Representing your people

You probably heard of a stereotype people have about your community. This community can be a race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and other things. Living in a multicultural city with people from all around the world has made me realize how many identities we all have. Every person represents different groups, whether we like it or not. You represent humans to other species (unless you are not human and somehow manage to read this), you represent your race, you represent your religion, your gender, your occupation, you get the gist of it. In addition, keep in mind that all the other people represent you as much as you represent them. It may feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be, as long as you are a decent person. Let me give you a scenario that will hopefully explain what I am trying to get at.

Let’s say a Muslim African American, Jamal, visits Okinawa, Japan for a vacation. It is safe to say a town like this doesn’t have enough interactions with either muslims or African Americans. Jamal could easily be identified as a Muslim because of his attire, and can also be identified as a black person because of his skin colour. While Jamal was walking around Okinawa, he enters a convenience store and gets into an altercation with the store owner for whatever reason. Other residents look at this incident and associate trouble with anybody that looks like Jamal. A month later, a Rwandan, Emmanuel goes to Okinawa in hope of a good time. Coincidentally, he enters the same convenience store. Once the store owner sees Emmanuel, a person with a similar skin colour to Jamal, he becomes more defensive. He is stereotyping. Now, let’s do another time skip. This time Abdullah, a Muslim Syrian goes to Okinawa. Abdullah and Jamal don’t share any similar physical qualities, however, they wear similar attire since they are both Muslim. Abdullah enters the convenience store and the store owner is once again defensive the moment he sees Abdullah’s attire. This is a classic case of stereotyping. Notice how Jamal indirectly represented two people (Emmanuel and Abdullah) that don’t have a lot of similarities, identity wise. Jamal represented people with darker skin tone and Muslims at the same time.

This concept is not new. Stereotyping is obviously wrong, however, it is unavoidable. It happens everywhere around us. Now, if you include that with the fact that a person represents more than one group of people, the whole thing starts to feel overwhelming. However, it doesn’t have to be. Because, just as there are people ruining the image of your community, there are people that fix it. Strangers perspective of your community is constantly changing in the background based on the actions and reactions of your community. And guess what? That includes you. If Jamal provided a pleasant experience with the store owner in Okinawa, Emmanuel and Abdullah would’ve probably been treated a little bit better. Your actions can indirectly make the lives of your people easier or harder. To some, all of this might sound pointless, but there is a point to be made.

Having this idea of representation in mind can be either stressful or motivational, depending on how you see it. Personally, it motivates me to be a better person. It makes the idea of “making the world a better place” feel more attainable to me. Knowing that if I act as a decent person, I am bettering the image of people that look like me. I am removing the negative stereotypes and replacing them with positive stereotypes. Therefore, giving my people a chance to demonstrate their own goodness since they will have less factors negatively influencing their lives. In addition, if someone from across the globe is ruining my image because of their actions, my response is to simply continue being a decent person instead of shouting to people “not all whateveranians are bad”. Bottom line, be a good person because your action effect other people.