The Sin of Generalization.

Have you witnessed a situation where a son is called a thief or denied access to the good things of life because his father was known to be a thief? Have you also seen a daughter labelled a prostitute because her mother was a prostitute? This thing happens in our society every day and most times people are judged wrongly because they have an affiliation with a notorious person. This has caused a lot of divide in our society today where a certain tribe is tagged evil because one person from the tribe has done you wrong in your relationship with them. Let me be more precise. The age-long belief that the Igbo people of Nigeria loves money so much that they can stop at no length in chasing after the money has been a miss conception that has been used to paint every Igbo man prospective scammer when it comes to business dealings. This belief has caused a lot of Igbo young men the opportunity of a lifetime because their foreign business partner could not trust them enough to go into business with them.

It may seem not to matter to you but the sin and consequences that come with the generalization of belief is and has always remained a great problem to our society. It is in this light that I write this article in a way to draw our attention to a pressing matter such as this. Let me start by asking you a question. Have you ever rejected someone highly qualified for a post because he is from a certain tribe or community believed to have traces of theft in their linage? You can choose to answer this question or not but the truth is that most of us in one or the other has acted in a particular way to others just because we believed that they are coming from a certain background.

Why do I call it a sin? It is a sin because you are already judging someone with who you have not had any direct contact by another person’s behaviour towards you. It is also a sin because you will end up withholding that which rightfully belongs to the person just because of this same belief. The sin of generalization is still very much alive in our world today and this is one of the things that breed racism amongst nations. Just because someone is not from your tribe or because he has been tagged a bad person by an unconfirmed belief should not make you treat them alike without making your research or even getting closer to the person to understand him as an individual and not as you have heard.

To generalize a negative attitude to people of the same tribe of community is like finding a spoilt egg in the crate of egg and because of that, you conclude that all the eggs are bad. You have to check every egg one after the other without any bias just to be sure that you are judging each egg according to their individuality. By so doing, you will get to understand why and what may have caused the egg to spoil instead of condemning all the egg in the crate. This is just how people are being judged by the actions of others who they may not have known but because they are from the same tribe, whatever wrong the first person did is now attached to them. If we can be able to see people and judge them by their actions, we will eliminate this sin of generalization that has eaten deep into our coexistence.

Take a look at our sports arena you will notice a lot of racism going on there and it has become more like a norm even though the authorities have enacted laws to help cushion the effect and increase in racism. We have seen a situation where a club does not buy or feature players from certain ethnicity just because they are believed not to have the required status. This happens even when such a player is known to be a great player, he is not featured and even if he is finally featured, he cannot be made a captain of the team because of racial discrimination. This has gone on for so long that we all need to come together to fight this evil I call generalization. I will want you to judge me by my actions not by what my father or relative did, just the same way you will want me not to judge you by your actions and not other person’s actions.

We can only live as a people who understand that what we say or do matters more than what others have said or done which has affected us in one way or the other and when we do so, we will be able to see and judge others by their actions. Do not refuse a son a lifetime opportunity because of his father’s actions and wrongdoings. Our life will be better by the time we understand that we owe it to each other to show love by not judging or tagging negativity to someone from another person’s actions. Remember that this Sin of Generalization has killed a lot of good potentials and will continue to do so if we do not do anything about it. Don’t call me bad because you don’t like my ethnicity.            

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