What Stereotypes Do You Avoid?

Off Topic
61

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Headhunter wrote:

Wrong as usual, Prof. I teach high school.

Until they are 18, those are still kids.

You lament that people judge you by how you look. Fine. You dress as you please, also fine. I suggested that you might do your small bit to help turn this around by dressing conservatively some of the time. People judge others by appearance? Use that to get rid of it.

Barack O’bama uses the same ideas at his rallies. In his book, he describes how to knock down stereotypes so people can listen to what he’s REALLY saying. I guess he’s more interested in making America a better country, ready to go beyond stereotyping than you. Which is…fine.

Are you helping by dressing thug and riding a motorcycle? No, but that’s your right. Just don’t complain when others use stereotypes to judge you. You reinforced them.

Dressing thug?

I’m sorry, please quote and paste where I wrote that I was “dressing thug”. Did you come to that conclusion because I’m Black?

I don’t follow trends, so how did you come to such a conclusion?

Do you do a ‘James Bond’ and step out of your riding apparel in an Armani suit?

Glad to see you finally got around to playing the race card.

You know what Prof? Don’t dress nicely. Roar around on your bike, checking in the mirror to make sure your earrings are still in. Asking you to help end stereotyping and racism was kind of like getting no water at the bottom of the well…waste of good drilling equipment.

[/quote]

Laughing my ass off!

YOU brought up race, but I’m the one playing the race card?

Are you clinically insane or do you just play this out over the internet for fun?

62

[quote]Agent Frost wrote:
hhhmmmm… i wear t-shirts with bands and comic book characters on them, cover myself in tattoos, study things like Krav Maga and ground fighting and boxing, play with swords and guns, have pets snakes, wear a chain wallet and jeans that fit correctly but are from Old Navy… so when people look at me they can’t tell that i’m gay. [/quote]

Funny, you don’t look gay.

Stereotyping people is more than racist. It uses gender, class, age and sexual orientation to discriminate against every one of us. And everybody does it, whether they actively show it or not. Sometimes, it comes out in the strangest ways, like “How come when you sing, you sound black, but when you talk, you sound white?”

I just say I’m biracial and leave it alone. Stupidity isn’t a crime, and even idiots shouldn’t be discriminated against.

63

[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
Agent Frost wrote:
hhhmmmm… i wear t-shirts with bands and comic book characters on them, cover myself in tattoos, study things like Krav Maga and ground fighting and boxing, play with swords and guns, have pets snakes, wear a chain wallet and jeans that fit correctly but are from Old Navy… so when people look at me they can’t tell that i’m gay.

Funny, you don’t look gay.

Stereotyping people is more than racist. It uses gender, class, age and sexual orientation to discriminate against every one of us. And everybody does it, whether they actively show it or not. Sometimes, it comes out in the strangest ways, like “How come when you sing, you sound black, but when you talk, you sound white?”

I just say I’m biracial and leave it alone. Stupidity isn’t a crime, and even idiots shouldn’t be discriminated against.
[/quote]

I am guilty of “idiot discrimination”.

64

[quote]Professor X wrote:

You are a slow one, aren’t you?

Let me write in big letters so wittle Headhunter can follow along.

I DON’T DRESS THE SAME AT WORK AS I DO IN MY OWN TIME.

I know, I know, accepting that would put a huge kink in what you are trying to do, wouldn’t it?[/quote]

Very few people DO dress the same for both situations. Whoever said otherwise? How does this have any relevance?

Look, if you want to dress like Barney the Dinosaur, go ahead. All I suggested was that you could undermine what you yourself were lamenting if you broke a stereotype. Wow, what a crime!!! Jeeezzzzz…

65

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Professor X wrote:

You are a slow one, aren’t you?

Let me write in big letters so wittle Headhunter can follow along.

I DON’T DRESS THE SAME AT WORK AS I DO IN MY OWN TIME.

I know, I know, accepting that would put a huge kink in what you are trying to do, wouldn’t it?

Very few people DO dress the same for both situations. Whoever said otherwise? How does this have any relevance?

