Tuesday, April 8, 2008
i'm baffled
i have very little tolerance for stereotyping. the few exceptions are for, well, now that i am here thinking i realize i don't want this post to be about those few exceptions. the point is, i don't like generalizations about a specific group of people, specifically racial stereotyping. it disgusts me to be honest. it's completely unattractive. i've never understood why these types of comments are funny. i have nothing else to say other than i'm baffled by it's use in the Christian community!
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7 comments:
Well, I'm going to have to ask you what in the world happened last night to make you post about this.
:)
I completely agree naturally. I think we (you and me) are more sensitive to stereotyping and racism because of our background.
I'm going to blather for a bit.... Back home, race relations could be very strained (I'm just remembering from high school with things between NE and Elkton being not good.). Sometimes you'd even get a whiff of the kkk on the news or in the paper. It's different out here. While I don't smell the kkk, racism is more mainstream (not in my church, but my workplace). I was often horrified and surprised at what some of my co-workers would say. I didn't think people thought things like that anymore.
Oh, sorry, now my comment is longer than your post.
stereotyping has been a big topic to michael and i too, well beyond the racism issue to things like age, gender, lifestyle, beliefs. one of the problems is that the broader culture is often much more accepting of people who are different than the church is.
i, too, have to work hard to shed my biases & presuppositions so that i can love without reserve.
the rejection one feels often comes over what might be considered a surface issue, so if we can focus on getting to know people more deeply (personality, character, interests, family, etc.) we'll be able to overlook those points of difference.
sorry, i guess i'm getting long-winded like amanda. :-)
As kt mentioned, this has been a big issue to us recently as well. Just as stereotypes about skin color turn into racism, so too can stereotypes about gender turn into sexism--both are disdainful!
Unfortunately, often times we say things without even realizing that they are prejudiced and discriminatory. It's this unconsciousness that we as a community need to help one another on. If you ever notice us saying something unlovingly stereotypical, please point it out.
We sterotype either about things we don't understand, or aren't fully comfortable with.
It's easier than actually digging in and doing the dirty work of understanding and getting to know something/someone. And it's unfortunate that that is the case.
everyone, thanks for all you said. the last time i time i tried to talk about this subject with fellow believers, defense mechanisms went up and excuses came out. those friendships have consequently changed for the worse. i'm encouraged to hear you all are open minded enough to have perspective!
mwh, i assure you that i have not been offended by anything you or kt have said in my presence.
What an interesting topic, which triggers a memory of a conversation I overhead at work. It was said by a young mother who happens to be African American. She was commenting that she tries to feed her children with good food in order to instill good nutrition and eating habits. This young mother further commented that her own mother said to her, "why are you feeding those boys white food?" Having heard this I perked up to hear the rest of the story. In short, this young mother was surprised to hear her own mother questions her motives to provide a good example for her own boys. But this converstation sticks in my mind because it was a good example of racism and stereotyping coming from within ones own race and in this case ones own family member. I was compelled to encourage this young mother to continue with her regime of providing a sound nutritional diet for her family. This young mother is also studying to become a nurse and perhaps the education she is receiving is helping to restructure her thinking in providing for her family. In case you are wondering, yes she stood up to her mother and indicated that good nutrition does not have boundaries of racism. Kudos to this young Mom.
I apologize too, that my comment is longer than your blog...would be interested to know what triggered your blog.
Well, sarah, it's good to know that we haven't done that--but it's easy to do and it might happen in the future--so we want to keep that avenue open.
Another category that we've talk about recently is socio-economic: people often get made fun of for being rednecks, hill-billies, hicks, etc...It's equally prejudiced--the church (at large) has got to root this out.
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