Categorizing people into any one specific group without proper information about whom or what they are or stand for is wrong. Stereotyping is the unfair jumping to conclusions about someone or something with out the facts to dispute otherwise. By definition according to Webster’s dictionary, a stereotype is “A conventional or formulaic conception or image: "regional stereotypes have been part of America since its founding". Light skinned black people are ok, but the dark ones, you’d better look out for them. You know it’s the dark ones who commit most of the crime. There’s something about them. But…the light ones they have more white blood in them, so they don’t act as bad. Oh my goodness is she eating a double cheese burger and fries, and a milkshake no, no that’s a diet coke, honey she could live for a month off of the fat she has stored up on her right now. How can she allow herself to get to this point she must just be lazy. What about that one over there his pants are hanging so low and look at that white-t he must be in a gang.
These are things that I’ve heard a lot in my life time, and I must admit that sometimes, I’ve even assumed some of them. As a child I used to wonder what it was like to be black or fat; then I can remember one day looking in the mirror I was about 9 years old, and I realized that not only was I a little black girl, but I was also overweight. What brought me to this revelation, was a little girl in my class who wanted me to spend the night at her house, but her mom said no, because they didn’t play with “those” kind of children, and “she too chubby honey”. That was a defining moment in my young life; up until that moment I didn’t see my friends in color just as my friends. Well that particular day shattered some of my childhood innocence and thrust me into the world of awareness. Awareness of how people treat you differently based on skin color, weight, or even where you come from. Research will show that it is stereotyping combined...