Stereotyping
By: Roger Green
Stereotyping is a kind of gossip about the world, a gossip that makes us prejudge people before we ever lay eyes on them, “ says Robert L. Heilbroner, in an essay titled “Don’t let Stereotyping warp your Judgment.” The society that we live in sets the stage for stereotypes to play a major role in our daily living, but the finals choice to act this way is left to us as individual. In stereotyping, is it “we”(the people) or is it “me” (the person) who is forever the judge of what environment I choose to surround myself in? As I have come to realize, it is “I” who has the power to succeed in lifting the blinders of “reality” and seeing with what we have come to call the “naked truth.” Stereotyping is neither necessarily as powerful as a term such as racial prejudice nor as materially shaped as ethnic authenticity.
Stereotype is a personal and sometimes offensive feeling that has been formulated into a word. It is a personal judgment that can offend us, as it is more an inward feeling. A thought. Or is it merely just a ploy in acknowledging our judgments because our ignorance is too strong? When I was a younger, I had a teacher that loved to teach me philosophy. Her open-mindedness towards the judgment of people and their stereotypes fascinated me. In many points I was hungry to learn and her words could be like gold to a young mind as mine. As I grew towards a philosophy, she directed me towards her personal library where she handed me a book called, “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. As she pulled this well used paperback book off the shelf, I looked at the other books of which were just as used and would be more like something she would direct me towards and books such as “The Art of War”, “The Warrior Within”, and ”Confucianism”. These books seemed more typical in my learning, and what was my real view of her? Was it distorted in some way? Had I been deceived all this time?
So I took the book like a good student, put it among my things and carried it home. I opened the book and began to read. It explained things about how to view people through some guy that thought anyone could be his friends. As I read into this book, I kept thinking about my teacher. Wondering why she would give me a book of this nature and what were her intentions? Then I would look back at the book without truly reading it, and think, “what a strange and manipulative book, I don’t want any part of this.” I remember trying to sponge in what I thought, was nonsense. Why? You see my first mistake in why I couldn’t sponge it in was because I had already made the decision in my mind that this book was not the book for me. By some incredible well-shaped thought in my head, I was doomed not to understand the book only because of the cover. Here, I had a teacher telling me I could learn from this book and I refused it. I judged it because it “appeared” manipulative and pointless to me. Why would I want to understand other people, I thought she was teaching me how to deal with my own spirits and issues. This affected our relationship, because I used this book to judge the way I felt about her.
Our relationship deteriorated because of the way I judged and I shouldn’t have allowed it to effect me so harshly. Needless to say, the cover seemed manipulative and sneaky “Win Friends?” I told myself what a rude comment, you don’t win friends, and you make friends. Right? Because of my ignorance, I only achieved 4 chapters. I believe I not only disappointed myself as a student. My teacher knew that I could not confront my own judgment and read the damn book! I disappointed her and myself. I was off the scale in distorting my stereotype that I had for my teacher. This inevitably began a new path of doubt. I had allowed such a small judgment of what she “should” be teaching me, which distorted the bigger judgments that would forever have me doubting her techniques as a teacher. Why after these years have I come to apply this to stereotyping, I wonder? Time has passed and to my normal self it seems such a weak mistake. The grand joke of it all is that I still have the book. Last year I finally finished it and it has created quite a tool in dealing with strangers. Isn’t that what she was trying to tell me? You see, I can look back now and believe it was a test. Now if I truly think about it, she loved that book just by the ragged shape it was in.
In reality I think she shared that book with me so that I might know in dealing with people, that I might think of having a game plan. A confidence. Not a self-fulfilling way to dig into peoples brains and uses it against them, but for good. Which was what I thought of her all along. I believe now that she was trying to teach me a simpler way of getting to know and like people from the view of my own eyes. In observation, I allowed the cover to identify how someone might feel about me reading this book. I allowed the words on the front determine just exactly what I thought this whole book was about. I even went as far as to stereotype myself and in doing so, I released a little more ignorance into my environment. Is this what stereotyping is? To myself, it can’t be offending others as much as it offends my own spirit. When I sort out something, as if filing it away, I am in fact sorting my own thoughts.
Allowing “others” view of what “I” see as concrete evidence to make a decision in how I am going to judge in my surrounding environment. Stereotyping is a defense mechanism we use in shadowing our own identity of the truth. It is in fact, the thought of what others have thought. I let the cover of that book and what I “thought” my teacher was “supposed” to be teaching me cloud my reality and drive my ignorance. It was as if it were a natural part of my youth. I have come to realize that stereotyping is a way to impress others. Are we merely programming what we think is the truth? My teacher had showed me a way to think outside of myself and my own stereotype blinded me into rationalizing what I thought “the way” was. I chose to put this in my environment and in fact offended my own thoughts on judging a book by its cover. Maybe that is the true definition of stereotyping, for me. Stereotyping is in fact the “I,” because of how we each as individuals choose to categorize someone or something. It is indeed a self-destructive tool, which we use daily. So who is the judge after all, you or me through you?
Roger Green,
a writer of ProfEssays - custom essay
writing company ( www.professays.com).