You're Fired!

Stereotyping is something that occurs not just in the United States, but all over the world.  It is inescapable because the fact is that there are all different kinds of people in the world, and the topic cannot be covered up or ignored.  There are definitely negative and positive stereotypes, but when people hear the word they usually make a negative connection.  Each and everyone of us can definitely find a group that we belong to that is associated with a certain stereotype.  If you think about it, if you list different kinds of attributes and associations of stereotypes made with your particular group, you can surely find a great amount that are untrue.  This is a perfect way to start realizing that the unintentional connections and stereotypes you might be making about other people.  You cannot just look at one person and associate a whole group of people to be like that one individual.  
Moving to Chicago from a country where most people share the same religion, are the same race, share a common culture, definitely opened up my eyes to the different kinds of people in the world.  The fact that I got to spend time with people of different ethnicities, cultures, countries, races, lifestyles, made me realize that we are really all not that different from one another.   I made this discovery at an early age, but there are still people around the world who are hardheaded and believe in all stereotypes.  A Fox/NPR reporter Juan Williams of 10+ years was fired last year when he made a comment on the show Bill O'Riley when he said "I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."  
Even people who are highly educated still have these embedded stereotypes, in this case, Williams associated terrorists to everyone who wears a garb is probably planning something evil.  It is an ignorant way to think and there are many people around the world that still think this way.  We have to treat everyone as individuals and step outside that box of grouping people together.