Being a middle-to-lower class white girl, believe it or not, I have been part of a group that has been stereotyped against. My friends and I are "dorks" (see, I just stereoptyped myself.) Meaning we play Dungeons and Dragons, we play video games such as World of Warcraft, and we play table games such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, and quite a few other "nerdy" things. A lot of times people think that we're the type of people who don't enjoy bars, like to stay home on the weekends, and don't fit to their idea of "fun". One particular time stands out in my mind.
We were having a party, and it was a themed party. My friend Andrew decided he was going to bring some friends to this party that we hadn't met before. They came in, wearing designer jeans and shirts, heavy jewelry, and hats. When they came in they immediately saw the gaming gear, the fantasy posters, and I saw them look at each other. They went into the kitchen and had a beer; after that I heard them talking to Andrew, telling him that this wasn't their thing, and that they were "gonna bounce". I was kind of hurt because they didn't even take the time to get to know any of us; they came over, had our beer, and left without giving us the courtesy to realize that hey, we might be dorks, but we can party like the best of them.
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Hi. Wow that experience could not have been an easy one. That was very rude of those people to just immediately leave without giving you guys a chance. Stereotypes are good jumping off points but they are not completely telling of what or who a person is. If they would have stayed a while, maybe they would have come to some different realizations and therefore create exceptions to those stereotypes, which in turn fights the "token" perception of members of a certain group. It was their loss! Stereotypes can sometimes be so ingrained that members conform to them in order to move on.
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