Post by Zadoc on Dec 5, 2004 15:14:30 GMT -5
Normally, I don't feel the need to promote my blog up at MySpace, but for some reason a blog I just posted just made me feel better, and really took a lot out of me. It's written about a brief experience I had as a teenager that had a profound affect on me.
As per usual, when I write, I tend to drift from one emotion to the other. This entry started off as somewhat of a rant and turned into a rather introspective look at one of the most spiritual moments of my life.
The link to the blog entry itself is right here but I've also decided to repost it here for those who'd rather not get caught up in the whole MySpace thing.
As per usual, when I write, I tend to drift from one emotion to the other. This entry started off as somewhat of a rant and turned into a rather introspective look at one of the most spiritual moments of my life.
The link to the blog entry itself is right here but I've also decided to repost it here for those who'd rather not get caught up in the whole MySpace thing.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Stereotypes
Current mood: awake
"That one is Jewish! And that one's a coon!
Who let all this riff-raff into the room?!
There's one smoking a joint! And Another with spots!
If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot!" - Pink Floyd - In the Flesh (from The Wall)
Once again, I've found myself at odds with one one of my friends over this issue. Oddly enough, I find this problem with a lot of people. I have never understood how one person pre-judges the entire black race, the entire female gender, the entire race of Jews, homosexuals, etc as if they've done some sort of statistical background check to prove the validity in their claim that 75% or more) of the group they're stereotyping fall into the said stereotype.
I guess it bothers me for two reasons. One, as a teen I did that myself. Two, I've also found myself the victim of stereotyping as well.
I don't know what to say sometimes when I run into these confrontational issues amongst friends. A part of me gets really angry and wants to argue common sense into these people - which when applied, mostly doesn't change my opponents mind at all - while another part of me wishes to try to dodge the subject, which leaves me with a guilty feeling that I'm somehow tolerating that sort of ignorance - hence in turn, contributing to the problem.
As I mentioned, I too once held many stereotypes against people when I was a teenager and was rather prejudiced. Some may think that when people prejudged me that this was the turning point that made me see the error in my thinking, but it wasn't. Infact, I calmly would just state "I don't care what the f**k you think about me". It was something else entirely that changed my viewpoints.
When I was 16 my life was in raging chaos. My relationship with my immediate family was in shambles - I fought constantly with my mother and my sister; I had not spoken to my father in 2 years, my first true love relationship had ended - and it was my own negligence that caused it, I was abusing alcohol and experimenting with a variety of drugs, and I had enough homesickness to blindside me and prevent me from appreciating anything positive going on in my life.
Something had to break...and it did - in the form of a young girl named Danya.
In what seemed to be just another prelude to a new girlfriend (she got me to hang out with her this particular weekend basically by confessing that she 'liked me') things took a bizarre unexpected turn when we, and the other teenagers in our party, dropped into a few 12-step group meetings.
I had never considered my alcohol abuse and minor drug use to be the core of my problems, and these days I believe that it was only a small part of the things that plagued me. However, for some reason, something really snapped in me after a few minutes of being within those walls.
I suppose it could best be described as what a Born Again Christian would feel when they find religion. Only I didn't find God, but I did find a new spirituality. Here in this room were affluent white people, homeless people of all races, homosexuals, middle class adults, teenagers (as I was myself), the elderly, hispanics of mixed financial status, males, females, and still more diversity all in this small room speaking one at a time about their addiction experiences. Anyone and everyone was allowed to speak. Everyone's stories were virtually the same regardless of their differences. The scariest part of all was that these stories sounded like they were pages out of my own diary, had I ever kept one.
I walked out of that meeting dazed. I had pretty much abandoned my initial motives of getting laid that night, and instead spoke to many of the people outside from all walks of life looking for answers to help myself feel better.
I did leave with the party I originally travelled with, but instead of trying to put the moves on the very attractive girl who got me to go in the first place. I stayed up all night talking to a short white kid with sandy blond hair named Mike, who told me despite all my feelings of doubt that "Everything will be okay."
