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Overcoming My Prejudices By Edith Littvan What I studied in my Humanities class about stereotypes and prejudice made me realize for the first time that I had been stereotyping people. I grew up in Hungary, where Gypsies are a dark-skinned minority group that face a lot of prejudice. Hungarians often give them a hard time when they apply for a good job or want to rent an apartment, because they consider Gypsies to be murderers, thieves, liars and dirty people. Sometimes Gypsies do rob people, but the main reason they do it is that Hungarians don't give them a chance to live a better life. Besides, many Hungarians also get their bread by stealing. Still, Hungarians usually just talk about Gypsies as criminals and sinful people. Once a Gypsy stole my bicycle and after that I stereotyped all Gypsies. When I passed by a house where I knew Gypsies lived, I would say things to my friends like, "Let's hurry, because they are even going to steal our pants off of us!" or "Ugh, look, they live like pigs!" I had Gypsies in my classes at school, but I missed the opportunity to get to know them. I wasn't interested in having a fuller picture of them or knowing them as people, so I didn't talk to them. I just followed my prejudices and the stereotypes I heard from other Hungarians. As I started to talk about stereotyping in my history class last year, I understood from my own experiences what it meant, and I realized that I had been wrong. I was blaming all Gypsies just because one of them stole my bicycle, and because I was willing to be influenced by other people's opinions. "Think
About It": —Edith blamed all Gypsies because one stole her bicycle. Have you ever blamed a group of people for what one person did? Do you still feel that way? Why or why not? —Edith says Gypsies rob because people "don't give them a chance to live a better life." What is the connection between people committing crimes or violent acts, and how they've been treated? How does this apply to the recent crimes committed by terrorists?
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About
our books Stories from New Youth Connections have been anthologized in several books by Youth Communication. Starting With I (Persea Books, 1997) is a collection of personal essays first published in NYC; in addition, The Struggle to Be Strong: True Stories By Teens About Resilence (Free Spirit, 2000), Things Get Hectic: Teens Write About the Violence That Surrounds Them (Simon& Schuster, 1998) and Out With It: Gay and Straight Teens Write About Homosexuality (Youth Communication, 1996) feature stories from NYC as well as from Represent, our other teen-written magazine. |
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