Thursday, October 25, 2007
Stereotypes
Stereotypes are dangerous. Stereotypes have the power to start war and genocide. They linger for decades and centuries until the people have forgotten the meanings behind them, yet they still hold meaning and are used in the common vernacular. Our fear for those we do not understand is translated into hate. At work the other day, a coworker made such a comment when complaining about the price of the local laundry mat. “They’re such Jews.” Well, so am I, although not in the sense that he was using it. At the same time, this individual it unaware of my ethnic association, and likes me just fine. But if he was aware, what would his change? His opinion of “Jews” or of me? It was dumbfounding and frightening. Perhaps most individuals do not really mean anything by it, but the fact that such slang is still used, especially by those who have little or no idea of the relatively recent history behind it, shows the power of hate. Hate does not die, but like a disease is passed down generation to generation.
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2 comments:
But hopefully it's not a congenital desease, and so curable by the right circumstances.
I think that fear is a natural thing and that all animals, including humans, are born with and form new fears almost daily. With this fear comes a reaction, either moving away from the fear, confronting the fear, or belittling the fear in order to eliminate some of the feelings toward the feared thing. And stereotypes are a fear that people have of each other because of history and because humans are afraid of things that are different. In order to deal with this fear most people create a hatred toward others (and/or they belittle them). I think that the only way to eliminate this fear and, thus, eliminate stereotypes is for people to confront the people they are fearful of and get to know a little about one another because with understanding comes new feelings and moods towards things. And so, like Dr. Johnson suggested, I think this type of fear is definitely curable.
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