By now, everyone who knows me, understands that social media will somehow work its way into our conversation. Let’s face it. That’s where most of my peers are confessing or professing, offending or defending, whatever it is that they think or believe. Social media is an outlet used by many to express anything—#nofilter.
Our opinions are based off of experiences we have had, and those experiences help us form thoughts and beliefs about what is “true” in this world. Facts cannot be disputed i.e. If I let go of a pen, it falls to the ground because of gravity. Opinions on the other hand are different. i.e. Black is the best color for a truck. Yes, you and I are both entitled to our opinion, but those opinions cannot and should not be applied to everyone and everything you know. There is a certain kind of opinion that I want to address and those are blanket statements.
On my timelines, whether Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram, I see statements about women and men, black and white, dark skinned and light skinned, and the list goes on and on. I cannot believe (but really, I can) that general opinionated statements are still said and affirmed by all. Mostly because the statements are true (to some degree) and good for a laugh. However, are we not always professing that we want to be different and that we should appreciate those differences about one another? Unfortunately, the exact opposite is occurring far too often.
Elise, give us some examples.
Well, I’m so glad you asked.
One of the tweets that prompted this post was a statement by a friend of mine via Twitter who said: “It’s like females in sports. They cheer for the popular team or the reigning champions.” Well first of all, it would be “like females and sports”…just saying. Anyway, there are some females who only watch The Heat because of LeBron James’ smile or DWade’s jawline. But what about the girls who are die-hard fans?! What about the girl who has NBA-TV just to make sure she doesn’t miss a game, has the SportsCenter App. on her phone to get all the latest updates, and could be on First Take tomorrow with Skip and Stephen A. talking like any other seasoned sports analyst? If I know a few girls who can fall into the category, then surely some fellas can say the same. It seems unfair, bias, and stereotypical for anyone, male or female, to say such a thing.
Posts that are clogging Instagram feeds everywhere: “Bitches be like…” and “Niggas be like…” Once again, there is truth behind these phrases and to some degree they are also funny. Although, I also find them to be mostly degrading. The phrases are usually pointing out peoples contradictory actions. For example, a guy will post: a picture of a young woman droppin’ it like it’s hot on Saturday night and then, Sunday morning #churchflow. No, I do not condone a woman dancing in a vulgar manner, but God loves her just as much as He loves you and I. At the same time, guys act like they are not doing the same thing. She was dancing with somebody, wasn’t she?
I am so amazed at how much time we take out of our day to tear each other down, instead of building one another up. In some weird way pointing out each others contradicting actions is a good thing because we are setting a certain standard. It’s just funny to me because usually those publicly holding the standard, have very few [standards] themselves, but he or she believes everyone else should have them. Or better yet, he or she could be seen out doing the same thing or worse. Isn’t that called a double standard?
Before you clump everyone into one general idea, think again! We were all created by the same hands, but He made all us one thing: different.
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