Unmasking stereotypes ...

What happens when folks don't fit the mold

What's your stereotypical image of a woman, a man, a college student, an octogenarian, someone black, someone white, someone who smokes? An even more unnerving question: how do you think others stereotype you? Wouldn't it be refreshing not to pre-judge our neighbors? Imagine the doors that would open if we met one another not only free of preconceptions, but certain of our kinship—thanks to God, our common Father-Mother.

In the next pages, you'll see what a difference it makes to drop sterotyped impressions and find the real man and woman of God's creating.

During college, I got a job over the Christmas break working at a department store. The manager of the department to which I was assigned took a dislike to me, and I to him. One day when I came home from work, I told a close family friend that he disliked me because I was white and he was black. I also thought he was jealous that I was going to school at a private college. He on the other hand was working full time and going to a local college.

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... So where do stereotypes come from?
February 1, 1999
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