That's so stereotypical

I've had a lot of people ask me questions lately about the Navajo culture and what we represent. I was able to tell them some of the Navajo creation story and some of the rituals I've been a part of, which isn't a big number. One person asked me if my culture was my religion, because the Navajos believe in Father Sky and Mother Earth and that Navajos were created through a series of worlds. So, they used that as a creation story and figured that something had to branch off of it. I replied with a no because I think there is a lot to it and I was a little agitated by, what I thought of as ignorance, but then, I realized that I shouldn't feel down by something that they don't understand. If Navajos, a people of color, have a creation story within their belief but don't exactly lay it out as an organized religion it makes me wonder how many other groups of people may be stereotyped as belonging to a certain religion.

Being a person of a diverse background and seeing the world from a different perspective than others who are part of the not-so-diverse population. When someone thinks about India and their culture they can assume that Indians are all Buddhist or all Asians are Buddhist. What about people from Africa? What do people know about their religious beliefs? African Americans? There are all these sterotypes of what kind of relgious belief people come from and I don't think that's fair, but I understand that its only because people don't understand. Even if they learn more, the stereotype seems to stand out in a regular day-to-day basis.

I really like learning about what kind of things people know and people would be willing to share. I don't like stereotypes very much because people generalize and catagorize others based on the color of their skin. Take time to know someone for more than just their skin color entails.

Here's a link to the Navajo creation story if anyone is interested: http://www.lapahie.com/Creation.cfm