Do you know what a stereotype is? Have you ever been stereotyped? Have you ever stereotyped someone else? Do you even consider how they must feel when you do? A stereotype is a preconceived notion, especially about a group of people. Many stereotypes are racist, sexist, or homophobic. Everyday people get stereotyped; whether it’s in public or on the internet, someone always has something to say.

“Everyone is affected by stereotypes. The world has a stereotype for every demographic,” Abijah Cole, a senior here at Hall, said. So it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, stereotypes can affect you. We live in a society that is constantly judging and stereotyping others; placing them in groups that as we see fit. Sometimes doing it unconsciously.

When do you think kids get stereotyped the most? Do they even get stereotyped at all? Have you ever been to a place that maybe isn’t your scenery and been uncomfortable? Or scared? Or any emotion or feeling that differs from your normal, everyday self? Believe it or not, that’s stereotyping. Julianna Le, a sophomore, thinks “There are so many memes attacking all races, socioeconomic statuses, genders, anything you can think of, really.” It’s true, if you don’t have people being prejudice towards you, the internet will surely fill their place. 

Ask yourself if any stereotypes are placed on you, now ask how they make you feel. Chances are 9/10 people feel the exact same way you do. When asked, people generally said it makes them feel angry and/or frustrated. That’s expected. I mean, if someone was coming for your life how else are you supposed to feel?

You’re probably wondering what this has to do with anything and why you should care and yeah, you know there are stereotypes about people with similar backgrounds as you, but you’ve never dealt with them head-on, so you wouldn’t know. Listen here, stereotyping is just a small piece of a big picture.

Often, stereotyping leads to bullying, which leads to conflict, and sometimes people don’t know how to deal with those conflicts, so what do they do? Kill themselves, maybe. If you think I’m exaggerating, I’m not. All I have to say is, Ashawnty Davis.

You may be questioning who she is and better yet, what she has to do with this article. Ashawnty Davis is, I mean was, a 10-year-old girl from Aurora, Colorado. She attempted to commit suicide when she got into a fight with her bully.

She was getting picked on in school and decided to stick up for herself. She confronted the bully and things escalated and they ended up fighting. It happened on school grounds, sometime in October. Ashawnty let things flow until right around Thanksgiving, when she saw that a student that was there to witness the fight had recorded it and uploaded it to Music.ly (a social media app which allows you to upload videos.) Seeing the video was the last straw for Ashawnty, she tried hanging herself in her closet at home, but her parents found her. She was rushed to the hospital and spent the next two weeks on life support. After the two weeks, she was still in critical condition and had no chance of returning back to a healthy state, so was taken off life support. She passed away on November 27th.

We don’t know what she got bullied about, but there’s a pretty big chance it started off as some sort of stereotype and eventually got out of hand. See how things come full circle? Next time you think you’re being funny by being prejudice towards someone, think again.