“It was an ongoing struggle to say no, I don't want to be a part of the perpetuation of this stereotype.“ John Amos
I once read two different newspapers describing events in a troubled land a long way from blighty. Newspaper one described a situation where the liberties of the populace were being defended by a small but heroic band of freedom fighters who would derail the unelected governments plans at every turn. Newspaper two told us of terrorists who were creating mayhem for the populace and making it nigh on impossible for those in charge to run the country properly.
Both newspapers were describing the same situation, but the story they chose to tell was based on the prejudices they brought with them.
One mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist.
What source of information do you use to get an idea of how the world sees you? I never trust internal people who can self evaluate. I mean how is that possible? We are all the hero of our own story so I doubt if we can objectively look at ourselves and say... Yes THAT is how I come across.
I have to admit that I find the descriptions of me through from my preschool reports to my last employer reference most helpful. These are written by people who have had lengthy exposure to me in a variety of circumstance and I find their view worth taking on board to get an idea of how the world outside my skin sees me.
I am most commonly described as bubbly, non-conformist, intelligent, individual, trustworthy and someone who will always make it happen even if the route to get there is a little unorthodox. This is who the world sees me as... I thought.
To be fair though all these profiles and references have been written people who have had long exposure to working class people from diverse backgrounds.
They would be aware of common parlance (“Do that again and I’m afraid I may have to kill you” being a South London favourite which is not actually a promise of imminent death or physical harm but an affectionate request to stop the current course of action). They would be aware of the diversity of body language among ethnic groups (Those with origins south of the equator being more expressive with facial expressions and hand gestures than those originating north). They would be aware of the slow buy-in of working class people when it comes to enthusing about new projects (“The proof is in the pudding” school of thought versus the “Jolly hockey stick” approach).
I have to be honest, it had often occurred to me that my profiles to date may have been easily achieved because of that understanding. It did occur to me that it must be pretty easy to get a pleasant profile from people who were not rigid, repressed, or authoritarian.
So when the opportunity came to be profiled from a difference source, I actually quite welcomed the opportunity to see what people with little experience outside their own elite bubble would think of someone like me.
I was really looking forward to seeing what impression I make to people who do not share my social class origins or my ethnicity.
Be careful of things you welcome, they may not be quite as helpful as you thought.
I was slightly unprepared to be cast in the role of terrorist rather than freedom fighter. The first impression I give... is that I am a poor excuse for a human being.
Apparently according to this profile: I am aggressive, surly and given to making inappropriate and deeply personal comments. Above all this profile found me to be a poor communicator who blames others for their own shortcomings and has the voice tone and body language of an antagonist. Basically I came out of the profile as abnormally inferior as a specimen of humanity.
It was not the most complimentary profile I have ever received, to be rather honest it came rather like a slap in the face with a large wet and rather unfresh cod!
But then when you think about it – where is the surprise? If you are profiled by people who designate their own group as the standard, of course anything that isn’t a member of the same group would be considered inferior or abnormal.
This process exists to provide one with a sense of worth... it is called stereotyping.
Now stereotypes are not always a bad thing. They exist for a reason. Stereotypes allow individuals to make better informed evaluations of individuals about whom they possess little or no individuating information, and believe it or not national and gender stereotypes are surprisingly accurate. This is the stuff that you find in art and literature all the time... the chancer Irishman, the rhythmic Negro, the passionate Spaniard, the ambitious American, the wild gypsy girl. It is a short cut to getting audience by-in.
However where it all goes horribly wrong is when we use those short cuts to divine intelligence, behaviour, personality, and motivation. We then become guilty of preventing some people of stereotyped groups from entering or succeeding in all kinds of activities or fields.
I recall only too well the opening of the City to working class traders and how threatened the upper class and middle class traders were by the arrival on the floor of the London stock exchange of “The Barrow Boys”. I recall a titled young man exclaiming that by allowing those who did not have the ‘right ‘accent or deportment into the trading floors would result in the end of the institution as persons so loud and crass were bound to miss out the finer small details that make The City run so seamlessly. “They think it’s all about red braces and Porsches and are unable to embrace an institution of gentlemen that has existed since 1595”.
Yes the new boys were from a different background and so expressed themselves in a completely different way from their upper and middle class colleagues but were they the four horsemen of the apocalypse? No. The City traded on... the London Stock Exchange remains the largest in Europe and the 4th largest in the world at the time going to press.
Shaking things up a little with different types of people is not a bad thing. As for the cultural change to the London Stock Exchange, the benefits went wider than the trading floor. The arrival of diversity in the city meant the bars and clubs in the city (which were dry boring chesterfield armchair newspaper reading affairs) became much more fun as a result!
But going back to my profiling – once the sting of the wet cod stopped... was I upset?
Actually NO.
It was jolly interesting to read (well 1031 words listing your shortcomings and failings always will be!). There were some valid lessons to be learned from the exercise... but above all what I learned was that profiling someone in this way will always say more about the person who wrote it than it did about the person who received it.
And for that I am eternally grateful.
Vive la difference!
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