Day 97

The problem with categories

We all look at the world and analyze it based on categories. It’s part of our brain to do so, otherwise, we would go crazy, trying to process each moment as a completely new experience.

In a sense, those generalizations (the act of creating and attributing categories to events, people, and things) work as a guarantee to live a better life.

The problem emerges out of the wrong categories or process of categorization.

Now, the media is a great catalyst for these generalizations, usually, making it about race, sexuality, or gender. This is a way to communicate an idea in a simple, albeit wrong way.

The solution is not abandoning these categories but realizing which are misleading and replacing them with better ones.

That demands an active attitude from us. We need to be critically thinking about whatever we consume and how we process it.

That’s the true way to praise Métis.