yourself look even worse? Let's say you are a member of a certain race or group that has a negative stereotype associated with it, and you find that a lot of people you encounter, upon figuring out what you are, behave in a way that indicates that they are assuming that you will display whatever negative behaviors are attributed to said stereotype. For instance, a server who sees your party's last name on the list of reservations and you can just TELL when she's muttering to her coworkers that it's about YOU, and it's obviously not something positive, like "Oh, look who I'm stuck with, the so-and-so's, lucky me!"
Or how about people you want to date, who are like, "Oh you're [your race or religion]?" and you can immediately see that you've been crossed off their proverbial list of potential dates. It sucks.
I'm not referring to Nazi freaks who want to kill anyone who isn't a WASP, or anyone that's extremely racist -- I wouldn't want to befriend someone like that anyway, and I don't care what they think of me. I mean basically normal people.
It makes me want to change my last name, or lie or something, so I can be judged based on my actual personality rather than what the group I belong to says about me. Everybody judges other people, and everybody's a little prejudiced, whether they admit it or not.
SO, my actual question is, what can someone do to circumvent this kind of thing? If you were to say up front, "Just so you know, I'm not like that," it would look weird and also, it would look like you were ashamed of what you are, which I'm not. It just disturbs me that I have this automatic stereotype placed upon me, and I'm sick of having to overcome it.
I'd be ignoring 95% of the population. That's not going to cut it. Help me out here, people.
Or how about people you want to date, who are like, "Oh you're [your race or religion]?" and you can immediately see that you've been crossed off their proverbial list of potential dates. It sucks.
I'm not referring to Nazi freaks who want to kill anyone who isn't a WASP, or anyone that's extremely racist -- I wouldn't want to befriend someone like that anyway, and I don't care what they think of me. I mean basically normal people.
It makes me want to change my last name, or lie or something, so I can be judged based on my actual personality rather than what the group I belong to says about me. Everybody judges other people, and everybody's a little prejudiced, whether they admit it or not.
SO, my actual question is, what can someone do to circumvent this kind of thing? If you were to say up front, "Just so you know, I'm not like that," it would look weird and also, it would look like you were ashamed of what you are, which I'm not. It just disturbs me that I have this automatic stereotype placed upon me, and I'm sick of having to overcome it.
I'd be ignoring 95% of the population. That's not going to cut it. Help me out here, people.