International Day of the World's (Indigenous) People

I was just thinking about this day, the 9th of August, the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People and it just hit me… why don’t we dedicate a day for celebrating people, I mean all people, all kinds of people, of sexes, colours, hairy people, fat, tall, asexual, you deserve a big and fancy balloon.

Intermission –eat your chips: I just killed a teeny tiny and very annoying insect that was strolling on the laptop screen, I hope today is not the World’s Most Annoying Little Creatures Day. Anyway, I am listening to Barbara Streisand right now, "Memoryyyyyy" –yeah I know a bit corny but I’m in a really romantic mood… you know being a girl and all my heart gets no rest…

So, during the day we celebrate people, we should ponder over huge issues that threaten society. You know the way a big fat elephant can scare the hell out of cute little Ratatouille (I named the mouse of the metaphor after the Disney’s character so what? Hahaha) –oops, isn’t there a stupid misconception about elephants having a musophobia? Anyway, when mentioning these huge social issues I was actually referring to sexism, racism, fanaticism: Boys excel in math and chess, girls dig painting their nails, while black people are stupid but have big private areas ‘cause God did them a favor. Yeah right.

What interests me the most is not the attitude of a racist, but the social behaviour of a racism victim. The “stereotype threat” affects our behavior and is reflected in every aspect of our personality. Examples, please gather around:

1) In 1964, Katz, Epps, & Axelson, studied the stereotype threat by testing it on students: African-American students performed better on an IQ test when they believed their performance would be compared to other African-Americans as opposed to European-Americans.

2) In 1965 Katz, Roberts, & Robinson conducted the following experiment which depicts the stereotype threat in the best possible way: African Americans performed better on an IQ test when it was presented to them as a simple test than when it was said to be an IQ test which would measure their intelligence. In some formal words what conveys from these studies: Low performance expectation may cause withdrawal of effort. The stereotype threat might be expected to undermine the standardized test performance of African-Americans relative to European-Americans who do not suffer this added threat. Oh my God, too formal… I feel like wearing glasses, hahaha.

Imagine you’re a comedian and you have to make fun of everything, nature catastrophes, wars, death, racism, every single tragedy, wouldn’t you think that stereotypes that socially torture us, stereotypes that in part caused Auschwitz and Apartheid, stereotypes that WE form, and then strike us like a boomerang are the silliest phenomenon ever occurred on earth?

I mean nothing’s there, you say black is bad, then you realize you’re black and kill yourself. Get it? I wrote once in a novel: I hurt my heart just to satisfy my depressed nature. That’s it! We need a day, 24 hours to think about these problems, once a year we should walk outside with no worries, less hatred, feeling safe and 100% socially accepted. I am asking too much I know… Whatever dudes, I gotta run, my pop corn’s ready, I’m watching Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs tonight –hey! Don’t jump into any conclusions, don’t be slaves of stereotypes… I’ll bite your nose! See ya soon…

Published by OviMagazine.