“That’s the trouble with you young people today” suggests immediately that the criticism drawn from a particular incident or person is applicable to everyone in a similar group.

 

So we have that young people are irresponsible, old people are intolerant, white people are arrogant, black people are retarded, girls are giggly, boys are uncouth, blondes are all face and no brain, Ozzies are larrikins or famed for mateship, one could go on, pointing out national, racial or cultural traits which, while common amongst similar folk, are not necessarily so. People are individuals, and should be treated as such.  

 

Interesting that so many of these descriptions are derogatory, but it can be equally false when the description is commendatory. Like all Christians love one another, all church people are good living people, all drivers are courteous; all people in this city are law abiding. Maybe the majority are but as soon as we use the word ‘all’ we are suggesting knowledge that, in fact, none of us possesses.

 

We have the same thing in religions. Muslims are terrorists, Christians are hypocrites, Catholics are bigoted, Methodists are wowsers, Charismatics are too emotional and again one could go on.  

 

This is the problem with racism, which in theory we all recognize but in practice not so much. I read the other day in an article written apparently by a research worker that Australians are basically racist. From many reports we receive from the USA racism is rife there also, witness the recent massacre in South Carolina. This is all a matter of stereotyping or generalizing, forgetting that people are all individuals.

 

I well remember back in the 1970’s an indigenous boy had been adopted by one of our local families.  He was a gentle soul, pleasant without out any really unpleasant characteristics. But whenever he was standing with a group of his friends in the street late at night, if police came up to enquire what they were doing, almost invariably they would ask him rather than any of his white friends. When he and a group of boys went into a shop, the shopkeeper always, without fail, would watch him much more carefully that watching his friends. It would have been very easy for him to have developed personality problems arising from this frustration.

 

I see this also in what seems to be a worrying trend at this very moment. We are all aware of the frequent acts of terrorism, in the USA, in the Middle East, even in Australia. If the perpetrator is a Moslem, the word terrorist is invariably used. If the person is a white and not of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’ no matter the offense, the word ‘terrorist’ is not used, at least in the media. The massacre in South Carolina a few weeks ago is not referred to as an act of terrorism! No wonder many young Moslems become radicalized when they are constantly subjected to discrimination, even in the use of adjectives.

 

Since we ourselves always want to be treated as individuals and not one of the mob, let us beware of bracketing together too easily people who may be similar in one way but each one is an individual in his or her own right.

 

Rev. Alan Stuart Ex missionary to Korea, Retired Minister, UCA