Stop the Stereotypes, Kennedy

When I meet new people from around the area, one of the first questions almost everyone asks is “what school do you go to?” like it automatically says exactly who I am. If I were to say one school I would automatically be “Dirty” or if I said another I’d be “a rich girl” It’s no secret that schools around the not-so-huge city of Cedar Rapids get their own reputations. Almost all of us know people that completely deter those stereotypes, but that doesn’t stop the school from getting the generalization anyways. Did it ever occur to any of us that maybe we aren’t so perfect after all? That maybe we have no right to call an entire group of people “orange people” or “dirty sluts”?  That maybe we have a reputation too?

I was trying to figure out what Kennedy’s stereotype is, so I started asking around, and personally I don’t think one single group can represent what Kennedy is; but I got responses from “Dirties” to “Potheads” to “Sluts”.  Dirties, potheads, and sluts, oh my! Really though, all jokes aside, is that really all Kennedy is? A giant group of potheads, sluts, and dirties? I’d like to think not! I think Kennedy is a pretty outstanding school, and I don’t think it’s just me.

Another stereotype I heard a lot is that we are rude. I was a little shocked by this, Kennedy has always seemed like a “welcome you with open arms” kind of place to me. So just out of curiosity, I asked them why “rude” came to their minds. Like with almost any schools stereotype, the reason came from a few people once upon a time, being rude. It amazed me how one girls comment at a basketball game, or one show choir mom’s bad judgment call at a competition made us become “the rude school”. 

Instead of accusing everyone for every stereotype that Kennedy has ever had, I think its best that we take a step forward from now on. Let’s stop making ourselves look like the “rude school” or whatever other stereotype we might have. It obviously doesn’t take a lot of work to get a label, so I think we should realize that maybe that one comment or bad judgment call can affect every single person at Kennedy. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I’m kind of sick of hearing “ooh you go to Kennedy…” Eventually, I’d like to get to the point where there’s no more tone of disappointment, or judgment when talking about our school but rather, a tone of approval and welcome instead.

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