Nicole Skaff

You’re blonde, so you must be a stupid ditz. You’re religious, so you must shove your beliefs down my throat. You’re a teenage mom, so you must be an irresponsible slut.

You’re a Christian so you must judge everyone. You’re home-schooled so you must be anti-social. Since 9/11, we all know Iraq and the Middle East are full of terrorist and their whole country is against us, right? 

The problem of stereotyping is we take it so seriously and give people labels when we are so naïve. When people take the terrorist attack of 9/11 to the next step and blame the entire country and their religion, they are taking it too far. 

Recently, Muslims have radically responded to the plans of the small church in Florida that had threatened to burn many copies of the Quran. They took offense to it and started burning our flag and chanting “death to Americans” because they assumed that all Americans agreed with this church. This has created a more dangerous situation for our soldiers because they fit into that American stereotype and will not be trusted by anyone. It is our duty as Americans to be respectful to other countries. Lets not prove the label correct that Americans are intolerant, religious fanatics with no regards for other nations’ beliefs.

We have the freedom to express ourselves but we really need to think through the consequences of our actions. For example, people start thinking all Christians have no respect for other religions and beliefs, when in reality it was just a very small group that wanted to do this and most people disagreed with their idea. But because of the publicity, it escalated. It is events like this that keep stereotypes going strong. 

We need to look at the big picture when something like this happens and realize this isn’t all churches and does not reflect the opinions and actions of the majority of Christians or Americans. The Iraqis chose to believe that most people here approved of this action, which is why they burnt our flags and proclaimed death to America. 

Though that might seem like a drastic example, stereotypes can really affect how someone lives their life. Someone could miss an opportunity if they choose to follow the basic stereotypes, instead of truly getting to know someone or something. It isn’t fair to the person being judged. 

I have lived my whole life with these two stereotypes: I must be anti-social because I was home-schooled, and I must think I am better than everyone else because I am a Christian. 

I have come to realize the only way people won’t make labels is to not let them know those two facts until we have already hung out and they have figured out who I really am. I shouldn’t have to hide something from people in fear of them having set ideas of who I am. I have also seen myself categorizing people into stereotypes and it isn’t fair to them because I am making assumptions of who they are before I even know them, and tend to only focus on what proves my preconceived ideas correct. 

Judging people before we truly know them just makes no sense, so why do it? It’s part of human nature, but it’s our responsibility to stop it before it gets out of hand, like burning anothers religion’s holy book. 

Try something new, get to know someone, label free!