Breaking Stereotypes: Part I (WHY)

Why Are There Stereotypes? 

"There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who believe that there are only two kinds of people. And those who don't stereotype."~ Unknown. 

                 All of us, consciously or subconsciously, are guilty of having stereotyped people around us at some point of our lives. Is it because of the society we grow up in? Or a more animal-istic need to classify everything we see around us. History is proof that being different is never taken as a good thing by the majority of the population and it creates a kind of herd mentality, which forces the 'different' to change themselves against their nature to fit in. 

In my opinion, the first step towards stopping stereotypes, is to understand the root cause behind it. Media and society are the means of its propagation, but not always the source. It is something intrinsic. It is the human need to feel part of a group. And whenever we form groups we draw an imaginary line. A line between the "us" and the "them". "We" classify "them". Mentally reason out why "We" are superior. Why they are unlike us and are to be treated like outcasts. "We" might not outright hate them. "We" simply dont like them cause they are different. It is human tendency to hate/fear what we dont understand. Slowly the imaginary line spreads. Inside our groups to divide "We" into "me" and "others." If we look carefully, half of what we say, think or imagine is influenced by some form of stereotypes or unfounded beliefs. Even something as simple as saying, "the grass is always greener on the other side....". 

The major issue is, in my belief, something which might sound extremely ridiculous. It is our habit of holding back our imaginations. What it means is that where we look, whatever we see, we merely see the narrow version of it. We edit out what we don't want to see or know. In psychology this is called selective perception. We look at everything from our point of view. Anything which doesnt fit our view is dealt with hostility. We think that there can only be two sides of a coin. The "us" and the "them". What we never realise is that maybe, there are more then two or three sides. That there are millions of sides. We are all individual 'sub species'. Different stories, different tastes, different versions. This is what we should be doing. Instead of telling kids that we are all humans and we are all the same, it is time we tell them that, yes we are all humans; but we are all DIFFERENT.! And they can choose to be anyone they want to be without being afraid of being different. Its not just us and them. We are all unique.

 The moment someone gasps this logic that humans are not merely a homogeneous species but every single individual is a sub-species, in a sense of speaking, with our own characteristics and choices. Maybe then we will realise that we cannot and should not use one lens to view everyone. And then we will stop judging people simply because of how they look, talk where they come from or what they believe in etc, and then, maybe we can finally have complete acceptance of each others existence and peace.

At the end of the day, we were all born different. Till society convinced us that we need to fit in.