Object Or Person??

I was talking with someone the other day. The conversation had to do with stereotypes and how certain people were bothering him because of their (stereotyped) behavior.  I listened and I must say it was really disturbing. It went something like this:
"I don't know why they want to wear their clothes like _____!"
"They talk really ____ and none of it makes sense."
"They're all just _____."
"None of them are _____"
Get the picture?
My response was similar to that of what I learned while in Prison going through the Life Connections Program. There we learned just exactly what causes wars with each other and wars within our heart. It all starts with my view of people or in this case, the view of the person who was _____.
I asked, "What's the first thing you think of when I say ______ (a noun for the individual discussed). He began to rattle of a list of descriptions that were all of a negative connotation. "So you are seeing this person as ____, Right?" I asked "What does that automatically make him to you?"
"I don't know." Was his response.
"An object!" I emphatically answered. When I begin to look at people through a lens of preconceived ideas that makes them no longer a human with different fears, different concerns, different stories, different likes/dislikes and different...well, different everything. Thus I make them an object or a stereotype and not a person.
Dealing with others it is important to first understand them as people; we all come from pasts that make us who we are - some have it better than others. Yet when we begin to assume that all people should act a certain way, live a certain way and be a certain way (that is our way) we cause wars and conflicts between one another.
In summary, I told him, "Wouldn't it be better if you went and befriended this person by talking? Why don't you try finding out who he is, ask him questions and get to know just exactly why he is the way he is. I guarantee that you'll end the conflict within your own heart and begin to build bridges to understanding one another."
That's all any of us want, right? We want to be understood and we can't be understood if we don't first understand.