In my last post I mentioned "stereotypical poor and black people". I also mentioned that is was worthy of its own rant.

As promised, here it is.

What, praytell is a stereotypical black or poor person? What is a stereotypical anything?

There is no such thing people. You don't believe me: fine. Here's the definition of a "stereotype":

something conforming to a fixed or general pattern; especially : a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment

In other words: someone sees someone doing something and decides that since this person is doing it, then all people like that person must do it too.

Okay, let's try an example:

Mavis sees Leslie sitting on her rear end in front of the tv, eating bon bons, letting her house go to hell, and letting her kids run all over the neighborhood making trouble. If Mavis and Leslie are both of the same race, then Mavis would never think that all people of their race acted that way, since they were the same race.

Now, let's pretend that Mavis is black and Leslie is white. (Y'all thought I was going to do it the other way around, didn't you? Shame on y'all!) Now, if Leslie was the only white person Mavis knew, then she might assume that all white women acted this way. Which is stupid. I mean, everyone knows that white women only eat yougurt. Dannon..fruit on the bottom...

I digress...

This is how stereotypes get started. One person does something stupid, someone else witnesses it and they in turn stupidly assume that everyone like that person does the same stupid thing. And have you ever noticed that stereotypes are never positive? Even a stereotypical comment is, at best, a backwards compliment. You know what I mean: "Black people are all good at sports..cuz they were born to run": "All Jews are rich..because they are greedy and cheat in business": "Latinos are good cooks and housekeepers...because that's all they can do for a living"

You get the point.

Stereotypes are..well stupid. They make zero sense, and are perpetuated by people who are too lazy to learn the truth about someone or something. It is easier to just lump everyone together than it is to find out the real reasons.

So now I am going to take my lazy butt out of this blog, log off, plop myself down on the couch, watch some TV and eat...cashews.

You thought I was going to say Bon bons didn't you? Tsk tsk tsk...
- posted by Kim @ 10:10 PM