We have all judged someone walking down the street by the clothes they were wearing, or for the conversations they were having. I can honestly tell you I have done the same. When I see a homeless man approaching me, who also begins to speak to me, I immediately feel uncomfortable and try to walk by as quick as possible while my mind goes through the million things that could have happened. Recently, I have begun to challenge these thoughts though, and I hope you do the same.
The other night, I was walking around downtown with a couple friends when we wanted to go down this rather dark street. Our final destination was at the end of the street, which was maybe only a 5-minute walk. Well, between us and the destination were people on motorcycles that scared me immediately upon sight. Even though we were a mixture of girl and guys, we paid to Uber down the street for $8, rather than walk 0.1 miles past these guys. Looking back at it, it was completely unnecessary and we were wrong to judge them. They were on the other side of the road, just talking to each other and laughing, probably having a great time and seeing old friends. Yet because they had the scary biker look to them, we immediately froze and became scared that something could happen if we walked down the opposite side of the street from them.
Everyone gets stereotyped in this way though, and they do it themselves self-consciously. When you see the girl walking down the street in Gucci clothes and a Louis Vuitton bag you may immediately think she is stuck up, and probably treats everyone rudely. What you don’t know is that she has had a rough past, but managed to bloom from the darkness and create her own business. You’ll see a guy wearing a beanie, who has massive gauges in his ears and tattoos that cover his whole body. The first thing you do is move your kids away from him because he seems dangerous and scary. The truth is he is a volunteer at hospitals and may have been the sweetest guy you would’ve ever met.
We have to stop these judgemental thoughts in their track. If we do this, we could meet so many more people, and also stop so many problems that we have in this world. While I know these thoughts will still come up, and sometimes they will sneak by, I encourage everyone to try and stop themselves and think, “Why am I thinking this?” For all the people in the past who I may have judged this way, I want to say I apologize, and I hope you join me in challenging these thoughts. Together we can become a better society.