Stereotypes’ Paradise

Being middle-aged, I am relatively level headed. I am not an easy person to excite or anger. I am at that age when I have experienced a lot of good and bad things to know that anything is possible. I also still feel quite young and energetic and know that I have a few opportunities left to fix what I broke in my youth; and also achieve quite a few dreams that I had almost given up on.

Many descriptions and memes have been released on what it means to be middle-aged. However, my favourite one is; “Middle age is the time when your narrow waist and broad mind begin to change places”. I believed this when the pounds started piling onto my mid-section. I also realised that I could not easily agree with those younger than me on most issues. This is the time I decided to make a conscious effort to reverse the negative effects of middle age on me.

Stereotypes

The dictionary defines a stereotype as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. I have to admit that I held many stereotypes until middle age happened on me. I stopped stereotyping people on the strict condition that they also don’t stereotype me. Because of my strong beliefs against it, stereotyping has remained one of the few things that get me really worked up. I have observed several common stereotypes which make all of us live our lives at half mast because of drawing our attention to things for which have little control over.

Men

I am a man but that in itself is not an achievement. Many men may do detestable things like mistreating and disrespecting women but that does not mean that they do it on behalf of all men. It also does not mean that I, or any other man for that matter, approve of what they do. I got worked up a few days ago when a lady I respect immensely attempted to pass the blame to all men folk for the mistreatment of women in Nairobi. She seemed to imply that unless all men reform, then the few who respect their women might as well stop and wait for their errant brothers to change.

Women

Thanks to the effort of feminists, the stereotyping of women is minimal. It is rare to hear of anyone accuse all women of being prostitutes because he knows of one or two who are. This however does not mean that women are not stereotyped. If anything, it is even more so especially when it comes to high achieving women. It is not uncommon to hear it being said of a woman who has gone up the ladder career-wise, or has attained any level of financial independence being accused of having a ‘sponsor’ (ostensibly a middle or old aged man of means).

The Rich

In line with well-off women being suspected of having sponsors, a lot of people believe that the only way to be rich in this country is by being corrupt. Granted, many people have grown filthy rich overnight by becoming ‘tenderpreneurs’. This however does not mean that one cannot grow rich through legitimate means. It is therefore unfortunate that if you are rich in this country, you will be considered to be just another clever thief.

The Poor

There is a popular belief that poor people are in their current status because they are lazy. It is common to hear some people talking of say, a beggar in town. They would say that if it was them, they would go find a job instead of begging. Many of us took opportunity for granted until the viral video of the street boy who talked about the lack of opportunities for many. As tempting as it is to assume so, I don’t think anybody is poor by choice.

Tribe

It might appear as if the Layman is addicted to talking about tribalism. I know I write about it every other week as if there is nothing else to talk about. In my view, one of the worst cancers afflicting our country is tribal stereotyping. It is what would cause a person to either be denied due credit for an achievement, or be undeservedly praised purely based on the tribe he comes from. None of us chooses what tribe to be born in. Tribe in itself is not a merit for anything and should be used for nothing more than as a naming platform.

Race

We grew up being told about the intellectual superiority of white people. It was (and still is among many) a privilege to interact with a mzungu (white person). On the flipside, this belief has given rise to another one of concluding that black people are an underdeveloped species.

I could go on and on about many other stereotypes but am sure you can so far catch my drift. Why don’t we do the intelligent thing and just say no to all forms of stereotypes and instead, judge people as individuals. If we do that, we will have gone a long way in dealing with those issues that drag us back. Just think about it.