Stereotypes and Catergorization

It was always a dilemma for me, checking that race box on my paperwork when I first came to school. I had never had to simplify myself to such a measure, but now I debated on when it says "one box only" to say Native American or to say if I was White. It is offensive to simplify and shrink a person into such a tiny margin, excluding mixed people, and thinking just because the racial lines are blurry as a whole, that it isn't stark and hard for some individuals.

I had never thought of race as a social construct, it just didn't occur that something so seemingly set in life wouldn't be biological.

When I Googled 'is race a socially constructed concept', I thought I knew what the results would say, or at the very least that they would be highly controversial.

But, instead what came up was a very matter-of-fact answer from the New York Times, and thousands of results that did indeed back up that race is a socially constructed concept. (Even my relatively racist, conservative, and Trump supporting dad agrees with this consensus). I was shocked, and it made me wonder... why do we make such a huge deal out of race?

Race matters because we as humans strive for self categorization, it makes us feel a sense of self purpose, that we 'fit'. We look at someone and think oh, they're categorized this way, and if someone doesn't look what they appear to be, we become shocked, offended even. We expect out assumptions to be correct, that stereotypes are accurate.

We look at a short-haired plaid wearing girl and assume she's gay. We look at a girl with a deep voice and assume she's trans. We look at a man from the South and assume he's a Jesus-loving Trump supporter.

While reading Maus and discussing the topic of race and assumption, we talked about this scene from the comic below, and how appearance and stereotyping supersedes truth.

Assumptions ultimately are judgments, and they are unfair. So, how can we overcome how we perceive and categorize people?

I think it begins with understanding differing perspectives, sometimes it is difficult to think from a perspective outside our own, to put down those who meet a negative stereotype. It's difficult to realize that while the blurred lines seem simple, there are always people who hover in the middle of a standard, of a category, and are ostracized and hurt because of it.

There are too many cases of people who don't physically match up with one race to be an outcast among where they identify or live. People who don't look like a stereotype are questioned, not legitimate.

Even I, hear things such as:

"You're very white, you cannot be Native American" "An American Indian can't be white" "But, CAN YOU PROVE IT" "You can't be gay because you're pretty" "Your being gay must be a phase because you're too flirty"

*rolls eyes

Even though these assumptions are rather harmless, we need to think about how our assumptions can hurt and box in people, how everyone is DIFFERENT, and how everyone has something unique to offer.

We cannot be defined or confined by what the options to check on a form are.

So...

Look outside of yourself and see what other people's perspectives have to offer.