Howell Learning that Stereotypes Hurt When Shoe's On the Other Foot

Some people have a difficult time putting themselves in someone else's place. They just can't empathize with others.

Think about white people who complain about African Americans being "over sensitive" to racial remarks or claim that they try to "make everything into a race thing."

Maybe we in Livingston County are getting a lesson in the impacts of stereotyping and what it means to have to prove them wrong day in and day out.

A few weeks ago, a letter to the editor complained that Howell had been "stereotyped" as a racist community because of a past that the writer believed was no longer representative of current views. (Whether Howell's past views are representative of the situation today is beside the point of this piece.)

Now comes news in the Livingston Press and Argus for Thursday (January 17, 2008) that Howell will be featured in a National Public Radio story this weekend put together by Desiree Cooper.

Howell hit Cooper's radar screen when an auction house sold Ku Klux Klan robes and memorabilia from Livingston County. The Detroit resident and Free Press columnist wrote about the sale and Howell's efforts to outgrow its past.

"'I just have a kind of a soft spot in my heart for people who are trying to rise above a negative image,'" the Press and Argus quotes her as saying.

"As she learned more about Howell, she found that many people felt unjustly stigmatized by the reputation of Robert Miles, former grand dragon of the Michigan KKK. Miles lived in Cohoctah Township, north of Howell, until his death in 1992."

Cooper's story will focus on the work of the Livingston Diversity Council and its presentation on a classic experiment that used discrimination on the basis of eye color to teach about racism.

One thing that people might take away from Cooper's focus on the community is that stereotypes die hard and while they linger, they still sting. They place an unfair burden on people for whom they are inaccurate.

So as we in Livingston County battle with others' stereotypes about us, it's a good time to examine our reliance on stereotypes of others -- be they racial, religious, class, or political stereotypes.