Dear Cliche',

We all do our best not to buy-in to stereotypes; to judge each human as an individual; to refrain from making judgments too quickly. But you, cliché, you seem to want to propagate the negative stereotypes assigned to your demographic group making it nearly impossible not to pigeonhole you.

You are Asian and gather and cook fish from anywhere in anything.
You are black and swagger through the street slowly, refraining from using the crosswalk or sidewalk and blocking traffic with attitude.
You are a Somali taxi driver and your wife nearly killed me as she cluelessly weaved downed the interstate at 35mph in a caravan.
You live in Linden Hills and come to yoga with your hair and make-up done.
You are an engineer and you can’t talk to girls.
You are a 40-something, recently divorced Cougar getting your drink on at Crave in The Shops at West End. “Go ahead. Feel them. They are new.”
You are Latino and have a “Rodriquez” decal in Gothic typeface in the back window of your white Ford Ranger with new spinners.
You are from North and you wear your pants on the ground.
You are a Minnesotan and you pronounce ‘especially’ ‘X-specially’ and call lunch "supper.:
You are a Jewish man with a gold Star of David necklace entangled in your bushy chest hair, which is peeking through your shirt.
You are a hipster and you wear the exact same 80s sunglasses, skinny jeans, and scarf as all 4,000 of your closest friends.
You work at the tech help desk, use a condescending tone and appear to be overstaffed and underutilized at all times.
You hail from the northern suburbs and brag about your aunt’s new double-wide.
You are a black mom and you name your daughter “LaMonQuiesha.”
You are a white mom and name your kids “Charles” (we call him Charlie) and “Emma.”
You are a hippie and you smell bad and make it worse with patchouli oil. People who smell nice to start with, never add patchouli.

And I’m sure the list can go on and on . . . and it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is, before you get dressed, before you get that tattoo, before the next comment comes out of your mouth, take a moment and ask yourself, how will the other people in my demographic group feel about this? What will people outside my group think about this? Am I making it easier or harder for people to stereotype me? Perhaps those additional considerations will make for less bias on the part of others.

Love,


Ellie