My first thought after watching
the video was, “what a wonderful and powerful message.” In just 18 minutes she managed to explain how
stereotypes evolve and how hurtful they can be yet she also managed to explain
how to overcome them. There were 3 things
that especially resonated with me that I will discuss further.
First, she was completely correct
in stating that as people, we are products of our environments and are incredibly
impressionable. I have firsthand
experience with this subject when dealing with homosexuality. Coming from a small town in central Florida,
our high school had barely heard of being gay other than the jokes of “you’re
gay” and the like. Additionally, my
entire concept of being gay was that you probably had AIDS and were a person of
questionable character/morality - this was the early/mid 90’s when the direct
link between homosexuality and AIDS was becoming the hot medical problem in the
news. In the end, I couldn’t have been
further from the truth and to date I am still ashamed of how I acted in the
past. I was exposed to the other side of
the story by my future wife, whose sister happens to be gay. My early viewpoints drove my wife to conceal
the fact that her sister was gay and it only came to light when it slipped out
at a dinner one night. In a somewhat humorous
yet very sad reaction, I paused in mid-motion with my spoon suspended in the
air and my mouth wide open when it came out.
I was shocked that I was sitting at the table with a gay person, when in
reality I had no reason to be. As I
spent more time with my wife and her sister, and was exposed to more and more
of her friends, I came to realize that they were normal people like the rest of
us “normal” people that just wanted to live their own lives in the manner in
which they choose. Luckily, as I have
changes, so has society – now I think that homosexuality is much less taboo
than it was 15 years ago, and hopefully it will continue to do so as the
mystique surrounding the life style is further explained.
In a somewhat related manner, her
quote of, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with
stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” is
the real gem to take away from the video.
I don’t know if the real issue with stereotyping can be put more
eloquently. Stereotypes are developed
when you only have one version of a story coming at you. For example, when I went to Iraq, I was
expecting a completely lawless country full of American hating people. And why shouldn’t I have felt this way? The news only reports on the negative aspects
coming out of different countries so it is the only opinion I am exposed
to. Sure enough, the news was about as
far from the truth as possible. Iraqis
love American’s and our culture – some don’t necessarily agree with our
government and its tactics, however as a people, they truly envy us and our
freedoms. In fact, a big issue towards
the end of my time there was “emo” Iraqis being murdered by hardliners within
the country – they were murdered for replicating a style that began in the
US. Another example is Bahrain – the news
would have you believe that the country is a step away from anarchy but in
reality, the protests there last year involved all of a couple hundred
people.
Finally, she implies an idea that I
truly wish this country would get on board with. As a person, you must be able to recognize
that whatever you are reading might not be a true representation of what is actually
happening, or that it might not be the only version of the story. If you really want to be informed on a
subject, you must get informed by using multiple different sources so that you
can formulate your own opinion. If you
do not think for yourself, you will quickly find yourself becoming a victim to
a single story.
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