Think First

Recently, we've all been listening/reading about Don Imus' "open mouth/insert foot" moment. He referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed ho's" because they are black women, with tattooos. He sterotyped them. They are actually well educated women who happened to be talented athletes. I know this only too well. I have a beautiful, smart and very witty 17 year old daughter who seems to be sterotyped constantly. Why? She dyes her hair black (I find it beautiful myself), she has a nose ring, two piercings in her ears and a belly button ring (seriously, most people don't see those piercings, between clothing and hair) and a tattoo, also covered by clothing. So I'm guessing that most people see the nose ring and dyed black hair. It took her over a year to get a job, whereas most of her friends were hired by the first or 2nd application. She went to our local library and when she asked for an application, the elderly, retired elementary teacher who works there, looked her up and down and said "for a job???" Unfortunately, they didn't even consider her. And believe me, the girls loves to read. She scored a 34 on the reading portion of her ACT test. She loves books. In fact, if future employers and people who just dismiss her on her looks would pay attention, they'd know she is a smart, atrictulate and beautiful person. Even when she goes to her dad's hometown (which is quite small), she's known as the "goth girl". She's not goth, in any sense of the way, she's just not "the norm". She loves to be who she wants to be. This "outcast" received a presidential scholarship, general music scholarship and travel scholarship from her college of choice. She'll be someone in the future. And to all those people who dismiss her because she's "different"....someday you'll be sorry, you'll wish you took the time to get to know her, and you'll say, "maybe she wasn't so different!"