The shooting in Fort Hood last week by Major Nidal Malik Hasan have affected many people — myself included.
I work on a Kansas military base and had just started my shift shortly before the shooting. Initially terrified that this was not an isolated incident, I found myself drawn to the newscasts about this event.
After discussing the incident with my peers I see that the reason for this act of violence was that the shooter made blind assumptions about a group of people. He stereotyped much in the same way that many of us have already created or reinforced our stereotypes about him, his religion, his race, his background.
There is not a single human being immune to reaching conclusions about someone based on a stereotype, including me. I believe the best in people. I like to believe that we do not purposefully make these incongruous assumptions about others but find ourselves unable to prevent such thoughts from arising.
From a practical standpoint, we cannot meet and learn enough information about every single person on earth. Our minds automatically filter and categorize in order to process all of the information we experience daily. Identifying similarities among groups is sometimes the best we can manage because it’s easier than seeing the actions of one person as just that — the actions of one person.
As I said before, no one is immune. Our life experiences shape how we interact with others. This is not a problem until we intentionally or unintentionally hurt others because of our inability to recognize this essential characteristic of our identity as humans.
The media, my friends, and I speculate about the reasons why a psychiatrist and a soldier would open fire in the Soldier Readiness Center, killing the very people he’s supposed to support. I only hope we choose our words consciously aware of how they may affect those of a similar background to Major Hasan.
When we stereotype we are doing ourselves a disservice by overlooking the real reasons behind problems that any one of our soldiers may face in the future. They are problems that, left ignored, may leave me and my peers at risk in the future. My heart and thoughts go out to the victims of this tragedy.
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