Stereotypes are True. Stop Whining

My post “Women Really are Inferior to Men: Part 1” collected a comment that I thought should be touched on. If not briefly, then extensively. The following is the exact comment:

Don’t you think that maybe women might have more of a chance to be equal to men athletically and militarily if there weren’t stereotypes and other barriers holding them back?

Huh? This is one of those WTF responses you hear every so often. What barriers are holding them back? Are we putting drugs in the water that only prevents women from getting stronger? The Olympics puts NO barriers in front of women and they still can’t compete with men.

The “stereotype” part is what really bothers me. By making this statement in the context it was made, the commentor is making the assumption that steroetypes aren’t true. Then where did they come from? Stereotypes are truths without the possiblity of an exception. Here’s a good one. “Blacks hate getting in water.” While true, so do whites, Asians, Hispanics, etc. There just seems to be a larger proportion of blacks that don’t like getting in water. Poof, the stereotype is born. It’s a true statement, just taken to the extreme.

Recently there was a firestorm of hate being slung at some white college students at Clemson University over a Martin Luther King Day party they had. It basically made fun of the ghettfied black culture. Rightly so, too. It’s an embarrasing culture. Anyway, the students painted their faces black, drank 40s in brown paper bags, wore grills on their teeth, and stuffed their back sides with tissue. The pictures were posted on facebook and boom-instant anger. I could have told you posting them on facebook was a mistake.

The black community at the college was offended and wanted apologies and blah blah blah. The usual. No apology was necessary, in my opinion. The white partygoers were accused of stereotyping. Of course they were stereotyping. There’s no fun in having a spoof party if you dressed up as a preppy black person. White people dress like that too. Boring. But, let me ask you this: Why is it that only the white people are told make changes are apologize? Wouldn’t it also be appropriate to get the black community as a whole to make changes to how they dress and act? There are many successful black people in the world. I’m not trying to downplay that. It’s just that there is a large portion that make those stereotypes so true because we see it every day.

Every morning on my way to work I drive by four public schools. There are probably at least 7,000 students who attend those four schools. I see black students walking to school in the morning picking up their pants every two steps because they’re too baggy. As they pick them up, their shirt falls off of a shoulder too that has to be fixed. If I’m lucky, one will be wearing a hat with a flat bill and the price tag still hanging off of it. Are they stereotyping? NO! They are the ones making the stereotype. This is very rampant all over the country. Have you ever watched BET? That’s a T.V. channel geared to black people. Who’s at fault for stereotyping?

That college party ought to make you outraged at other blacks. Sure, you can get mad at those white students. Get offended and pissed off. Tell them they were stupid and hateful. It was dumb (and I’m sure a lot of fun too) but point your efforts of change elsewhere. If you want to get rid of the stereotype then stop buying rap CDs with songs like “Let Me See Your Grill” (if it’s called that). Get your fellow black citizens to change. Stop with the ebonics, call it fruit-punch instead of “red drink,” wear clothes that fit, don’t wear jewerly on your teeth, or clocks around your neck, and get rid of ridiculous handshakes.

A lot of you are going to give me flak over this. Go for it. I don’t mind. Most won’t even make it this far and will label me a racist. Far from it. This wasn’t written specifically for black people. It was written for everyone who complains about stereotypes and how they hold people back. Get rid of traits that make the stereotypes and then start complaining about them when those traits no longer exist.

“Call me George Foreman ‘cuz I’m sellin’ everybody grillz.”