Stereotypes and Colonial Lit

Magnified with the instant internet connection we have today, mass media has thrown countless inaccurate stereotypes into our database for life. The quiet, African- American kid in the back of the room? He's obviously a drug dealing gangster. The girl who wears a shirt two sizes too tight and shorts two inches too short? She definitely is blonde. Stereotypes reaches farther beyond entertainment and into how we interact with others.

However, the concept of stereotypes isn't modern. Anne Bradstreet was supposed to be a timid writer of Christian poetry with no passion for anything or anyone, but God. Her expression to her spouse in To My Dear and Loving Husband shocked her society and caused her to be put in disgrace- even though her works were wonderfully pieced and still read today. The Native American's William Bradford describes are merely "savage". Though they helped his colony through the harsh winters and offered food, they were viewed like animals. In addition to these writers, Olaudah Equiano coined the hypocrisy of the the white, Christian man during his captivity on a slave ship. These three great writers broke, created, or recognized stereotypes, but they weren't the only ones.

After an assembly with Mykee Fowlin, many students were forced to reevaluate how they viewed others. Except for the 5% of the student body who views everything with rose-colored vision, most noticed the walls they put between themselves and those they stereotyped. Though most won't admit it, everyone has certain degrees of racism, sexism, and agism. Currently not a historical event, maybe in the future everyone can recall the time teenagers across the United States surpassed expectations of being careless party animals and became a generation of open acceptance and reformers of social acceptances. Wouldn't it be great if everyone stopped assuming "facts" about each other and shared his life and ideas instead?