Fun with Stereotypes

How does your culture stand out in the crowd?

6:24 am... A lovely good Tuesday morning to you all, and Happy November 1st. Here in Texas it is Dia de los Muertos, a twist on the Catholic All Soul's Day. Today will see lots of folks with skull-painted faces, visits to cemeteries and wondrously decorative sugar skulls. Although it is considered a "Mexican" tradition, it was really started by the indios, or natives from the southern part of North America.

But that's probably not what you think about when you think of Mexicans, is it? You probably think of sombreros, tacos and jalapenos. Isn't it interesting how every culture gets broken down into a few key things which seem to define it for the rest of the world? Yesterday, Honey Bee showed one of her Irish students (actually from - as in born in - Ireland) a piece of soda bread she had brought for lunch. (Compliments of yours truly!) He didn't know what it was, so she explained that it was a traditional Irish recipe. He replied that it must then be made from shamrocks, rain, leprechaun gold (and tears,) and other things stereo-typically Irish.

It is funny to see that even the very young get it, and are scornful of stereotypes. I'm sure that Texans get tired of being asked whether they ride horses, work at an oil rig, wear a ten-gallon hat, drive a pickup truck and say "yee-haw" when they get excited. They mostly don't but there are some (more than a few) who fit this description to a T. At the end of the day, the stereotypical image of a culture isn't necessarily a bad thing to have, until you actually have some contact with people from that culture. At that point, please leave the stereotype behind and learn some truth about what makes other people wonderful and unique. After all I love tacos and tamales, shamrocks and shillelaghs, pickup trucks and Texas... but I love people even more... 6:46 am...