Stereotypes need to be re-examined

by Christian A. Lopez
Editorial Cartoonist

All of us are guilty of stereotyping people. We meet someone and instantly form an opinion about that person.

We analyze him or her, label him and put him into a category that has been created in our minds through past experiences, the media and other factors.

For example, if I threw out the word Muslim, the first thing that might come to mind is "terrorist." This is a view toward Muslims that has infiltrated our minds because of our experience with Sept. 11.

As a bald-headed Latino, I am always perceived as an uneducated, trouble-making thug. My most recent experience was when I went to a club to celebrate a co-worker's birthday.

I got off of work that night, went home and got dressed. I was styling some nice brown casual dress shoes, beige slacks, and a baby-blue and light brown dress shirt.

I was looking GQ, but when I arrived I found out that the bouncer at the door seemed to disagree.

According to the bouncer I was wearing pants that were to big, but my slacks were not even oversized. I even pointed out people he had let in and told him to compare.

I asked the bouncer to get my co-worker who was inside the club because he was one of the promoters and had put me on the VIP list.

He sent someone to get him but he never came back. I asked to speak to the person in charge and the owner of the hall came to speak to me. He told me I could not get in.

His excuse was that I was not wearing the appropriate shoes. I asked him what the problem with them was and he told me I needed dress shoes. The thing that baffled me is that they were dress shoes. He walked away and he would not talk to me.

My co-worker eventually came out and asked the bouncer and manager why they were giving me trouble. The owner told him it was the shoes and my friend responded by saying he had an extra pair in the car that I could wear.

The owners response: "Well, he isn't wearing the appropriate shirt."

This is when I knew that the reason they had been giving me a hassle was not because of my pants, or my shoes, and definitely not my shirt, but because I was a bald-headed Latino. In other words, they thought they were keeping out a gangster.

I left infuriated that night and went up to a look-out spot near my home to blow-off some steam. I did not understand how someone could make a judgement about me just because of my haircut.

That owner did not know me and had never seen me before in his life, but he had made his judgement about who I was.

In his thoughts, he had me all figured out. I was a type that matched a figure or picture in his mind that he conceived to represent mischief and an inconvenience.

Litttle did he know that in reality I represent every thing opposite to what he had considered me to be.

I have more class and principles than every guy in that club put together, but that night I was just a killer, thief and drug dealer - everything a gangster has been painted to be.

I have been looked down upon in the past, because of my ethnicity and also because of the way I look, but never has it ever angered me to the point it did that night.

The whole experience taught me a lot about how shallow and ignorant people can be, and actually gave me more confidence in who I am and the way I look.

As people who have grown and learned from history, we must recognize the ignorance that exists, not only in other people, but in ourselves, and ensure that our judgements should not be based on race, ethnicity, looks, or any type, but rather on an individual basis in which a person can actually have his or her own identity.

Christian A. Lopez, a senior broadcasting major, is editorial cartoonist for the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at clopez@ulv.edu.