Simmermon: Negative comments on story perpetuate false stereotype
Stereotyping. In American culture, it’s inevitable.
Friday, March 14th, 2008
A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about lyrics that degrade women. I wrote about how rap and hip-hop genres had become increasingly bad culprits in producing these lyrics.
In response I got two very intriguing, but not surprising, remarks from readers.
One said I was a racist, and the other said I was just another rich, white girl form Johnson County who didn’t like rap music.
Those are two pretty good stereotypes I’d say.
Bravo, whoever you are. However, you’re wrong, and my column makes me more of a feminist than a racist.
I know how easy it is to get those -isms mixed up (hope you’re catching my sarcasm here cause I am laying it on pretty thick).
Calling people who scrutinize rap music “racist” is absolutely ridiculous.
As it says at the end of my column I am from Leawood, and that is in Johnson County.
Clearly, this person got an “A” in geography, congrats!
But it doesn’t say that I lived the first half of my life being raised by a single mother in a duplex in Kansas City, Mo. Guess that would have been a little long-winded to add onto the end.
Thanks to a wonderful stepdad who took on two kids and dog when he married my mother and also put everything he had earned in his 36 years of life into buying us a house in Leawood so we could go to good public schools, I am able to say that my parents are Leawood residents.
Even though a number of Johnson County residents are extremely privileged and, at times, haughty, not all of us are like that.
I’ve known people who tell me they feel ashamed even getting into a car with a “JO” tag on the license plate, and I am a person that ate hot dogs and macaroni every night growing up. That amazes me.
I remember payday growing up. I remember what it meant and the sense of relief in the house when that day came.
I don’t drive a hummer. I drive a decade-old Saab that I bought from Autotrader.
I paid for it with my own money, thanks to a lot of putting clothes on hangers and waiting tables. Glamorous, I know.
Lastly, I do like hip-hop music. In fact, I love hip-hop music.
Erykah Badu is my idol, and I can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen J5 and Blackilicious in concert. Gift-of-gab is one of the most talented rappers of our time, and he raps without degrading or objectifying women.
Stereotyping. In American culture, it’s inevitable. Passing judgement about someone without knowing them is second nature for most.
But what if you’re wrong?
It’s nearly impossible to know a book by it’s cover, so making those assumptions makes one appear petty and ignorant.
Before you pretend to know everything about someone, their preferences, their struggles, their beliefs and principles, why don’t you take care of your own prejudices first?
Fighting stereotypes with ignorance isn’t going to get anybody anywhere. It just fuels the fire of intolerance.
Simmermon is a Leawood senior in journalism.
Discussion
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This is the best piece you've written so far. Keep up the good work, fellow Johnson Countian.
Well done Ms. Simmermon. As a gay black student from rural Kansas who considers himself a feminist, I know a good thing or two about stereotypes and tired arguments (reverse discrimination, anyone?) in this great state. Way to keep things in perspective while avoiding flight into a wrathful missive.
Bravo Miss. Simmermon.
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