The Sum of 'Some'

Wuddup y'all, sorry for the lengthy delay, I've been busy learning how to be responsible. I'm an RA this year at St Mike's, and I'll be looking out for 22 freshman.

We started off RA Training by watching the video of Nigerian author Chimamanda Adichie describing her life and her work and how it all interacts with the way she views her life. Numerous things stood out to me, but none more striking than her description of stereotypes not as wrong but merely as "incomplete." In my experience it's never been that stereotypes are totally wrong, as most people can attest to the fact that most are in fact grounded in some nugget of truth, but they only tell one single story. 

And so I've arrived at the center of my thesis, and in an unnaturally brief amount of time, especially for me. The defeat of discrimination comes not at the hands of civil rights activists or in legal protection. The defeat of discriminatory statements lies merely in the acknowledgement of stereotypes as only allowing one particular portion to tell their story, or the root of all unfairness.


So try this on for size. The next time you find yourself judging a person, based on whatever characteristic you may so choose, take a step back for a second and bask in the awesome power of a single four-letter word. That word is 'some.' The use of 'some' denotes an ability to see past the single story of a person or group of people and to acknowledge that any particular group you may so choose can not be viewed as simply a group made up of commonalities, but instead a group made up of many and varied differences. For instance, not all Africans are destitute survivors of a genocide, merely some. Not all white people dress like preppy A&F models, merely some. Not all African-Americans enjoy fried chicken, merely some. And indeed, not all college kids are interested in getting hammered before a big dance, merely some. But not this one. Peace.