Look, if you want to dress like Barney the Dinosaur, go ahead. All I suggested was that you could undermine what you yourself were lamenting if you broke a stereotype. Wow, what a crime!!! Jeeezzzzz…

[/quote]

If people are dumb enough to judge me based on skin color, they are dumb enough to judge me on how much muscle I am carrying, how shiny my head is, how I walk, or whether my ears stick out too far.

YOU alone brought up race in this thread as if that was the only arena that stereotypes are borne from. You then had the sickness of mind to then say that I was playing the race card for responding to your own race focused rhetoric.

You have a serious problem if you truly think anything like you portray yourself on these forums.

Instead of worrying about how I dress while riding my motorcycle on the weekends, you should be worried about getting some counseling.

I think you are too old, however, to change your perspective at all.

66

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
Professor X wrote:
<<< Please note, as if I didn’t make this clear before (I DID), that how I dress at work is different than how I dress in my own leisure time. <<<<>>>>

<<< Bullshit. I haven’t joined anyone at all to be considered “American”.
Emphasis mine

Yes you have and wisely so.

Uh, no, I was born American.

I came into this world American, so what point is it that you think you have?[/quote]

The point is all this non conformist “nobody’s tellin me who I have to be” independent thinking goes out the window when the livelihood is on the line. That’s not an insult, truly, but recognition of your good sense and inadvertent proving of the the unavoidable nature of everything I said above.

It’s leg time and I don’t know if I’ll be back in this thread. I never wind up not being sorry I let myself get into these discussions, but I still do once in a while.

I wish we could discuss these types of things in person, but maybe there’s a reason were on opposite ends of the country. (I meant that lightheartedly)

67

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
<<< Well, Prof, its my hope that ASAP we can get rid of any and all excuses for racism. I think that a black man being clean cut and upright, dressing nicely, would help to undermine the stereotypes that many white people have of black people. And sure, I understand that you don’t want to dress or act a certain way for others. Your life belongs to you and the good is to live it.

It is damn near impossible for me to fathom a way that this statement could have been more misunderstood.

What he’s talking about has nothing to do with black or white except in the context of modern western cultures. The underlying principle in this statement is cross culturally and universally applicable in differing superficial forms in all societies of all ages. It is an inextricable component of the human condition and the utter refusal to recognize that is at the heart of the tension between the races in this country especially.

Headhunter can respond now by saying “yyyyyyep, Trib gets it”.

Everybody else will stare at this post thinking “WTF is he talking about?”

Exactly[/quote]

I didn’t misread anything. "I think that a black man being clean cut and upright, dressing nicely " Exactly what did he mean by “upright”. The fact that the reference was to black people and not everyone is racist. Exactly what about making a statement about an individual race and how they should dress and act doesn’t speak of underlying racism.

How about you don’t prevent racism or stereotyping by conforming. By doing that you only cover up the underlying problem. People need to start excepting people for who and what they are. Not who or what they want them to be. I don’t determine how intelligent someone is by the way they dress. I do it by the way they articulate and express their opinion.

68

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
Professor X wrote:
<<< Please note, as if I didn’t make this clear before (I DID), that how I dress at work is different than how I dress in my own leisure time. <<<<>>>>

<<< Bullshit. I haven’t joined anyone at all to be considered “American”.
Emphasis mine

Yes you have and wisely so.

Uh, no, I was born American.

I came into this world American, so what point is it that you think you have?

The point is all this non conformist “nobody’s tellin me who I have to be” independent thinking goes out the window when the livelihood is on the line. That’s not an insult, truly, but recognition of your good sense and inadvertent proving of the the unavoidable nature of everything I said above.

It’s leg time and I don’t know if I’ll be back in this thread. I never wind up not being sorry I let myself get into these discussions, but I still do once in a while.

I wish we could discuss these types of things in person, but maybe there’s a reason were on opposite ends of the country. (I meant that lightheartedly)[/quote]

I am non-conformist, but I am also not an idiot. I know that to make MONEY in a career that involves dealing with PEOPLE up close and personal with a huge dose of PSYCHOLOGY, that to do my job well, I have to get in their heads very quickly.

