The Inside Clique

(Author's Note: I don't know what I write about sometimes. For this particular piece I pulled, it was part of a high school English speech I did about cliques. Back then, I really hated the thought of it all, but... now, I just wonder what was going through my head...)





Hello. I’m a nerd here to talk to you today about… oh, you stopped listening. Good. That means I got your attention. You've already identified what I am just by noting my clique. Maybe I should guess what yours are. Some of you are possibly "sport-aholic" jocks who just love sports 24/7. You could be the over-achieving preppie that has never gotten a B or lower in their life. Then again, you might be a darkly goth, an instant poser, a social butterfly who won't shut up, a pessimistic loner… I could go on. And if you were offended by anything I said or the names I used, forgive me for using those names. Throw the tomatoes and haul me backstage for a beating later.

Cliques like these (along with others) and the stereotypes that (sometimes) accompany them are usually things we use to identify a person. Maybe one or two (or more) of you’re going, "Well, that’s a good thing, isn't it?" Of course it is... NOT. Need an example? Okay. Let’s say there’s this new guy at our school named Billy Bob, and we find out that he's a guy who’s just moved from the countryside. What’re the things we can associate with him just with this information? We could assume that he loves country music and farm work when he really likes rock and would rather sleep than do schoolwork. Or, for those of us who have a tendency to say mean things about people, we could say that he's a hillbilly, which, when using stereotypes, roughly translates to "infinite amount of stupidity within." Not very cool. We should stop using cliques and stereotypes to identify people (that we may not know) and get to know them for who they are and what they do, not by what they look like and what society sees them as. Simply put: the old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover."

One reason we do this (and why we should get rid of them) is because we are afraid. Yes, you heard me right; we fear the people we don’t have any clue about: the people we have never met, the people we’d never want to encounter in public. And why is that? We don’t know their potential. We don’t want them to shoot us down out of the sky. We don’t know if they’re going to be the next president or valedictorian or Miss Popularity or whatever. So what do we do? We mock them. We screw up their morale. We make sure that we beat them down and kick them whenever they try to get back up (not necessarily physically). Usually, the unfortunate people in this situation would happen to include the small fry of high school society - the timid new person at school who stands out from the crowd, the group of optimistic losers down the hall who’re slowly budding with talent, the lazy poser two seats away from you in 3rd period who’s trying to hit on that person you secretly like, and even me… okay, what’s with the faces?

Anyway, did you notice anything in common between the given examples of targets? Well, kick off the poser from the list, and at least one or two things should be fairly obvious: uniqueness and being open-minded. Being ourselves and/or having a mind of our own almost always makes one an immediate threat to the majority of people around them. As one researcher for the BBC put it, "...teenagers are quite intelligent, free thinking, and capable of doing great things, but because they are free thinking, and individual, they are mocked, taunted, broken, and held down" (qtd. in BBC). That’s who we're frightened of, and we make sure that they don’t pose a threat to us - if you know what I mean. All of this is just one reason why we should end the use of cliques.

Another reason to take them out is because many misinterpretations and misunderstandings can be made – either on accident or on sadistic purposes (hopefully not the latter). There's a good example of this out there – in fact, it’s nearly local. Have you ever heard of a kid called "Weed-Boy" in Oxnard? Well, the tale goes that he was an 8th grader who recently moved from Washington state. Apparently, the rumor was started by a fellow classmate of his who thought he sold weed because he looked like he did. A simple misunderstanding because the kid thought Weed-Boy dressed like a stoner. If you want to know what happens afterwards in this twisted fairy tale of sorts, just ask me. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm Weed-Boy. No, I don’t sell drugs and stuff, no, I don’t use them, and no, I don't know anybody who does, so quit asking already.

My third (and final) reason (for now) to get rid of cliques is that it's highly uncalled for and could possibly lead to serious consequences. This doesn’t really need much justification, but I'll explain myself anyway. Let's face it, none of us like to be called names. We hate it! We hate being put-down or being ridiculed or what not. Some people can just let the scorn go in one ear and out the other and just go on (lucky people...). And others… well, others can't really take it. One of three things happen if they reach their breaking points. The first is an emotional breakdown. Hey, people need to let it out somehow. Another possibility is suicide – which obviously isn't pretty. And the third – and possibly most bloody and violent – is a quest for vengeance. You want a good example of this? Then think of Columbine. In case you don't recall that incident, the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado cost the lives of 15 people, including the two responsible. It's not the only school hit out there by kids who went berserk because they couldn’t take the pressures of being oppressed anymore, but it's the mostly popularized media event. This is more proof that shows that cliques and stereotypes are making the social order even more chaotic and messy.

In conclusion, the act of assigning people cliques and believing the associated stereotypes should be stopped at once. I've seen both "sides" of the clique chart, and it isn’t pretty and glamorous on either end. We should get to know people for who they are and not what they appear to be. We should stop this cold war of sorts and instead accept one another, not beat down on the losers, not envy the smartest people, and not believe that guy across the school's got the I.Q. of garden tools because he looks like he does. Anyone can start to tear down the walls of separation by even the simplest of actions. You could befriend someone who’s not in your clique (or not in the upper ones), learn more about them, and actually respect who they are and appreciate what it is they do. You could stand up for the underdogs and buy them time to get back on their feet (not necessarily meaning literally – although it could be) when they’re in trouble. Heck, you could even join a hated clique and observe for yourself how life is on both sides.

Those are some of the actions I want you to do. You may not listen to me, you may not believe what I'm saying... you could even be asking yourself why I'm here in the first place. Well, I'm here to make a stand for the oppressed, the beaten-down, the underdogs. I'm here to help start a revolution of sorts and remove the social barriers we’ve placed upon ourselves. Whether I do this alone or not depends on you. You may not act now or 'til next week; for all I know, you may not want to act until Christmas of your Senior year. Hey, you may not even do anything altogether. That's fine by me. Just know that for every second the barriers are up, the farther and farther this world and everyone in it gets torn apart from each other. As the saying goes, "United we stand; divided we fall." If we make peace with one another, we'll rise even stronger. Separation will only increase tension, hatred... and utterly bring about our downfall.