Smart. Dumb. Nice. Mean. Other things that probably shouldn’t be repeated. These are things we think of people, some… no, most of which we think without getting to know them. What’s the word for those? The things that we think of people as soon as we see them. The things that we think of people from other countries, ethnicities or religions. The things that we think of people we don’t know. Oh right, stereotypes.

Most people will probably say that they don’t stereotype people and that they get to know them before thinking things about them. But the thing is that we all stereotype people, not always consciously, yet we still do it.

A lot of people assume that because someone is a Muslim that they must be a terrorist, or because they are Asian they must be smart, or because they are blonde they must be dumb. These are stereotypes that many of us are familiar with.

A graphic artist, Yanko Tsvetkov, came up with the idea of “Mapping Stereotypes”; his maps show how different regions, ethnicities, religions, or sexual orientations view different parts of the world. His map titled “The World According To Americans” has different areas labeled with what Americans think of them. All of Mexico is labeled “Maids and Gardeners”, the U.S. is labeled “Civilized World”, China is labeled “Supermarket”, and Antarctica is called “Aliens”.

Tsvetkov has created many other maps, which are up on his website alphadesigner.com/, including “Europe According To The Future 2022” with England labeled “Passive Aggressive Kingdom” and a part of northern Italy simply labeled “Gays”. “The region around Rome will be under gay occupation because at some point all gay people will get tired of Pope Benedict’s homophobic remarks and will invade the city to shut his mouth forever,” he claims. Although there is something offensive to almost everyone on these map it is all basically true to how people stereotype these places.

Schools and many other organizations are trying to combat stereotypes. Marvel Comics has come up with a new Ms. Marvel, a 16-year old Pakistani from Jersey City, and she is a Muslim. She will be the first Muslim woman to get a solo title in a comic book series, which apparently is a big deal in the superhero universe. Quite a switch from the old Ms. Marvel, a blonde, blue-eyed Bostonian; Kamala Khan will help combat the Muslim terrorist stereotype. Comic superheroes serve as signs of their times, the original Ms. Marvel was invented during the height of the 1970s women’s movement. Now after 9/11 and other terrorist attacks the new Ms. Marvel will help symbolize hope for Muslims around the world.

Why even stereotype people though? What’s the motive behind it? Why stick a label on a person that they can’t get away from? Why assume that someone is one way when they really aren’t? Because we don’t know another way. We are so used to putting people in this box so they can’t be any different than what we think they should be like. We need to wipe the slate clean of these stereotypes and reset our minds to be open to what other people are really like.