If you're judgmental & you know it clap your hands!

So today I took my car to get fixed and a staff person had to drive me home.  He got in the car and started talking and I totally classified him.  He had an accent so I asked him "usted habla español?" And what ensued was a great conversation about how he sees NM & language in NM. I will make this a separate post. The point of this post is to talk about classifying.

So I have to admit I TOTALLY classified the guy.  He didn't look "New Mexican." I just guessed he was probably Venezuelan, and he was! I was not attempting to make any judgements on his character, it just kind of happened naturally. It is kind of the same when people assume I don't speak Spanish because I am white. And I have had a bunch of Spanish speakers do this to me... and there are all kinds of people of different skin tones and races all over Latin America. The people native to these countries know this better than anyone... so why is it that they have a "look" in their heads that a Spanish speaker must have?  Probably for the same reason I thought that guy today wasn't New Mexican.

Maybe this is a blanket statement, but most Spanish speakers would probably have tried to classify the guy too. Most of the time when this happens a really nice conversation will ensue.  I have seen this happen. Yes there might be little jokes that go back and forth about the people, the language, but it goes both ways, and is more like two great friends who like a different football team.  It can be like a bonding thing.

For example: Costa Ricans say "pura vida" so when I worked with a Costa Rican in Guatemala her Mexican, Peruvian, Colombian and Guatemalan friends would walk around saying "purrrrraaaaa viddddaaaaaa!" all the time. :) It made her laugh and thus she did the same to them.

Like Carmella said in an early post, basically it is human to judge or classify  people and I don't think this is naturally bad. We draw off experience we have, and yes, we draw off stereotypes that maybe don't have any basis in reality. I think the difference becomes when you have bad intentions. If I would have had bad experiences with Venezuelans in the past I might have been less willing to talk to him, misinterpret him, judge him in a negative way. BUT I have had great experiences with Venezuelans in the past and this contributed to a lively conversation.

So we all judge but I think the word "judge" has gotten a bad reputation.  Since we all do it I think the key is keeping the FRUIT of our judgement in check.  We are intelligent enough people to realize that our judgements and feelings sometimes go against what is right.  Since I kind of enjoy the poetic idea of original sin I'll put it in layman's terms: We were born bad (or with the ability and drive to be bad) so in every moment we should check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. :)