Talking about stereotypes

Salamu

My Niggas!

The topic of the day is stereotypes.

Uncle Ruckus. One of the worst offenders of stereotypical labeling behavior

For those who have been living under a rock their whole lives and are not aware of what a stereotype is…this is how the urban dictionary (the only trustworthy dictionary in the world in my opinion) defines it: A stereotype is used to catergorize a group of people. People don't understand that type of person, so they put them into classifications, thinking that everyone who is that needs to be like that, or anyone who acts like their classifications is one.

This can be based on:

Race

Gender

Religion

Tribal

Societal

Macroeconomic

Residential Areas

But why are we talking about this today? Because it amazes me how we unconsciously revert to stereotypical behavior. I was brought up in South Africa which is historically one of the most stereotypical nations in the world. Now I was born in the generation after apartheid. So I never oppressed no one. And I am generally not a racist person. But I am guilty of being stereotypical.

I was talking to a friend over Facebook and he told me about this study done by Stats SA about people living in Fourways and their love for Mixed Martial Arts. I immediately jumped in and said that they must be Lebanese (of the South African variety) that love watching Rocky movies and are developing Sylvester Stallone speech impediments. He then said that they probably wear Tapout shirts as well.

Now this paints the picture of any Lebanese person found walking around Booysens on any given day. But does that mean that all South African Lebanese people are like this? Hell No.

It’s the same with the Portuguese. If I had R5 for every time a Portuguese person (who’s decedents came from mainland Portugal) insulted a Portuguese person (Who’s descendants came from Madeira), I’d be a very rich person with own yacht and a R180-million mansion in Umhlanga.

Probably fought so well because his ancestors had to fight
off lions and elephants? Probably Not. 

Back to this friend I had the talk about the Lebanese with. We went to university together and we used to keep in touch with the current happenings in US Sport (Basketball, Baseball and American Football…not so much Ice Hockey) and every week it was the same people in the news. LeBron James, Barry Bonds, Michael Johnson. And I one day asked him why he thought it was that the main people grabbing the headlines were black. The heavyweight division in Boxing was owned by good black boxers from Joe Louis till Lennox Lewis. A time span stretching 40 years.

“You see Jon. The black man is a naturally athletic person. Historically they spent all their years running away from lions and elephants and shit. And then there were civil wars so they had to be physically strong to survive. Then slave traders came and shipped these people off to America. But the athletic gene stayed true,” was his reply.

How much of this is true? It is true that historically...first nation people of Africa had to hunt and fend off wild beasts and this continued long into our history because industrialization only came to Africa much later than the rest of the world. But can we use this as a reasoning behind the new generations athletic exploits?

Surely there must be a better reason behind this. But will we bother to look for it? i bet you there are millions of people in the world that use the same rationale as my friend above. 

And it happens with everyone. I challenge you to watch the news or a movie….when you see behavior that you think is typical of a specific racial/religious/residential area person, insult them like you usually would and then think back to this post.

Our world is FULL of stereotypes. One of my favorite shows The Boondocks is full of racial stereotypes. The movie Rush Hour is full of racial stereotypes. Bad Boys (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) is full of Socio Economical and Class based stereotypes. One time I got stopped by the police who were doing a routine check on drivers licences. When they asked me for my licence the first thing I said was: "Why...is it because I am black?" I didn't event need to think about it.

Will the world move beyond these stereotypes? No they won’t. Because it has become unconsciously ingrained in every human being that society needs to be put into specific boxes. The ideals of the hippies that lived during the time of free love that the whole world is one nation is a bullshit ideal and will never be realized.

Ooops I did it again.

Till next time my Niggas!

Mei jua daima kuwa kabla yenu, na vivuli nyuma yako!