PLEASE DO NOT JUDGE ME
When I was younger, I used to play this game in my mind,
whenever I got introduced to a person, I instantly judged them according to their name, depending on whom I knew from before bearing the same name: so for instance if I
knew a certain Jennifer who was slutty or arrogant etc and my friend says,
"meet my friend Jennifer.." in my mind I'd be like " hello
slut or arrogant cow etc" before I smiled and said, "nice to meet you Jennifer"
and etc.
Then I guess we could say I was immature and a silly
kid and also that the game went a bit (well maybe more than a bit) over the top, just this afternoon,I put this old childish habit of
mine and the never dying habit of societal stereotyping side and side. Guess what? They fit perfectly(except for the judging according to name part though).They're practically the same thing. So most of us
see a spoilt/disrespectful kid, for instance and , "aah what an irresponsible mum" comes
to mind_ forgetting the father on this one. A student gets an F
and, "ooh what a dunce" pops up in mind without pausing to consider whether the
teacher could be at fault or maybe this is not just the right subject/discipline for
this student. I could go on and on about examples of societal
stereotyping and how shamefully people act on them. Wait a minute, stereotyping contributes alot in racism too( it's not rocket science). You know that kind of, "hey I'm black so I'm definitely dangerous", "hey I'm white and I'm all about superiority and racism" kina feeling? Like you're being cornered and everyone's pointing at you and sayin awful stuffs. That's almost exactly the position we place someone_ anyone we judge. It's like
being judged even before appearing in court. It's not
surprising then when someone you do not know from Adam, makes
a statement like, "hmn that girl's a snub and she doesn't
even possess any distinguishing quality.." Really? People
forget though that in as much as an individual tries, there's
always a second side to every coin, no matter how
faint. Best get acquainted and know more about people, I vote. That tattooed person who sells or does crack could actually be the most honest,generous etc person you'd ever know.
Just as I dropped that childish habit of mine,
isn't it advisable for us to drop this
judgy-urh-It's-a-fixed-character-and-can-never-change-so-I-have-to-judge-you-already kinda
attitude towards people? And guess what? we judge things too,
"err I heard this school sucks", "this restaurant serves awful meals" and all.#shrugs, gee I'm guilty of this one.
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