"Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter."

Many people talk about how it's wrong to stereotype others, but they may not realize they do it every single day. Just walking down the halls, it becomes easier to judge someone by what they look like, their clothes, or who they hang out with. Everybody knows that they do it. This past week, we welcomed an incredible speaker Dr. Mykee Fowlin, to speak to us about how it feels to be that person who is mistreated every day. His presentation touched every person in our auditorium with his powerful words. He mentioned how easy it is to stereotype a person based on their outside appearance, but you never truly know the struggles a person is going through.

 In the literature we read this week, Anne Bradstreet displays how Puritan women can show deep emotions, too. Even though Puritan women are not supposed to reveal their feelings about their husbands, Bradstreet awes everyone by writing To My Dear and Loving Husband. It shows how people shouldn't be scared to breakout of their stereotypes because it can lead to a greater success.

Dr. Fowling also taught us not to judge others and that nobody should be afraid to show who they truly are. The realization of the harmful effects that stereotyping can have, reminded me of a scene from the movie Mean Girls. After judging and gossiping about almost every single person at her school, Cady finally came to a conclusion as she met Caroline Krafft. She thought, "Miss Caroline Krafft seriously needed to pluck her eyebrows. Her outfit looked like it was picked out by a blind Sunday school teacher. And she had some 99 cent lip gloss on her snaggletooth. And that's when I realized, making fun of Caroline Krafft wouldn't stop her from beating me in this contest. Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone stupid doesn't make you any smarter." Stereotyping will not add any positive qualities to yourself to make you a better person. All it does is destroy a person's self esteem. When people make the effort to be nicer, it can remove the badness from their hearts, too.

The Hardships of Native Americans

The life of Native Americans was never easy, each tribe or community had to face their own struggles and battles each day. There are many stories and myths that portray the hardships that  Native Americans had to go through. In, "Indian Education," Sherman Alexie describes all of the abuse he had to deal with when he was just a young boy. He explains much about how he was stereotyped by other students and even teachers just because of his race. One teacher mentioned to him, ""Hey," He said. "What's that boy been drinking? I know all about these Indian kids. They start drinking real young"" (178). Just because Alexie is a Native American he is expected to already be drinking and to be a bad kid, though that is not true. Stereotyping and  bullying of any human being will sadly remain with them for a lifetime. No kid should ever be hurt, mentally or physically. Alexie writes, "They pushed me down, buried me in the snow until I couldn't breathe, and thought I'd never breathe again" (171). It is incredible how mean kids can be to one another. Bullying does not stop with Native Americans though, it can relate to everyone in one way or another. Phoebe Prince, committed suicide from the continuous harassment of her classmates. Nobody should ever torment another individual because you never know what struggles they're going through. Native Americans have been forced away from their land and looked down upon, but they never give up. Their life style and culture is so utterly unique and fascinating that each one of them should be extremely proud of where they came from.

I can blog now! Yay!