Just because I recognize and know how to play the game doesn’t mean I agree with it or that I am going to act the same the moment I leave work.

I am also ex-military. I know how to dress in a professional setting. That professional setting is not my entire life and does not include a loss of who I am to interact with it.

I can fit into many settings. That doesn’t make me “conformist”. If anything, it makes me “chameleon”…giving me the option of changing right back as soon as that last chart is signed.

69

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
streamline wrote:

Your profile says you have been training for thirty eight years. I has just wondering if that was in weight training or training to become a total racist asshole. I think you should word your posts in the first person.

You’re a hillbilly from the B.C.? End of argument.

In case you don’t get it, bugwit, that’s a stereotype.

[/quote]
Wrong! I live in B.C. I’m from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.

70

[quote]streamline wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
streamline wrote:

Your profile says you have been training for thirty eight years. I has just wondering if that was in weight training or training to become a total racist asshole. I think you should word your posts in the first person.

You’re a hillbilly from the B.C.? End of argument.

In case you don’t get it, bugwit, that’s a stereotype.

Wrong! I live in B.C. I’m from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.
[/quote]

We all know there ain’t no hillbillies in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England. Another stereotype shattered! We’re doing so well!

71

[quote]Tiribulus wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
<<< Well, Prof, its my hope that ASAP we can get rid of any and all excuses for racism. I think that a black man being clean cut and upright, dressing nicely, would help to undermine the stereotypes that many white people have of black people. And sure, I understand that you don’t want to dress or act a certain way for others. Your life belongs to you and the good is to live it.

It is damn near impossible for me to fathom a way that this statement could have been more misunderstood.

What he’s talking about has nothing to do with black or white except in the context of modern western cultures. The underlying principle in this statement is cross culturally and universally applicable in differing superficial forms in all societies of all ages. It is an inextricable component of the human condition and the utter refusal to recognize that is at the heart of the tension between the races in this country especially.

Headhunter can respond now by saying “yyyyyyep, Trib gets it”.

Everybody else will stare at this post thinking “WTF is he talking about?”

Exactly[/quote]

I’d agree with you. My brother in law is African American. he is also a CFO for a major company. He dresses in typical corporate wear.
When he was in the Bush administration, he wore typical government wear. This would be typical corporate dress again.

And before that he was a corporate officer, and before that he was a Naval Academy professor. now do you think he is looked at differently by everyone than a what ever the common street fashion is?

Of course he is. When he was on TV speaking on half of the Veteran’s Administration, he couldn’t wear a sideways ball cap and a FUBU sweatshirt. It’s shirt and tie and suit.

Now in his personal life he’s just as conservative. He wears jeans at times, khakis, and golf or polo shirts.

Now I’m not saying any style of dress is wrong on your private time, but you must admit a certain style of dress will elicit a different response from most compared to what the latest fashion trend happens to be.

72

[quote]streamline wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
streamline wrote:

Your profile says you have been training for thirty eight years. I has just wondering if that was in weight training or training to become a total racist asshole. I think you should word your posts in the first person.

You’re a hillbilly from the B.C.? End of argument.

In case you don’t get it, bugwit, that’s a stereotype.

Wrong! I live in B.C. I’m from Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.
[/quote]

BS. I can recognize one of you Lincolnshire hillbillies a mile away, even in writing. Its a stereotype.

73

[quote]tom63 wrote:
.

Now I’m not saying any style of dress is wrong on your private time, but you must admit a certain style of dress will elicit a different response from most compared to what the latest fashion trend happens to be.

[/quote]

Very true, and my point.

The way to break stereotypes, and hopefully someday racism, is to provide counterexamples to people with latent racism. This is what I suggested to the good Prof and suddenly I’m Bull Conner. Wierd, huh?

74

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Professor X wrote:

You are a slow one, aren’t you?

Let me write in big letters so wittle Headhunter can follow along.

I DON’T DRESS THE SAME AT WORK AS I DO IN MY OWN TIME.

I know, I know, accepting that would put a huge kink in what you are trying to do, wouldn’t it?

