You Have a Problem

I know it's Christmas and everyone is filled with the holiday spirit, or at least I hope you are. Instead of giving you some sappy holiday story though, I'm going to pitch you something real.

Are there some days where you feel you just can't stand people because of the way they act? Or, are there just some people that you can't stand because of their clothes, appearance, or maybe even the people they chill with? Just let me ask you one question, why? Don't know? Of course you don't. A study done by Jessica Hopkins at Northern Kentucky University can help you better understand why you do these things.

"Social identity theory predicts a correlation between self-esteem and acceptance of others under the assumption that an individual with low self-esteem would satisfy the need for in-group favoritism by expressing prejudice. Our results support the hypothesis that individuals with low self-esteem are less accepting of others," states Hopkins.

This simply means that most people our age have a problem with self esteem, and according to the statement, one would judge others because of their friends and a need to "belong" to a certain group. You know it's true. I see it everyday. It is normal for teenagers to judge and create prejudice. Otherwise your friends would make fun of you and you wouldn't be "cool" anymore. Here is your next brain teaser. Why do you care what your friends think? This means that they are judging you, and what a coincidence, you and the people you hurt are in the same boat! How about that? Number two, are they really your friends if they do that to you? I didn't think so.

So why are you going to sit there and be an associate of this hate crime. Or, in your terms, "Why you gotta sit there and be a hater?" There is an old school saying that says " What goes around comes around." Well my friend, if you don't watch yourself it might be coming to you. Of course there are going to be people different from you, everybody is different. The goal is to be unique and be your own person. So why knock someone for being who they are? Unless you want everyone to be fake... I didn't think so.

I will leave you with some words of wisdom from a great mind we all knew when we were once two feet tall, little rays of sunshine and did not care about prejudice and self - esteem.

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