Living Beyond the Labels: My Experience with Everyday Stereotyping

Almost everyone faces a wide range of stereotyping in different aspects of life on a daily basis, and despite how biased some of these assumptions are, people tend to run with it, believe it, and sometimes even say it to your face, expecting you to accept or submit to their assumptions of your person, tribe, and the like. The truth is that some of these can go on to take a toll on one's mental health depending on how weighty they are. Throughout the course of my life till this very moment, I've faced tons of stereotypes in different ways, and all I can do is either ignore them, react by educating such individuals, or sometimes get depressed.

One of the many forms of stereotypes I've been subject to lately is people's assumption that I'm rich and have everything going well for me. I'm guessing these assumptions or judgments are coined from how big and robust and healthy-looking I look, but deep down, we all know our capacity and our shortcomings. The stereotype that I'm rich has on several occasions hindered helpers from coming to my aid; in fact, sometimes when I tell someone I'm broke, they just laugh, like, Stop that joke. It sometimes hurts to have to be taken for granted, but then I just pray to God to bless me with the riches humans seem to believe I have.

Another stereotype judgement I'm subject to lately, which even more focuses on people of my tribe and employment status, is the belief that because I'm Yoruba by tribe and that I'm a Lagos State staff member, then I'm automatically a supporter of APC or President Tinubu. These are assuming that has been made not just behind me, but to my face, both in person and on social media and the like, and it sometimes can be annoying. It's disheartening how some politicians have played with our minds to the point where we hate or despise one another because of our tribe and the like.

Yes, I myself didn't make things easy or clear during the last election, because I refused to sabotage myself to vote for some glorified candidates who are just another thief but a lesser evil than the one in power, but at no point in time did I support anyone, and neither did I vote for any of the top candidates, yet I'm subject to such judgement. I remember someone who tried to cart away with my money on Binance P2P, and when I called him out, he started ranting about how I'm behaving like Tinubu and how I'm his supporter, and I'm like, So are you behaving like Obi with how you're trying to steal my money by sending the wrong amount?.

One stereotype I actually enjoyed was one I faced some weeks ago during the Father's Day celebration in church. During the celebrations, there were plenty of gifts brought to be gifted to all the fathers in the church, and for one reason or another, I was given a gift as well, and I didn't even bother explaining to them that I'm not a father yet. After all, most times when they want to take contributions for one program or another from excellent men, they still bill me too, so I took the gift and smiled home, excited that I was being stereotyped in that way.

Not all of these stereotype experiences were easy to overcome; there were some where I had to explain things to the person in question and hope they understood. If they choose to still run with their belief after my explanation, that is their cup of tea. On most occasions I just ignore it, but some I enjoy because of the pleasant expressions it brings, like one time when I was assumed to be a northerner, and that brought about wonderful treatment by those people, or when I was given gifts because I was stereotyped to be a father.

Overall, I think we should all learn not to judge people from afar but to get closer, understand them, and run with our findings rather than what is commonly said or believed to be the person's nature.

All photos are mine.