Very few people DO dress the same for both situations. Whoever said otherwise? How does this have any relevance?

Look, if you want to dress like Barney the Dinosaur, go ahead. All I suggested was that you could undermine what you yourself were lamenting if you broke a stereotype. Wow, what a crime!!! Jeeezzzzz…

If people are dumb enough to judge me based on skin color, they are dumb enough to judge me on how much muscle I am carrying, how shiny my head is, how I walk, or whether my ears stick out too far.

YOU alone brought up race in this thread as if that was the only arena that stereotypes are borne from. You then had the sickness of mind to then say that I was playing the race card for responding to your own race focused rhetoric.

You have a serious problem if you truly think anything like you portray yourself on these forums.

Instead of worrying about how I dress while riding my motorcycle on the weekends, you should be worried about getting some counseling.

I think you are too old, however, to change your perspective at all. [/quote]

In your first response to me, you didn’t even bring up the fact that I had mentioned that you are black. Now, you are ranting how I need counseling for mentioning it. Where was your paranoid rage before, Doc? You’re using race as a weapon. My mentioning race is NOT ‘playing the race card.’ Yours is.

Long day at work, huh? Had to resort to that. Paranoid personalities often set up little defense mechanisms like that. Interesting.

75

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Tiribulus wrote:
Professor X wrote:
<<< Please note, as if I didn’t make this clear before (I DID), that how I dress at work is different than how I dress in my own leisure time. <<<<>>>>

<<< Bullshit. I haven’t joined anyone at all to be considered “American”.
Emphasis mine

Yes you have and wisely so.

Uh, no, I was born American.

I came into this world American, so what point is it that you think you have?

The point is all this non conformist “nobody’s tellin me who I have to be” independent thinking goes out the window when the livelihood is on the line. That’s not an insult, truly, but recognition of your good sense and inadvertent proving of the the unavoidable nature of everything I said above.

It’s leg time and I don’t know if I’ll be back in this thread. I never wind up not being sorry I let myself get into these discussions, but I still do once in a while.

I wish we could discuss these types of things in person, but maybe there’s a reason were on opposite ends of the country. (I meant that lightheartedly)

I am non-conformist, but I am also not an idiot. I know that to make MONEY in a career that involves dealing with PEOPLE up close and personal with a huge dose of PSYCHOLOGY, that to do my job well, I have to get in their heads very quickly.

Just because I recognize and know how to play the game doesn’t mean I agree with it or that I am going to act the same the moment I leave work.

I am also ex-military. I know how to dress in a professional setting. That professional setting is not my entire life and does not include a loss of who I am to interact with it.

I can fit into many settings. That doesn’t make me “conformist”. If anything, it makes me “chameleon”…giving me the option of changing right back as soon as that last chart is signed.[/quote]

My vision of the best possible American society as far as race is concerned is one born without slavery and in which blacks were voluntary LEGAL immigrants like everybody else. Or even better in which they were just equal members of this society from day one. We would no doubt have had a couple black presidents by now and a fraction of the bullshit this country has endured.

Not having figured out how to travel back in time and make that a reality the very best anybody can hope for is for the majority of modern white Americans to view the majority of modern black Americans as their qualitative equals.

Spend one day in Detroit brother (you don’t mind if I sincerely call you brother do you?) and even you may have an easier time understanding why that vision does not mature more rapidly than it does.

76

[quote]Headhunter wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Headhunter wrote:
Professor X wrote:

You are a slow one, aren’t you?

Let me write in big letters so wittle Headhunter can follow along.

I DON’T DRESS THE SAME AT WORK AS I DO IN MY OWN TIME.

I know, I know, accepting that would put a huge kink in what you are trying to do, wouldn’t it?

Very few people DO dress the same for both situations. Whoever said otherwise? How does this have any relevance?

Look, if you want to dress like Barney the Dinosaur, go ahead. All I suggested was that you could undermine what you yourself were lamenting if you broke a stereotype. Wow, what a crime!!! Jeeezzzzz…

If people are dumb enough to judge me based on skin color, they are dumb enough to judge me on how much muscle I am carrying, how shiny my head is, how I walk, or whether my ears stick out too far.

