Stereo/hypes

A brief essay from the archives (written 2016-17 sometime, edited & finished January 2022)

I hope you'll indulge some thoughts of mine. They've been germinating since we've been in Texas. A few [unscientific] observations prompted them. First, we noticed how many Texas Edition/Lone Star Edition pickups are on the roads here (a noticeably more frequent occurrence than any other state I've been in). We pass many businesses with "Texas" in their company name. There's a lot of positive state pride. 

Humans don't have to be very old before we learn about regional stereotypes and state reputations and culture bias. Heck, most of us probably experience them before we learn the words. I suspect that no matter where you're from, there are common generalizations made about your state or region of origin. Assumptions (both positive and negative!) are made about your accent, your socioeconomic status, your intelligence, your genealogy (both remote and immediate). Those are a very few of the many traits we use to categorize people.

Stereotypes are part of human life; as always, our power is in choosing how we react. You may fight the 'type, proving it doesn't apply to you. You can live with a chip on your shoulder, resenting a bias you didn't ask for. Perhaps it is true for you and you embrace it as such, proudly. You might even be able to strike some sort of balance between those.

It's good to remember that stereotypes and generalizations perhaps originated in truth. It's also good to remember that sweeping statements are rarely true for everyone they're spoken about.

Both Dennis and I are from awesome places (West Virginia and Georgia) which don't always get positive attention - from the media, from the history books, or even from our friends and acquaintances. Here's the thing: people, in all our great diversity and uniqueness and individuality, are not all that different. We're all after a few basic things: we want our basic needs met, peace and prosperity for those we love, and a secure future. Being born on one side of a line or another doesn't make us better/worse than anyone else. Our choices have a lot more to do with the kind of people we are. 

I don't really have a conclusion or even a point here. I guess this experience made me think about pride and humility at the individual level, and also about how companies are profiting off people's sense of pride or belonging or affiliation.

Mostly, I hope we sometimes stop and think about why we have pride in or appreciation for a certain place. I hope we investigate whether there are stereotypes we buy into, and whether we're letting them be the reason we act or think or speak a certain way. I think people should be aware of when their emotions are being leveraged to someone else's profit. I'm not saying we should abandon our nostalgia for the hometown, or pride in where we're from, necessarily. But I hope we can honestly acknowledge our biases and investigate where they're influencing our behavior.