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When talking about stereotypes and discrimination, it seems that they go hand in hand. As children we are raised with a base, from childhood we start discriminating and giving labels, but why and will this ever change? I sincerely doubt it.

Our society is one tough cookie and it’s been over baked for quite a long time, it’s no secret that our “2 friends” are out there, they walk and live among us, they are our brother and sister, family and friends, our coworkers, a stranger, the weird kid from school they are you and even me; even if we try not to or pretend that we don’t do any of them, we still do.

As we all know it’s illegal to be discriminated in a job, but that doesn’t prevent it from happening; in the old days women weren’t allowed to work by men’s side, leaving her all the house work; today there are still men that don’t take to kindly having to work with women, preferring to give the job to another male even if the female is more qualified for the job, in a case that there are too females applying for the same job it’s probably the job is going to the pretties; in case were stereotyping, if we see a tattooed person with piercings we tend to think he’s a rocker or maybe he just got out of prison and depending in the job a person has, we label, we talk, for instance you see a teen age boy working in a fast food, what do you think? That he’s building a better future? I think not, probably you’re thinking that he’s a good for nothing, a drop out, a waste of time, selling cold fries and serving frozen yogurt to support the unborn that’s on the way.

And yet most of these behaviors go back to the education, the way you were raised, what’s around you and how you react to it; our parent’s want the best for us, but they know just so much, they give us a home with love, they provide food and try to provide a proper education, they tell us what they think and been told that’s good and what’s not, some try to go by religion and what’s correct by that religion; but another factor of these learned behaviors is society, what’s fashion at the moment, what they go for and what not, what we see on TV and/or the movies, for an example of learned labels, I say playboy you think of?...a gorgeous blonde gal with a triple “D” size bra, in a super hero movie there is a female that controls nature, what color is her hair?... Red, and probably she is a hippie or down to earth, I say airhead and you think of? …Ell woods from legally blonde.

An example of discrimination and stereotypes can be found in a junior high, were we can see the student divided in groups, clicks, like the popular girls, the cool dudes, the jocks, the nerds, the rocker, preps and so on, but we’re not blindfold and we been presented in many ways the problems that theses clicks bring to the students, how they treat each other and their reactions; if that alone weren’t enough, imagine being fat or queer, the cruelness of people can be hard to take, but feeling like you’re going against the strong waves, is even harder, the feeling of doing things you shouldn’t, the need of doing the ones you want, pretending, trying to fit in, to be accepted, living the life they want for you but not the one you want for yourself, trying to be perfect, it’s frustrating and since we were raised with a base, we try to stick with that base, but sometimes we have to grow different, most of the times we can’t handle this, been different in top of everything I got already?...be what society wants?...yes, you have a decision there my friend, but while we decide what were going to do, depression and low self esteem are going to accompany you and please don’t do anything drastic like committing suicide or taking action in your own hands like the too boy that went into a killing spread in “1990’s”, killing their fellow classmates and some teachers.

It may not be on purpose, but we still do it, they’re a part of us, like it or not, we do it to our friends, to the strangers walking by and even so, to our own family; we tend to discriminate the elders, just because they can’t “walk as fast” or they don’t know what’s up to date, preferring to leave them alone, kicking them to a side, avoiding them, in the case of the older brother, having to take your little sibling to the mall, where your meting your friends from school is a pain in the neck, just thinking that he can’t stand still and probably won’t shut up, and on top of it, “Ashley” the girl your crushing on, will be hanging today with them; families can be discriminated by race, religions, economical status, education and so on, but they can be label as well, we have heard comments like: they are hillbillies or hippies, or when labeling by sexuality in case of the males we tend to see them as the strong ones, the athletic ones, the head of the family, going to the war to protect their love ones, but when talking about the females they are still the “1950’s” hose wives, the ballet dancers, the wick and defenseless women, when the truth is that we aren’t living that decade anymore, things have change and so have the types of family.

Stereo typing and discrimination, is it going to change? I doubt it, because they are a part of us, just like we eat and breathe, we may try and control it, but we’ll do it unconscious, people have been doing it way before our decade and they will still be doing it in a further future.

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