Letter to the Editor: Stereotyping is unfair

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
People today need to realize that not everything is black and white, right and left, or conservative and liberal. Not every republican or democrat believes everything that their party stands for. I found this out for real a few months ago before I had the chance to vote in my first presidential election.
The choice was an easy one for me since I had been raised in a conservative household, but for those who really didn’t know me that well found this to be a surprise. Why would they think that? Another stereotype of course, I’ve permanently been labeled liberal for the way I look, and what I like. All I need to say is that I like punk music and you would picture me as the most extreme punk you’ve ever seen. This the way we’ve been programmed since birth. You’re either one thing or another in this world. Black or white.
Well I’m neither; can’t we be gray in this world. That’s what I tried to be in school, but was forced out by people believing that this is impossible. I can’t hang out with the smart kids because I have a tattoo, and I can’t hang out with the punks because I’m smart and don’t want to get high. This made it impossible to ever have friends, which ended up making me finally drop out because I couldn’t take the pressure of people talking about me, and making up rumors about why I had no friends.
The point to this is that you can’t typecast a person by the way they look. We’ve all heard the saying “you can’t judge a book by the cover,” but who was the last person to actually think about what that saying can mean. The practice of stereotyping starts at a very young age, and people will do it if their parents do. Stereotyping is a very unfair thing to do.
We are not all copies; inside we all have the choice to become whoever and whatever we want to. We just need to remember to make the choice before it is too late and become clones of our parents.
If you’re still young you’re probably not reading this newspaper or even watching the news. But if you’re a parent and your child still has time, make sure they know how to be fair to everyone they meet in life, and not to stereotype.