Mike and I spent the rest of the evening talking about rather spiritual topics as well as trivial conversation about the bands and music we liked. Danya had went inside and went to sleep. Mike and I watched the sun rise.
That sunrise has affected me to this very day. It was a true turning point in my life that made me see humanity very differently from that point on. No one is better than anyone else, and we're all the same regardless of our race, gender, sexuality, creed, religion, or lack of religion.
Stereotypes
Current mood: awake
"That one is Jewish! And that one's a coon!
Who let all this riff-raff into the room?!
There's one smoking a joint! And Another with spots!
If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot!" - Pink Floyd - In the Flesh (from The Wall)
Once again, I've found myself at odds with one one of my friends over this issue. Oddly enough, I find this problem with a lot of people. I have never understood how one person pre-judges the entire black race, the entire female gender, the entire race of Jews, homosexuals, etc as if they've done some sort of statistical background check to prove the validity in their claim that 75% or more) of the group they're stereotyping fall into the said stereotype.
I guess it bothers me for two reasons. One, as a teen I did that myself. Two, I've also found myself the victim of stereotyping as well.
I don't know what to say sometimes when I run into these confrontational issues amongst friends. A part of me gets really angry and wants to argue common sense into these people - which when applied, mostly doesn't change my opponents mind at all - while another part of me wishes to try to dodge the subject, which leaves me with a guilty feeling that I'm somehow tolerating that sort of ignorance - hence in turn, contributing to the problem.
As I mentioned, I too once held many stereotypes against people when I was a teenager and was rather prejudiced. Some may think that when people prejudged me that this was the turning point that made me see the error in my thinking, but it wasn't. Infact, I calmly would just state "I don't care what the f**k you think about me". It was something else entirely that changed my viewpoints.
When I was 16 my life was in raging chaos. My relationship with my immediate family was in shambles - I fought constantly with my mother and my sister; I had not spoken to my father in 2 years, my first true love relationship had ended - and it was my own negligence that caused it, I was abusing alcohol and experimenting with a variety of drugs, and I had enough homesickness to blindside me and prevent me from appreciating anything positive going on in my life.
Something had to break...and it did - in the form of a young girl named Danya.
In what seemed to be just another prelude to a new girlfriend (she got me to hang out with her this particular weekend basically by confessing that she 'liked me') things took a bizarre unexpected turn when we, and the other teenagers in our party, dropped into a few 12-step group meetings.
I had never considered my alcohol abuse and minor drug use to be the core of my problems, and these days I believe that it was only a small part of the things that plagued me. However, for some reason, something really snapped in me after a few minutes of being within those walls.
I suppose it could best be described as what a Born Again Christian would feel when they find religion. Only I didn't find God, but I did find a new spirituality. Here in this room were affluent white people, homeless people of all races, homosexuals, middle class adults, teenagers (as I was myself), the elderly, hispanics of mixed financial status, males, females, and still more diversity all in this small room speaking one at a time about their addiction experiences. Anyone and everyone was allowed to speak. Everyone's stories were virtually the same regardless of their differences. The scariest part of all was that these stories sounded like they were pages out of my own diary, had I ever kept one.
I walked out of that meeting dazed. I had pretty much abandoned my initial motives of getting laid that night, and instead spoke to many of the people outside from all walks of life looking for answers to help myself feel better.
I did leave with the party I originally travelled with, but instead of trying to put the moves on the very attractive girl who got me to go in the first place. I stayed up all night talking to a short white kid with sandy blond hair named Mike, who told me despite all my feelings of doubt that "Everything will be okay."
Mike and I spent the rest of the evening talking about rather spiritual topics as well as trivial conversation about the bands and music we liked. Danya had went inside and went to sleep. Mike and I watched the sun rise.
That sunrise has affected me to this very day. It was a true turning point in my life that made me see humanity very differently from that point on. No one is better than anyone else, and we're all the same regardless of our race, gender, sexuality, creed, religion, or lack of religion.