Isn’t it true to say that we automatically assume the worst of people?
Most people judge others – that’s a fact.
They judge strictly upon their own standards and experiences – again, a fact.
People hate in others what they hate within themselves – another fact.
I’m under no illusion, that in order to succeed here, I first have to have my fair share of haters. I actually welcome it…for without argument, without judgement, there is no debate.
I’ve often been judged by others, I accept it, after all it is par for the course of “life”. I’ve seen and heard the judgements: “she’s weird because she’s a writer.” and “oh…a poet? that means she’s a freak!” I spent many years willing and hoping that I would be accepted by my peers for what I do and more so, for who I am…yet I, like many many others, am guilty of pride-polishing the ideal and not the reality. I accept me and that should be all that matters.
After many years of being invisible, I finally have the gift of VOICE and I have every intention of using it to its full potential, hopefully to improve the lives of others, even if that means I have to have scorn thrown at me.
So I ask: Why do we believe we have the right to judge others? Is it because we are insecure of selves? Do we feel inferior to every person we ever encounter? Does being “different” scare us? And if so, why? Shouldn’t we focus instead on becoming better people instead of trying to make someone else seem inferior to ourselves?
We judge a man for the colour of his skin, for his religion, for his fashion sense, for his education, for his weight, for his wage. We place man within a “class” system according to his materialistic worth and worst of all, we stereotype everything and everyone.
I am a widowed white single mother to 3 mixed race children, a poet, an author, a home renter. I pay my tax and abide by the law…yet general consensus states (I have heard it with my own ears) that I am “a shriveled up old prostitute whose black pimp has dumped her for a younger model and now she sponges off the state”.
I personally care not for the labels others choose to stick along my brow…yet so many peoples lives are dictated by stereotype and for them, it has devastating and often catastrophic effects.
Maybe I am stupid…or maybe you just hope I am. Tell me, why is our society so hellbent on shaping everybody and everything into categories deemed as “acceptable to the masses”?
Who are we to judge anyone? And what then gives us the right to punish others for our assumptions?