I hate stereotypes just as much as the next person. Stereotypes are nothing more than pre-conceived ideas about something, someone or a place that is never grounded in truth. When you find the truth, you should look crazy because you had your pre-conceived notions and you were proven wrong. Everyone is stereotypical to a degree, myself included. The difference between me and most people is I'm not ashamed to admit I have stereotyped from time to time but after getting to know something, someone or a place, I had the wrong idea but was too lazy to put in work. What burns me up more than stereotypes is people who live up to them. Stereotypes no longer become pre-conceived notions if they are backed up by facts and consistent behaviors. If you don't want to be stereotyped, DON'T live up to the notion. Why is this difficult to understand? Here's an example: Blacks (African-Americans for the politically correct crowd) are stereotyped for almost everything: killers, thugs & gangsters, morally depraved, etc. I know not all blacks fit the above but a vast majority do. It's the majority that make it bad for everyone. There are blacks that are law-abiding citizens but as with everything else, a few bad apples spoil it for everyone. Reminds me of when I was in school & one kid messed up but the entire class got punished. That's crazy but I understand because in order to prevent future destruction, the whole must suffer for the mistakes of the few. Again, I don't like it anymore than anyone else but that's life; one person can and will mess it up for everyone else. If you don't want to be labeled as a thug-don't exhibit thuggish behavior. If you don't want to be labeled as loud & ghetto, DON'T ACT LOUD & GHETTO. For every problem, there's a solution. The solution is to do the opposite of the negative behavior. You lose your right to complain if you feed into stereotypes. You may not be abusive or loud, but if you act in that manner and people notice, they will label you accordingly.
