BRETT BATTLES - Prejudice and Stereotypes

1. What are some of the things people who don't know you very well tend to think about you?

Eh…heck if I know. If they don’t know me very well, I probably don’t know them so don’t know what they are thinking. But if I were to guess, I think they might believe that I’m a generally happy person who always likes to make the joke.

2. Which of these assumptions are true?

Sadly, yes. Okay, not sadly. But yes, to a certain extent.

3. Which stereotypes about your country are true about you, if any?

I think I’m deceptively non-stereotypical.

4. What are situations in which you find yourself to be prejudiced?

Prejudice is something that I loath. But I am prejudice, there is no denying that. I have little tolerance for those who have no tolerance. For example, it looks like we have just passed a law here in California that will deny homosexuals the right to marry. That pisses me off like you can’t believe. How can we deny rights to a certain group?? It’s just like the pre-60s America again, when blacks were not allowed to drink from the same water fountain as others in some places, or races would not be allowed to marry each other. Don’t get me started!

5. To you, what value is there in stereotypes?

In life I try to disregard stereotypes when meeting people. But I can’t say I’m always successful. Certainly there are some stereotypes that help us understand others, and there are other stereotypes that are either false or so out of date that they harm our relations with others. The fact that some people probably didn’t vote for Barack Obama merely because he was half-African-American is ridiculous to me, but it definitely happened. So is there value? On occasions. But wouldn’t it be great if we got rid of stereotypes all together? An impossibility, I know, but worth dreaming about.