Rant on Judging One Another

When will we learn to stop judging each others' abilities, personalities or values based on criteria that have little or nothing at all to do with that or that we cannot fully understand because of the life experiences associated with them?

For example: it is truly unfortunate that those judged as lazy based on external criteria (age, ethnicity, race, size) can be among the most hard-working of us, because they are rarely ever given a "free ride" and instead are all too often put in situations where they have to prove otherwise due to having to overcome that stigma.  And yet others judged as lazy act the part because it is expected of them and so they never push themselves to prove otherwise, having questioned or limited what they think of their abilities from the start.

When confronted with such prejudices, it is natural to either go above and beyond acting opposite to them or to embrace them and become that which others perceive one to be.  It is really a kind of shitty cycle that feeds into itself and may even be used to further justify bigotry, hate and prejudice.

So I implore: if you ever find yourself wondering about someone's abilities, personality or values based on external criteria, give them the benefit of the doubt and don't stand in their way or make them work twice as hard to prove otherwise.