Equally Ever After

This week in class we discussed Brent Staples' piece, "Black Men and Public Space". I felt that our class had a good discussion about how boys and girls act in public versus private spaces, which can be related to how Staples writes about how races, specifically blacks, have to change their actions in public. In Staples' piece he provides personal accounts about how he has to change his behavior in public to be  slightly more accepted by the social norm. For example, Staples has to "whistle melodies form Beethoven and Vivaldi" to reduce the tension he brings to the streets while on his evening strolls (Staples 207). The author has to change himself in order to make sure other people will be be more comfortable around him. He has to prove that he is not aggressive or a thug, which is a stereotype commonly associated to African Americans. This all leads to my next point that stereotypes are a major reason why many people act differently in different situations.

Preconceived ideas that people have about different races or genders influence their behaviors. For example girls have been taught since a young age that they are supposed to be polite and proper, so in public girls usually won't burp or fart or even blow their noses very loudly in fear of others, especially boys, thinking they are repulsive or undesirable. On the other hand, when girls are around their close friends, family, or by themselves they, contrary to popular belief, fart, burp, pick their noses, and what not (Yes we poo too, in case you're wondering). Likewise, boys have to keep up their macho facades in public, whether it be burp-offs, or bragging about work outs, when in private they might really have a sweet sensitive side. Also, maybe, just maybe, at home they like to blast Britney Spears really loudly and dance around their rooms, at least thats what i like to think. Moving on to races and cultures, a lot of cultures are stereotyped in one way or another. Often times, people like to try to break away from the labels that have been slapped onto them, which in turn causes them to conform towards societies' social norm. For instance, some Asians don't want to come off as too smart so people won't expect every single one of us to be the next Confucius. Blacks may not want to come off as too aggressive because they don't want people to associate them to some of the negative stereotypes of Black people.

There is no solution to stereotypes or racism yet, but people are trying. I like to think of hipsters as an example of people's efforts to bring stereotyping to an end. Hipsters, according to Urban Dictionary, are people who "reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers". Although it is a conscientious effort to break away from "mainstream" people, eventually most people will cross over to the "hipster side" and it will become the norm, then new hipsters will form, and it all leads to a never ending cycle of conformity. Hopefully one day the cycle can be broken and we can all live equally ever after.