Whyte Gurls & The Po-Lease

I was raised with some serious misconceptions growing up. I shouldn't say I was raised with them. I adopted them at a very young age. My definition of a misconception is a believe of attitude developed from no, or very little, exposure to a subject. For example, when I was growing up, I had the worst opinion of white women. Not all white women. Just the ones who dated black men. I used to believe that they were weak, stupid, and easily manipulated. This misconception was born from my limited exposure to white women and the circumstances in which I was exposed. From my father to my uncles, there were always a string of white women following them around at their beckoned call. They seemed happy to do or provide anything without getting any positive feedback in return. Again, this is the perception from my young eyes; and trust me, I wasn't getting the full picture. It got so bad that after high school, my three goals were: 1.)Get an apartment on The Hill, 2.)Get a car, and 3.) Get a white girl from Moundsville to pay for it all. I also was under the impression that Moundsville was fertile ground for those kinda white girls. Of course, by meeting new people and leaving my mind open I began to see that my belief was, in fact, a misconception. It started when I met Becky Pearson. She was a professional, white woman. She is the person I credit for getting me into the career that I am doing currently. She was smart,, funny, pretty, and she was married to a black man. I was certain that he wore that pants, and on a regular basis told her to shut up or talked down to her in some kinda way. I was completely wrong. They had a happy, healthy relationship. She was a a very professional Therapist and he was street dude. He got his act together, but he started out as a stereotypical street dude. I was stunned. From there, I met Amy Ramsey and she was another professional, strong, smart white woman. I worked on that misconception until I developed a new belief: There are dysfunctional women in all races, creeds, and colors. Another one was my feelings about police. When I was young, a police officer pulled over my father and I while we were driving. The police officer called my father a "long haired, nigger faggot". I'll never forget that. Since then, I have been very leery and nervous around the police. I remembered how I got past my white women thing and now I have set out to really get to know some police officers, and their families. That way, I would see them as human beings with families, instead of animals with guns and badges. I'm still working on that one though. I challenge everyone reading this to confront a misconception in their life. It could be about anything or anyone. Just look at yourself or your life and think about beliefs or ideas that you hold on to without much basis. Once you identify it, examine it. Find out if it's really a misconception, or a fact. If the examination proves it to be a misconception, begin the reversal process. It can only better your life to make it more inclusive that exclusive; but that's just my opinion though, and who the hell am I?