Hidden Burden

Hidden Burden

In our society we are brainwashed every day and have been since we have exited the womb. What we don’t realize is that we need to train our mind on our own to rise above all the systematically programmed propaganda. Unfortunately, due to this brain washing we are born into, we come packaged and wrapped with the lovely word stereotype; prejudice embedded deep in our mind without knowledge of it until it is confronted and exposed by pure ignorance!

Now when you go to a dictionary the first definition most likely to be seen for stereotype is one like so: " —n. 1. a process, now often replaced by more advanced methods, for making metal printing plates by taking a mold of composed type or the like in papier-mâché or other material and then taking from this mold a cast in type metal. 2. a plate made by this process. 3. a set form; convention" (Webster’s,797). Further down from that definition should be something like: "—v.t. 1. to make a stereotype of. 2. to characterize or regard as a stereotype" (Webster’s,797). Although this definition is in a dictionary, the true meaning is far beyond that mild perception.

The history of the word itself is a quite interesting one. In English, "stereo" is taken from the Greek "stere" or "stereo" - and which meant solid or solid body. Originally it was used to describe metal printing. "The conversion from printing to human psychology may have been commenced by early Russian neurophysiologists during the Pavlov period when stimulus-response motor mechanisms were being researched in animals and humans. In that sense, "dynamic stereotype" came to refer to the end-result of cortical analysis and synthesis of all stimuli arising from both the external and the internal world if the same response always occurred relative to the same stimulus" (Swann). Stereotype evolved into something all of us recognize, not as a type of printing, but as the negative word and feeling it is today.

In society stereotyping is around us constantly. Women’s issues, homosexual issues, minority issues, everyday someone is confronted with a stereotype. For example, my friend Omar who is African American has been pulled over and harassed by the police for absolutely nothing. I was there and they didn’t even ask me one question. They completely ignored me until I asked them what Omar did wrong. They just replied with "Mind your own business kid!" I never knew what is was to be like in Omar’s shoes that day and I never will.