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Good Morning East Tennessee!

Why do people feel the need to group human beings together and make blanket, stereotypical statements? Is it ignorance? Justification? Laziness? Is it a storehouse for their own internal anger and unhappiness … need to be in a self-appointed group? Is it all of the above?

We're constantly trying to make sense of a world that's too confusing to understand with the current limitations of the human mind. It's easier to say… "All women are…" "All men are…" All black people are…" "All Asians are…" "All homeless people are…" With that we can move on to less dramatic, trivial nonsense within our own lives. At the same time we can make sense of our own arrogance and ignorance while labeling ourselves "better."

I'm going to keep saying it until the world is sick of hearing me but only because I keep running into it: Group any 3 or more people together, make a blanket statement and you can be sure, you're being ignorant.

What bothers me most about this issue isn't one person's ignorance - it's that it's reinforced by many people. A person can hate any one group of people and sit around in common, constant reinforcement. This group of people then goes about destructing all the pain and work that people have given and sacrificed to/for the world.

One renter doesn't pay their rent and suddenly all renters are irresponsible. One male cheats on his wife and suddenly all men are pigs. Again - it's not the single self-righteous person in the mirror that I'm concerned with. It's that destructive "group mentality." With the group it continues to gather steam and blossom into hatred and the lack of acceptance for anyone who isn't exactly like them.

We're different. In most cases we had absolutely no choice in our differences. You didn't get to choose what country you were born into nor what skin color or sex, nor whether your parents would be wealthy or poor.

Have a great day!

Published March 3, 2011