them to Starbucks, uggs, iPhones etc. The person I talked to yesterday about her personal experience of being stereotyped said that, appose to popular belief, she isn't shallow like the stereotypes make her out to be. She isn't obsessed with Starbucks and uggs. She is a human being who is just trying to get by just like the rest of us. What I think now is we should stop trying to see people by their stereotypes and start looking at people by who they are as a person. I tired of going into a store by myself having to wear a cowbell to warn people "hey guys, a black person is coming in the store, make sure you keep an eye out for him because he could steal something". I'm tired of the judgy side looks and side glares that people give me. Yeah, it may not be because my skin is black, but it's just a constant reminder that people are looking, people are judging, and people are constantly making judgments based on the color of my skin but not the content of my character. I think that if we put all stereotypes aside, we will be able to see people for who they really are at first, and not what society makes them out to be.
