You must see people as individuals and not as a group.” That phrase was stated in a video at the Auschwitz exhibit at the Reagan Library by a survivor of Auschwitz. He, along with others in the video were pleading for the listener to never allow something as horrific as the Holocaust to ever occur again. This quote has haunted me. I have in my lifetime judged people because of the group that they associate or belong. As I have grown and matured, I have discovered that not only is it wrong to judge people with their groups, but I don’t identify completely with the agenda that people thwart on my groups. As I see the world changing, I have noticed that many people today judge others as a group.
Let me ask you a question. Do you want to live in Florida? Your answer will reveal if you judge people as a group or individuals. I chose that state because so many people, including my students, judge the state according to what the media says about it. I hear the following phrases: “People in Florida are racist.” “People in Florida are homophobic.” “People in Florida are crazy or stupid.” I do take a slight offense at these statements as that is the state in which I grew up.
I had a beautiful education in Florida in a diverse city with a diverse school, but I still get the “look” when I tell people that I grew up in Florida. By the way, I know people today in Florida who are anti-racists, homosexuals, and highly intelligent. I lived there. I know individuals. Now that I live in Los Angeles, people ask me if I know a movie star. Some people think I am crazy for living here. I wonder if it is where I live that gets labeled as a place that has crazy people. Hmm…
When we don’t see people as individuals, we become arrogant and believe we are superior. It’s how it all started in the Holocaust. It sounded so good. It was so wrong. We have judged groups of people on their ethnicity. We have judged the entire church because a few horrible evil people infiltrated themselves into the church and did evil acts. I struggled with the church as an entity, until I realized that I too was part of the problem.
So, what do we do? Do we just shift our thinking? In a way, yes. We must see people as individuals. It starts with getting to know individuals. It requires asking questions, and it requires you to look at yourself more than you do at others.
If you see an entire group of people as one way, you need to get to know individuals within that group. I would encourage getting to know people in-person rather than online because we can hide our true identity online. We can lie as we sit behind a computer better than we can in-person because people can evaluate our body language and our inflection in our voices. We are more honest and truer to who we are in-person.
Join groups where these groups may exist. Serve in your community to get to know various people groups. You will be surprised that when you get to know individuals, that your point of view as them as a group was skewed because the media you follow only sees the point of view as a group, not individuals.
Ask questions. People in our current society do not like questions because they either fear they don’t have the answer, or the question is revealing the truth. The most successful people and the most intelligent people ask questions. Don’t ask questions with people who agree with your point of view but to those who have a different point of view than you. You may learn something. Don’t argue. Listen. Listen to understand. You don’t have to agree, but you will be wiser when you leave the conversation.
Judge yourself more than you do others. Look and see your own sins rather than worrying about the sins of someone you have never met and will never meet. What flaws do you fear people will see in you? Do people judge you as a group with those flaws? Why do you insist to put other people’s flaws on a public forum but hid your flaws? Ask yourself those questions. You may realize that the work you must do in this life to make the world a better place is to work on yourself.
Find something about yourself that goes against what the mob mentality says about you because you are part of a specific group of people because of your ethnicity, gender, age, religion, or political affiliation. When you are able to see that you are not who the group says you are, then you must deduct that other people in other groups are not who society has said they are either.
Take some time to get to know people as individuals. Start seeing the evil that people do as an individual and not as a group. Find the similarities that you have with someone who is different than you. Maybe, just maybe the mob mentality of the media has lied so much that we have begun to believe the lie. Let’s turn around and find and listen to the truth. May we never be so ignorant in our society to allow an atrocity like the Holocaust to ever occur again.
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