stereotype

She's a sun-kissed beach girl who goes gothgrungepunkhippierockeremocoremetalfreakfashionistabraingeekboycrazyhiphoprastagirl to keep it under wraps.

What rent do you pay here?" I inquired. "I don__ know,__hat is it, Sam?" "All we make," answered Sam. It is a depressing place,__are, unshaded, with no charm of past association, only a memory of forced human toil,__ow, then, and before the war. They are not happy, these black men whom we meet throughout this region. There is little of the joyous abandon and playfulness which we are wont to associate with the plantation Negro.

I'm Irish yet I don't drink as I refuse to be a stereotype and live down to the expectations of others.

The first domesticated animal was the scapegoat.

Go, Breeze,_ someone yelled.But another voice yelled, __uit showing off, stupid mutant.__rianna stopped dead. Her dress settled back into place. __ho said that?__il. The same jerk who had picked on Jack over the phones.__e,_ Zil said, stepping forward. __nd don__ bother trying to look tough. I__ not scared of you, freak.___ou should be,_ Brianna hissed.Suddenly there was Dekka, up off her chair, hand extended between Brianna and Zil. __o,_ she said in her deep voice. __one of that.__uinn joined her. __ekka__ right, we can__ be having fights and stuff here. Sam will shut this place down.___aybe we should have two different clubs,_ a seventh grader named Antoine said. __ou know, one for freaks and one for normals.___an, what is the matter with you?_ Quinn demanded.__ don__ like her acting like she__ so cool, is all,_ Zil said, stepping beside Antoine.__ou should be on our side, Quinn. Everyone knows you__e a normal,_ another kid, Lance, said. __ell_kind of normal. You__e still Quinn.

You__e supposed to be the big boss.__am said nothing. The crowd hushed, ready to watch this one-on-one confrontation.__ou__e the big boss of the freaks,_ Zil yelled. __ut you can__ do anything. You can shoot laser beams out of your hands, but you can__ get enough food, and you can__ keep the power on, and you won__ do anything about that murderer Hunter, who killed my best friend._ He paused to fill his lungs for a final, furious cry. __ou shouldn__ be in charge.___ou want to be in charge, Zil? Last night you were running around trying to get a lynch mob together. And let__ not even pretend that wasn__ you responsible for graffiti I saw driving into town just now.___o what?_ Zil demanded. __o what? So I said what everyone who isn__ a freak is thinking.__e spit the word __reak,_ making it an insult, making it an accusation.__ou really think what we need right now is to divide up between freaks and normals?_ Sam asked. __ou figure that will get the lights turned back on? That will put food on people__ tables?

No one would ever say that someone with a broken arm or a broken leg is less than a whole person, but people say that or imply that all the time about people with mental illness.

I am a rare species, not a stereotype.

And what if the other kids laugh at me?_ Kerry complained to her parents as she nibbled on a piece of toast that morning. __ have a Cape Breton accent! They__l know I__ from Canada and they__l start asking me if I lived in an igloo or ate maple syrup, bacon and seal meat every day!___ou__e really overreacting,_ Susan chuckled, sipping on a glass of orange juice. __anada is a lot like the States and the only thing separating both countries is an imaginary boarder! If anyone laughs at you, tell them it doesn__ snow year-round, you got free health care while you were there and that you never rode a polar bear to school. Besides, do you know how many popular movies and TV shows from the States were filmed in Canada?___t__ not just the Canada stuff mom,_ Kerry sighed worriedly. ____ from Dym, it__ an industrial dump!___eah, and have you looked at Pittsburgh lately?_ Susan asked. __ull of coal mines and steel mills, just like Sydney was when we lived there! I actually rather came to like the pollution, I don__ think I__ ever want to leave it.

Not all __hites_ are racists. Not all racists are __hite.

Reducing a group to a slur or stereotype reduces us all.

When we have a narrative in mind, we often plug in anecdotes that confirm it.

Where did the stereotypical image of the reclusive author in a bathrobe and slippers, indulging in vices and spending hours before a typewriter, even come from? I don't know about you, but most writers don't have the luxury of doing any of this. Otherwise we'd have no life experience and nothing to write about, anyway.

Their song reminds me of a child__ neighborhood rallying cry__e-ock-ee__ith a heartfelt warble at the end. But it is their call that is especially endearing. The towhee has the brass and grace to call, simply and clearly, "tweet". I know of no other bird that stoops to literal tweeting.

When I look at a person, I see a person - not a rank, not a class, not a title.

But then it was over too quickly and they pulled away. She knew they couldn't stand there and kiss like a couple on the run in a thriller.

You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle.

Taking the line of least resistance, we lump the most different people together under the same heading. Taking the line of least resistance, we ascribe to them collective crimes, collective acts and opinions. "The Serbs have massacred_", "The English have devastated_", "The Jews have confiscated_", "The Blacks have torched", "The Arabs refuse_". We blithely express sweeping judgments on whole peoples, calling them "hardworking" and "ingenious", or "lazy", "touchy", "sly", "proud", or "obstinate". And sometimes this ends in bloodshed." _ Amin Maalouf "On Identity