I want to say that in this blog, I will be referencing stereotypes that I know are not facts or truths. But, let's face it, a lot of what people believe about groups of people are not facts or truths.
I have this friend. For this blog we will call him Will. He is a loving, caring, talented man who happens to be black. He makes me smile when I see him and always has some great things to say. As a petite, white female sometimes I find myself shying away from larger black men (white men, too, but that is for another blog entry). You hear stories on the news and from people of attacks by black men. I also personally know someone who has been beaten up for no reason by 2 young black men.
So all this put together made me a little wary of Will at first. I subconsciously let my judgments hold me back from getting to know him. As soon as I realized what I was doing, though, I decided that I wanted to make an effort to get past this stereotype. Many of my friends knew him and had only wonderful things to say about him. Why should I feel differently? I am so thankful that I took that step and decided to talk to Will. You could not meet someone that has a brighter smile than him. We found that we share similar beliefs and a love of music. He also has a fantastic way of telling stories that have you rolling on the ground with laughter. Will was not some big black man who was out to get me. I am forever grateful that I put the stereotypes by the way side and took a chance on someone who looks to be very different from me.
Sometimes it's tough to identify our prejudices against other people. I think we're taught to ignore feelings that seem abhorrent to us, which keeps us from realizing how those hidden feeling affect how we treat other people in subtle ways. Confronting racism as a white person can be tough sometimes because we're unaware of hidden prejudices and stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteOnly by coming face to face with those uglier feelings and subtle prejudices can we move beyond them. I applaud your courage in sharing how you were able to do that.