Everyone's a Little Bit Racist

When I read this excerpt from bell hook's Teaching to Transgress, a song from the popular musical, Avenue Q, came to mind. The title of the song is Everyone's a Little Bit Racist and in my opinion, that couldn't be more true. In reality, it is more than being racist. Instead I find that everyone is stereotypical and judges people right on the spot, which is where racist attitudes derive from. Whenever a person laughs at a joke which degrades a person of a different race, religion, hair color, etcetera, they are contributing to continuation of various stereotypes. When I first heard the song I immediately thought it wasn't true, I thought I was above racism. But when I listened to it a few more times, I had to agree because I am guilty of judging people based on what they look like. For me, the truest dialogue from the song is "Well, sure, Gary, but lots of people tell black jokes. I don't. Well, of course you don't - you're black...But I bet you tell Polack jokes, right? Well, sure I do. Those stupid Polacks!" Everyone has these feelings, but as the ending line in the song goes, "If we all could just admit that we are racist a little bit, and everyone stopped being so PC, maybe we could live in harmony!" I have openly admitted to people that I judge them no matter what they do, and if they don't like it I believe they need to realize that they judge everything as well, just not openly. As long as people have different faiths, different appearances, and are different in anyway stereotypes will continue to exist in the world. I would like to see this change, but I do not think it will happen in my lifetime.