In my Philosophy class, I am once again learning about fallacies. Yet, for the first time ever, I am really learning about fallacies. My favorite one, so far, is the Hasty Generalization fallacy. The birth of almost all stereotypes. Now, that there is so much hate in the world, and the media is missing not one little drop of its poison, we are dealing with this fallacy more and more.

The worst part, is the fact that the people dishing out this false argument, usually don’t know what they’re saying. When you speak about a whole, as if you can identify an entire group of people by name, when you speak as though you are in the least bit higher than someone else, you are going to wish you hadn’t.

For example: white privilege compared to black privilege in the U.S. yes, this should have been solved centuries ago, but America is stuck in a repeat and the media is not helping one bit. The more divided a people, the easier to control. By identifying Black Americans, as African-Americans, or anything other than Americans, the U.S. is divided by who claims to here first, White Americans. Of course we don’t even include Native Americans, if the country cared about them, they would have more resources and more land, but America is greedy. So the white man claims his property, end of story.

Now, hundreds of years later, we are still dealing with racism. Even though slavery was abolished right after the civil war, even though segregation was completely abolished by the 60’s (maybe later depending on the region), we can’t get enough of putting another race down, that we discourage marriages, have one or more of these opinions about them -drugs, thugs, rappers, criminals, abusive, lazy, welfare, bad kids, teen pregnancy, etc.- that we don’t see the whole group standing behind this small group that just happens to be bad. There aren’t any media messages of the Black culture succeeding, not because they don’t, but because it’s not “important enough”. It’s not like a black man getting arrested for gang violence, robbing a store, or etc. That is news worthy, but the nation forgets that beneath the small group of people who are bad in the black community, there are pastors, lively churches, business men and women, college graduates, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith, Maya Angelou, Morgan Freeman, etc. We forget that success comes in every shape and size. We discourage them as youth, by not allowing them to know they can make a difference. Then as adults, we continue to shove them to the outer boarders of the education system, because lets face it “they’re just going to drop out anyways”. Enough.

White privilege is real, and I haven’t realized how bad it was until Brock Turner was released 3 months after raping a girl in the Alley. Not only is this a display of white privilege, but its a display of White Male privilege. The girl was seen as an object to have no matter if she wanted it or not. Whereas if a black male, committed the same action, or even if it was consensual but the parents didn’t like the kid, he would be sent to 20 years in prison for a claim of rape. Where is the justice in this? All rapists are just that. Not just some “college” kid hoping to get “a few seconds of action”. No matter the color, no matter the position or wealth of the family, justice is putting anyone who takes a “no” for a challenge, behind bars.

But white people get away with everything. Have you noticed that white people are not judged by the number of white male shooters that enter schools, colleges, or churches? Its like the crime of those bad people, don’t define the white populace. That’s pretty interesting, because according to our own Hasty Generalization, we define an entire race, the black race, the Hispanic race, by the cartel, or gangs. A little bit of a double standard, is it not?

And it makes me so mad when someone I know claims they’re not racist “but…”. No! No, buts. As soon as you put “but” in the sentence you are already preparing your audience for a racist comment. That doesn’t excuse your statement. It doesn’t make it less offensive. For example: “I’m not racist, but I don’t believe in interracial marriages.”

How is that not racist? In your own mind’s eye you may be on the right track, but you need to turn yourself around because modern society is the other way. People will get married to whomever they like. And if it honestly affects you somehow, you need to ask yourself why. Because there is nothing that you can say about someone’s race that will affect whether or not they will get married. Or whether or not they will even care about your statement.

If you still generalize the black culture, you are only fooling yourself. Believe it or not, not everyone in the black communities are on welfare and not working, in fact every family I’ve met has everyone in the house working somehow, someway. So, if you’re a tax payer that dislikes the black culture because you think they’re lazy, you need a new argument. Not every white person is an upstanding citizen. Remember that the next time you use a stereotype. You are dooming a whole society, on the basis of a few.

I took a Sociology class my first year in college, and I was asked if there was ever time where I felt proud to be white. No, there has not ever been one time in my life where I have said “Thank God, I’m white!”. Why? Well, if you read this far, I’m sure you can guess. White people in America have this feeling of ownership. We think we own everything until we realize we don’t. Unfortunately not every adult gets there. Luckily, I’ve been educated at 16 when I entered my first relationship, with a black guy. This does not mean that my opinions are invalid because I’m in an interracial relationship. It means that I have been taught to think for myself, to see the world for what it is.

And if you get offended when I generalize white people as a whole, ask yourself why you get angry. The people who agree with me, won’t be offended, because they know. But those of you who feel misjudged, I challenge you to think about how the races you do this to on a daily basis. Whether or not you were raised to believe this way or not, that is not an excuse. My parents didn’t teach me this belief I have, life and freedom of speech did.

The next time you argue whether or not you’re racist, try not to use this disgusting fallacy. Not only is it for racism, but its the one that made me think it. Stereotypes do not define an entire group. Its 2016 people, evolve or get left in the dust.