Stereotypes and Preconceived Ideas (Myth Busters and Myth Makers)

As a woman of color and an American, I have been exposed to many stereotypes and preconceived ideas about my race of people and my gender. Coming up, it was we were a shiftless and lazy bunch of folks. Today it’s…all young black men are thugs and uneducated and our young girls are welfare recipients and baby making factories. The problem is the “all”!

But not many get a free pass on some type of stereotype being tagged on them. I was raised in the city of Philadelphia, and I grew up thinking that all Italians were part of the mafia, now if that is not a stereotype, then I don’t know what is. I’ve also been tempted to stereotype French and Asian woman. Why? Because I have had such negative experiences with them and it would be easy to put “all” of them in one basket.

Stereotyping people leads to the pool of preconceived ideas and notions of who they are and what they are, whether true or not. 

Stereotype, verb: typecast, pigeonhole, conventionalize, and categorize label or tag.

Preconceived idea, an opinion formed beforehand, a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof or certainty.

My new roommate is Caucasian and I just knew she would enjoy the fact that I had such a great range of “white mainstream music”. But too my surprise, she likes to listen to “soul (black) mainstream music,” which she also thought I would like…LOL! I enjoy listening to Barry Manilow songs, and she really doesn’t like him that much. On the other hand, she likes music I grew up with but no longer care to listen to. Stereotypes and preconceived ideas happen all the time—even with friends.  

While shopping at an open market in Honduras, my daughter encountered the enthusiastic call and and shouts from a vendor. He had something she must come and see. Well, when she got to his stand, he proudly showed her watermelons. He was so excited because he just knew he had a sale, but the sad thing is…she can’t stand watermelon. LOL! Her initial thought was, he must have been watching old movies where we are stereotyped as people who only love watermelon and fried chicken. L

I had a friend who traveled extensively  all over the world  for her work, and she told me that American woman are perceived as sluts and very loose women in many countries and black men are gold wearing gangsters. Which comes from them watching American television shows and Hip Hop videos. And they have put us “all” in one basket.

It would be nice if this just happened in matters of the world, but Christians are stereotyped and many people have preconceived ideas about us and it is not for the good either.

There are so many reasons people perceive Christians as being flakes and nuts, that I don’t have time to cover them all. False prophets, and make-believe preachers who are fleecing the flock, people claiming to belong to Christ (for their own gain), hate groups covering themselves with the name of Jesus and the list goes on! But today I just want to focus on those of us who are truly of the Household of Faith. 

Over the years in ministry, I have encountered so many people who have such a bad taste in their mouths about Christians, especially the ones whose parents kept them in church All day on Sunday! Somewhere during that torture, they made a conscience decision, never to go to church again when they were old enough to say, "No more!". But it was also the hypocrisy they experienced that went along with it. And there are the ones who came to church looking for love and support, only to be wounded even the more. And too many to count are tired of being beaten up emotionally by the bible tooters. 

We picket abortion clinics, but shun the girl’s or women in our church who become pregnant out of wedlock. (And often spend more time gossiping about them then we do praising God for His goodness.) We throw big showers for the married ones we like, and shun the others. Oh, we can be so messy and it shows in the opinions of those in our everyday lives.

When you look at the life of Christ, he always had something to give—mostly love and compassion.  He healed, He fed, He raised folks from the dead, He forgave and then He dealt with their sin. Jesus didn’t browbeat people with their sin; in fact, his biggest problem was with the leaders of the church. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where He called anyone expect them, “Vipers and whitewashed tombs!” And that was because they were abusing their positions.  God loves people, it is sin that He hates. But we sort of get that backwards.

It's our job to be myth busters! We are to be a light, not a joke or someone people run away from. 

When people meet us and spend time with us, they should see we are not stereotypical in anyway. They should see something different about us, because “Love” never fails.

Now I am not guiltless, by no means. I look back over my life and I can see where I missed the mark and left people with the wrong impression or reinforced the bad one they already had. But, like Paul says, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (I Corinthians 13:11) I'm grownup now.

Sisters, we need to stop telling people in the world what they need to stop doing and what they are doing wrong. We have to be more like Jesus and offer them love, because in relationship, God opens doors for conversations that are good seeds and vast waterings.

No, maybe as individuals we will not be able to change the preconceived ideas of the masses, but all God asks of us is, "One person at a time!"

Jesus is our example of how we are to represent and He left us all the instruction we need. All we have to do is read it and make the decision to do what He commands of us. I don’t know about anyone else, but I remember my hay days of sin, and it wasn’t people telling what a sinner I was that drew me to Christ. No! It was the love and kindness of God exhibited through a co-worker and his wife.

How do the everyday people in your lives perceive you? Are you a myth buster or myth maker?

Until next week...

Blessings and Hugs,

Ponnie