Opinion | More than meets the eye
Image generated by DALL•E; conceived by Armon Owlia
People-watching might seem odd to many.
Really, who spends their time observing strangers and pondering their lives? Are they celebrating something like a promotion, or maybe an anniversary?
While it might feel as intrusive as stalking, there's a subtle yet profound difference. People-watching is legal and offers genuine insights into human nature—insights that a casual conversation might miss.
From a young age, my uncle introduced me to this hobby. We’d sit outside, watching people bustle along the sidewalk, narrating their lives based on their appearance and demeanor.
For example, a blonde woman in a red pantsuit with pink heels, heavy makeup, and an audible click with each step might seem merely a passerby to others. My uncle would lean over and whisper, "See that woman, Armon? I bet she's a secretary, unhappy with her job and her relationship." He'd point out her hurried stride or her frown at her phone, and suddenly, it all made sense.
This hobby not only became a passion but also showed me what I wanted to do with my life—not just to write but to understand and interpret the human condition.
However, there’s a risky side to people-watching: stereotyping. We use visible cues—clothes, gestures, expressions—to guess someone’s story, which can be both revealing and dangerously misleading.
Let’s try an experiment: imagine we’re sitting on a park bench. A man walks towards you, and before you look at his face, you examine everything else. He stands with a sturdy, athletic build and carries himself with a potent mix of intensity and purpose.
His blonde hair is neatly styled, yet his sharp, scrutinizing gaze might give you pause, compelling you to think twice before approaching. He wears casual attire—a fitted t-shirt with jeans, which underscores a commanding presence that demands attention without words. As he walks past, his arms swing ever so slightly; each step is purposeful, showing a precision that suggests constant strategy.
Maybe he’s a personal trainer or even a retired athlete. The attire, the walk, and the physical build all suggest that. So, what do you think he does?
Got it in your head? Now look at his face: it is Gordon Ramsay.
If you guessed Ramsay, well done! But if not, this illustrates a critical point: appearances and behaviors can deceive us profoundly.
Appearances, behaviors, words—they are all deceiving. Yet, before I even revealed it was Ramsay, you probably didn’t realize that, based solely on the description, it was him. But that’s precisely what we do. It is what we’ve done since the dawn of time; something hard-wired into our brains for survival—to quickly assess whether someone is friend or foe.
Such behaviors have also given rise to significant scourges in society that we now actively try to eradicate: racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, ableism, etc. These have been fueled by propaganda, not observation or fact, but by innuendo. Jews caricatured for their noses and wealth, African Americans depicted as brutish and lazy, Asians with exaggerated facial features—slanted eyes and buck teeth—and speaking broken English; these are just some of the most pervasive and readily available examples.
Fortunately, we have largely moved past these stereotypes. History and facts have caught up, and when such stereotypes reappear, we swiftly denounce them for what they are. However, as we eliminate old stereotypes, new ones form. With the aid of technology that captures everything we say and do, the stereotypes that emerge now—even if we're challenging the old—will be much harder to break because they are seen as being based on fact.
Not only do these stereotypes perpetuate certain behaviors, but they also create more problems than solutions, including increased discord and separation.
For example, consider the stereotype of African Americans depicted as gangsters, exploiting social sympathy to get what they want, as portrayed on TV and through cultural icons like Tupac Shakur, and during events like the Los Angeles Riots in 1992 and following the murder of George Floyd.
We’ve seen the footage, heard the music, and witnessed the personas, yet little has been done to challenge these stereotypes. The more they are showcased, the more ingrained they become, making them harder to dismiss, even though they are mere generalizations, which is what also makes portrayals of strong Black individuals like Olivia Pope, Miranda Bailey, Randall Pearson, and Derek Morgan such a breath of fresh air.
Take the film "American Fiction," which recently won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. It sharply criticizes this issue through its protagonist, a talented Black writer and college professor who authors a book filled with stereotypes under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh—a name he uses to distance himself from the content.
Despite his reservations, calling the book "garbage," it becomes a hit, celebrated by many as a true representation of the Black experience, when in fact, it is nothing more than the exploitation of those very stereotypes.
Here's another example: the pervasive stereotype of millennials being branded as whiny, entitled and self-absorbed—quick to judge yet oblivious to their own contradictions. This stereotype infiltrates the language used to describe people, places, and things, interpretations of events, or even mundane choices like clothing or grocery shopping locations.
Such sweeping generalizations complicate interactions both within the generation and with others, fostering isolation as it amplifies internal discord.
Despite this, the reality for many millennials is far from this caricature. This image grossly overlooks the economic struggles and social challenges they face, reducing a diverse generation to a simplistic and often derogatory stereotype.
Finally, just to circle back to what we talked about earlier regarding Asians and Asian-Americans. Remember the stereotypes of buck teeth, squinty eyes, and broken English? Well, a monumental figure who challenged these depictions was Bruce Lee, who, by his own admission after watching Mickey Rooney’s now-infamously problematic performance in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” aimed to create a new, empowering image for Asians. He succeeded spectacularly, but his success also inadvertently reinforced the existing “model minority” myth, which had been around since the 1950s.
Additionally, while destroying one stereotype, he created another: Asians as martial arts experts and paragons of intellectual prowess, further perpetuating the idea that they are superior in ways that are conveniently non-threatening to the social hierarchy.
While Lee’s image was meant to be empowering, it also cemented this myth that ironically served to simplify the Asian experience by placing them on a pedestal, yet overlooking the vast social and economic challenges and inequalities they face, and I say this as a deep fan of Lee’s work and philosophy.
So, clearly, we have a problem: with increasing information and technology, which will not be going away, and our overall necessity to generalize and stereotype, which has been part of the human condition since day one, we need to find an achievable way to, if not eliminate, then at least minimize it as much as possible.
But believe it or not, there is a solution, and it isn’t to stop talking about it or even getting rid of it. It is something that is very simple, yet amazingly difficult. We need to stop just watching and listening and start asking. Ask questions and try to get to understand the person before slapping the label.
It is not easy and it won’t be something that can just fix itself in a day. This is an issue that existed before any of us and will continue to exist long after we’re gone in many shapes and sizes.
Look at issues such as reverse racism, specifically that of African Americans towards White people, the stigmatization of mental health within Asian communities, gender roles pressuring Latino men, or even the fetishization of mixed ethnicities, just to name a few.
These are complex and deep-seated issues within these communities that are difficult to understand and, sometimes, because of cultural biases, may never be fully understood.
But the step towards breaking down stereotypes and minimizing the damage is simply to start at question one. Who knows? Maybe the next stereotype is that we listen and ask more than we presume and judge.
That’s definitely one I can live with.
