Hurricane Harvey and the Dangers of Stereotyping

One would think an event like Hurricane Harvey would draw Americans closer and put aside political differences, at least for a while. I believe events like Harvey are now working to polarize and divide Americans further. It is sad, but pundits cannot wait to throw their political rhetoric over the situation. The man-made climate change stories have hit the front page, of course blaming this storm on global warming. If that is not bad enough, other pundits are calling the victims of the Hurricane hypocrites. These stories portray the victims as Nazis, Anarchists, and Secessionists who are being saved by big government. Because of this portrayal of ALL Texas residents as being racists, bigots, and Trump supporters, the State got what it deserved.

The latter stories are stereotypical because it assumes ALL Texans are Nazis, Anarchists, and Secessionists. However, the area’s most affected by Hurricane Harvey are located in Harris County and the large metro areas of Houston, Beaumont, and Port Arthur. These areas demographics consist of a large number of minorities and Democrats. Also, Romney won Texas by nearly 20 points in 2012 and that margin was reduced by more than half in 2016. In other words, a lot of Texans had a rough time voting for Trump. That aside, the stereotyping of Texans is wrong for a number of reasons. First, most of the people conducting rescues were not working for the government, they were average citizens using their own resources (boats) to save the lives of Americans regardless of their gender, race, or creed. Without this type of cooperation, hundreds more would have perished. Secondly, Leftist confuse extreme right-wing behavior with that of moderate limited government. There is a big difference between extremism and folks who want a responsible government. And those who believe in a limited government believe one role of government is to protect citizens from rogue nations and natural disasters (common defense). Most Americans have no issue with the local, state, and federal governments spending money to protect citizens (common defense). On the other hand, they have an issue with the federal government spending money on issues not enumerated in the Constitution.

This type of behavior (stereotyping of citizens) is dangerous for many reasons. First, it is a lie. To classify a State in a category of persons that probably consists of less than 5% of the population is politics at its worst. Secondly, and most importantly, the behavior of those doing the stereotyping is no different than the behavior of those they are classifying as extremists. The history of slavery, gender bias, and other discriminatory behavior in this country was carried out by persons who stereotyped. Yes, stereotyping is a form of discrimination. Southern slave owners stereotyped slaves as being inferior, Eugenicists stereotyped the deformed, intellectually challenged, and other so called “undesirables” as being inferior, and a great number of males stereotyped women as being inferior. Now, we have a great number of Leftists and Democrats stereotyping Texans as being inferior because they are ALL racists, bigots, and non-conformers to the climate change agenda. Stereotyping is hate and it is no different than the position taken by very dangerous persons in our scared history that led to tragic events such as the Civil War. Yes, those stereotyping citizens today would be of the same mind set as those doing discriminatory stereotyping in our history. These are dangerous people. History has a way of repeating and if Antifa and newspapers want to continue to stereotype ALL whites, conservatives, and Republicans into a class of people they are not then the political divide will continue to grow and get worse.