This past Saturday my friend and I were at the bank standing in line. I needed to cash a check and she just needed change. The line was really outrageous and she didn't want to wait. So she said, "I guess I have to wait in this line, I would ask someone in line for change but they don't look like they have any money." I said to her, "wow isn't that a stereotype." The people in the line were all Mexican except us. I thought it was really ironic that she would assume that these people had no money yet they were standing in the bank. After I made my comment, I just merely changed the subject without going into further detail at that time. I was personally offended that my friend could make such a stupid statement that was clearly contradictory to the situation.
I think the fact that I didn't dwell on the statement at the time, prevented it from turning into a heated conversation at the bank. However I did later address the issue after we left the bank. I said to my friend, "How can you assume those people didn't have any money, and they were at the bank?" Her response was, "what they didn't look like they had any money?" She said it so nonchalantly, like she didn't even get the point that I was trying to make. That kind of made me realize that I myself also stereotype people. Although I kind of realized it when we watched the Oprah Winfrey special on racism and stereotypes. I was still kind of in denial, however after that conversation at the bank when I was ready to throw stones at my friend. It was a little voice inside that said do you make the same comments about other groups and I do. I find myself to quite often make stereotypes about white, Hispanic, and African people. However I justified my comments with statements such as, "well they think there better than us, or they've treated us horrible for centuries", and "they don't like us anyway." I now realize that it is not right regardless and the conversation that we had at the bank made me realize that.
