In our world today, language can be used for many things and it holds a great deal of power. It is used in both good and bad ways. A stereotype is a mere assumption that seems to be "common knowledge". When we don't fully understand or know something or someone it is easy to judge them in a wrong, sometimes even harsh way, that may be completely inaccurate.  Saying that blonde women are dumb, all Muslims are terrorists, and all Asians are communist are some good examples of stereotypes. Just because something is true of one person, does not mean that automatically everyone similar to them is the exact same way. We all have our own individual unique traits.  Our culture, language, and race should not define who we are; they are only a piece of us.

Language is one of the tools used to create stereotypes. This would be an example of how language is used in a negative way. In her Ted Talk, "The danger of a single story", Chimamanda Adichie explains her true cultural voice and shares why hearing a single story of a person or country has the potential to create deep misunderstandings. When we hear one thing about someone we automatically define them by this single story. Instead of trying to learn more about them and find out who they truly are, we judge them. Judging someone solely by what our language tell us, through the media and internet, is completely unacceptable. I believe it is necessary to have a conversation with someone before making a judgment on this person. If you do this, you're perception of that person could be completely different. When Adichie moved to the United States from Nigeria, her roommate asked to hear her tribal music, knowing by her appearance that she was African. This was a terribly wrong misconception considering Adichie listened to similar music that her roommate listened to. Language, in literature and media, often portray something one way. Even if the portrayal is true to some degree, Social Media completely disregards the other that is not always true. For example, we hear in the news that Africa is poor and assume that every African lives in poverty. While it is true that there are Africans in poverty, not every single African is poor and this is not their only defining characteristic.

Another example of language being turned into a preconception is in The "F Word" by Firoozeh Dumas. In this story, Dumas is referring the F word to her first name, Firoozeh. She  was born in Iran and moved to America as an immigrant with her family. She talks about the struggles she goes through having a sort of unique name in American culture. People make fun of her, judge her, and ignore her just because she is different. I agree with her in the fact that people need to learn to accept others even if they have a different language, perhaps leading to a different name. She should not be condemned or stereotyped for being "un-normal". A similar experience occurs in "Mother Tongue", by Amy Tan. Amy Tan grew up Chinese but, learned to speak English very well and became an author. Her mom on the other hand spoke only a little bit of English and so she became defined partly by the fact that she spoke "broken" or "limited" English. Tan explains that just because her mother's form of English is different than most native English speakers is, does not mean it is broken. She merely speaks in her own native tongue and this is perfectly fine.

We all have been guilty of judging someone in a wrong manner at some point in our lives. However, we all should come to the agreement that our different languages should be viewed in a positive light; as we learn to accept each other's differences and value people for who they really are, not just what our language tells us they are. Language is a gift and it should not be taken advantage of or misused. Every language has value, as does every person. Using language to create a stereotypical preconception of someone or something is not right. Instead, language should be used to uplift, encourage, and love others. This is the beautiful power of language. This is the language we need to use.