Humans witness prejudice and preconceptions about people everyday. I want to expose some of these preconceptions of which many aren’t aware. These might seem silly or a nonissue to some, but I feel they need to be brought to light.
First, most male preachers preach to men. Why else do we have endless sports metaphors? Sure, there are a lot of women into sports, but who really thinks a football analogy is going to speak to the general public spiritually?
I’m not saying that preachers should suddenly start outlining their lessons with nail polish, but I just think the church could stand some neutral analogies; much like the parables Jesus took from every day life.
Then there are the times when a preacher is making a joke and unintentionally ends up insulting his wife or women in general. I’ve gone to church since I was born so I can assure you these stories exist.
For example, I heard a speaker in Oklahoma Christian University’s chapel insinuate, unintentionally of course, that men are more advanced than women. He was remarking how he looks at high-tech gadgets in stores while his wife looks at pillows.
Is this not creating irony from the fact that his wife seems simpler than him? It is disguised as a joke, but underneath lies unrealized sexism passed down from generation to generation.
Most people are unaware of this degree of sexism because they are accustomed to it. People were accustomed to slavery and male dominance for many years as well. Does that make it right?
Just the other day my guy friend was reading the book “Almost Christian.” He was impressed with how well thought-out and organized it was and was surprised to find out a woman had written it. I, being a woman and a writer, was offended. Why do some people expect good writers, or, in his case, well thought-out writers, to be men?
This form of prejudice is why female authors, such as J.K. Rowling, abbreviate their names: so people don’t realize they are women and judge them on that fact. In previous years there has been a lot of prejudice against female writers and apparently is still present today, though we might like to think it milder.
So, what kind of prejudices are college students guilty of? For one, stereotypes – especially between majors and clubs.
I’m so guilty of this. I’ll meet people who are really charismatic and when they tell me their major is in engineering I do a double take. Isn’t that terrible? Why have I labeled them so? Just because they are pursuing a career in engineering, a rigorous and math-based field, does not mean they are anti-social beings stuck in their room all day (although, I’m sure they will tell you that they see their fair share of the Prince Engineering Center).
It is easy to judge people based on their club or major before we know them. This is wrong because we lose the individual; people become statistics and labels rather than unique human beings.
We alienate people when we give them labels like “nerd,” “hipster” or “jock.” This is just like what people did, and still do, with black people, white people, Latino, men, women, the elderly, children, etc. Without even realizing it, we judge people based on these different classifications.
Because I had in my mind that most engineers were a certain way, I crippled myself. I made it so I wasn’t as interested in getting to know them, when in reality, there are so many different types of people in the field of engineering: men, women, extroverts, introverts, creative people, you name it.
It is easy to categorize people. It’s what we do with everything else: humans group information and find trends in statistics. We organize life into sections so we can easily comprehend it all. It’s what we do.
The hard part is getting past these labels and preconceptions long enough to recognize the beautifully unique lives of individuals.
Sarah Redding is a senior at Oklahoma Christian University and Copy Editor of the Talon
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