Station Hope

A month ago or so I went to Station Hope on the West side of Cleveland. My description of the event would be various performances highlighting the struggles and successes of African Americans in present day and during the Civil Rights Movement. I went with my mother and the first performance we went to was a play performed by my mother's students ( my mother is a principal at an arts school). My uncle wrote a poem and the kids recited it during the play. My uncle couldn't be happier!! The second performance I went to was entitled  Walking The Dream and it was two young ladies talking about how people force stereotypes upon African American women. There were two stereotypes that caught my attention. The first stereotype was that the East side is more hood than the West side. The importance of that misled stereotype is that the economic/social statuses don't determine where certain people live and the kind of mannerisms people have. The second stereotype is  that some people think that  African American women don't get where they are in the workforce unless they are having sexual relations with their boss or somebody in a higher position than them. The importance of this misled stereotype is that African American women are intelligent and they don't have to sleep with people in higher positions to make it to the top. I'm sure most women who made it to the top made it because of hard work, persistence and dedication. The overall message I got out of these exhibits was that we can't group a certain kind of people together because of their skin color or their daily habits. Everybody has their certain characteristics and that makes them unique. We should embrace those certain characteristics, not talk down about them, even better, eliminate the stereotypes. Embrace one's individuality, don't slander that!! Stereotypes aren't true for the most part and plus they are rude and degrading.