Prejudiced people

Haeleigh Bayle, Reporter

Everyone wants to be better than the person standing next to them whether they realize it or not. “What’s the harm in wanting a little bit of self-gain?” you might ask. When we let our myriad of prejudices get in the way, those simple preconceived opinions that quickly cross our minds can start to determine the outlook of our everyday life. So my question is, can we ever get over our myriad prejudices and misconceptions regarding other people?

I believe that no matter how hard we try in life to ignore the hundreds of quick judgments and misconceptions, we can’t avoid having them cross our minds. That doesn’t mean, however, that we should just surrender to our rude thoughts and let them run rampant. It’s just that there really isn’t a way to not judge someone quickly because we are all wired to be quick to judge and to only believe what we want to believe. Just because someone doesn’t have the nicest clothes doesn’t mean that they’re some unintelligent, low-life kid. Just because someone looks grumpy doesn’t mean they can’t be the sweetest and most caring person. Take me, for example. People always tell me not to look so grumpy as I walk down the hallway or walk to my mom’s car because they know that I’m a nice person, I just appear grumpy. And just because someone dresses cool, acts cool, and does “cool” stuff, does not mean that they are someone you should look up to. By listing a few of the thousands of examples on people’s prejudices and misconceptions, you might be sitting there realizing how many of these you are actually a part of. No one even thinks twice anymore when they’re walking down the hallway or are walking in a grocery store and they see someone and automatically slide them into one of their many “categories” of who people are. As Americans, and people as a whole, we should be ashamed of these behaviors. It’s not fair to immediately judge someone just for their appearance on the outside. Like many wise people have said before, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Although my opinion about how we can’t truly get rid of our copious amounts of quick-judgement thoughts isn’t going to change, I do believe that if we all practiced being more forgiving, we would see an enormous amount of change in the demeanor of humanity. For example, instead of seeing someone’s outfit and putting them into the unpopular chart, stop and think for a moment about how you don’t always have the most stylish clothes on either. People need to learn to have grace and understanding. Although mankind will never stop having prejudicial thoughts on each other, if we all worked a little harder to be a kinder, less judgmental people, the world would be a much happier place.