YOU alone brought up race in this thread as if that was the only arena that stereotypes are borne from. You then had the sickness of mind to then say that I was playing the race card for responding to your own race focused rhetoric.

You have a serious problem if you truly think anything like you portray yourself on these forums.

Instead of worrying about how I dress while riding my motorcycle on the weekends, you should be worried about getting some counseling.

I think you are too old, however, to change your perspective at all.

In your first response to me, you didn’t even bring up the fact that I had mentioned that you are black. Now, you are ranting how I need counseling for mentioning it. Where was your paranoid rage before, Doc? You’re using race as a weapon. My mentioning race is NOT ‘playing the race card.’ Yours is.

Long day at work, huh? Had to resort to that. Paranoid personalities often set up little defense mechanisms like that. Interesting.

[/quote]

You wrote that I am “dressing thug”. You centered this discussion around “many white people” and “black people”. I asked you how you came to the conclusion that I am “dressing thug”. How is it playing the race card by asking if you based this on me being black?

You are the one who made this entire issue about race. Asking why you have come to those conclusions is “playing the race card”?

The only thing interesting is that anyone actually believes you aren’t playing games here.

This will, by the way, be my last post to you in this thread.

You are one sick human being. I have no doubt your personal life is pure “paradise”.

77

Headhunter’s mistake is in thinking a black man has or should have some kind of social responsibility to act or dress in a certain way as part of a concerted effort to dispel sterotypes. Instead of just living life. It’s fine if individuals want to do this, and it’s fine for individuals to be concerned with first impressions based on appearance. It’s fine for them not to be. Failure to recognize this and place some kind of additional responsibility on minorities because of general sterotypes speaks of latent, indelible racism. Breaking stereotypes is fine. It’s good. But it’s not someone’s ‘job’ to tailor their actions to break stereotypes just beause they are a minority.

78

Headhunter’s mistake is posting.

HH, shouldn’t you be out buying vibrators for your daughter?

79

I don’t consider how people dress as a race issue, more a conservative to less conservative issue. The more from whatever the norm is, the better chance people like look at you funny.

I don’t see the big deal about a leather jacket, shaved head, or even earrings. I don’t like earrings, but whatever. I do have a problem with pink hair, white hippies with dreads, tattoos on your neck, guys wearing girl pants and some of that stuff.

These are the kinds of things that keeps you working were you have to ask if they want fries with every order.

Around here in small town Pa., people dress close to the same. I know of successful people who rides motorcycles that have all the gear, and it doesn’t really elicit a response of any kind.

Guys with earrings can be found in the professional to blue collar workers. I did notice that some professionals will take out earrings at work, but whatever.

Personally, I would worry more about how I present myself attitude wise and do I have a chip on my shoulder, as opposed to my dress. a smile and a pleasant demeanor will go a long way in getting along with people. if you’re walking around quick to take offense all the time, people will look at you a different way than a more pleasant approach.

Guys that lift weights and are pretty big have to take a hard look at themselves and see if they try to use their size at times to intimidate someone. And I don’t mean outright threats, just posture and attitude of I’m a big guy. If you want to appear to be scary, people will look at you that way.

A smile on the face and a sunny demeanor, and people think you’re a nice friendly guy.

Or as most think, my attitude and demeanor have no affect on how people interact with me, but their’s definitely affects me.

80

[quote]jsbrook wrote:
Headhunter’s mistake is in thinking a black man has or should have some kind of social responsibility to act or dress in a certain way as part of a concerted effort to dispel sterotypes. Instead of just living life. It’s fine if individuals want to do this, and it’s fine for individuals to be concerned with first impressions based on appearance. It’s fine for them not to be. Failure to recognize this and place some kind of additional responsibility on minorities because of general sterotypes speaks of latent, indelible racism. Breaking stereotypes is fine. It’s good. But it’s not someone’s ‘job’ to tailor their actions to break stereotypes just beause they are a minority.[/quote]

Never said it was. Read my posts.