It was the day before that I was standing in 'Hot Topic' that I saw one of the clerks dressed up in a street. I understood the joke of trying out this jacket along with a couple of other people in the store. Most of us thought it is quite funny watching him trying to undo the straps or walking around the store as if nothing was wrong. I noticed a couple of people though that didn't quite look amused. They looked pretty much horrified, well perhaps not that severe, but didn't seem pleased with our antics. As soon as he walked up to help them out, they left. A little question popped into my head...

Why do we judge people so quickly?

I know some people will say or defend themselves saying they don't judge others. Well we all do whether it is on appearance, acts, or others thoughts. There will always be someone we don't quite understand why they do what they do, so we judge them.
I remember going home to the county fair and seeing the regular prisoners of the country cleaning up all the trash cans within the fair. I even remembered seeing one of the them a couple of years before. I was sitting with my sister watching them clean up the fair at 6 am and saw someone jest at them. They didn't do anything of course. That's when my sister asked me why people treat others like that. We knew they weren't really criminals, probably had a DUI, traffic violations, small theft, or even caught with fraud. We knew our county jail wouldn't let murderers clean up a fair with small children and families. Yet they were still treated awful because they were wearing  the stripes.
We knew they did something wrong to get punished, but is that any justification to belittle them not knowing their past or reasons just because they were wearing something that many worse men and women have worn?
One of my reasonings of judging people is that we all want to be the higher ups. We want to be higher in the food chain or pyramid that we live in. For those that have lived near the bottom like I have, you fight to reach higher status. One way of feeling better about your status is to judge those that are less fortunate. We all do it. I will admit that I also judge some people because of what they have done in the past. Even in our history we show how much we judge people. In the past our forefathers judged anyone that was English during the Revolutionary War was the enemy. Anyway found with English clothing or some sort of affiliation with them were often punished for it. Men found at the wrong place and the wrong time were often feathered and tarred because they were judged of being the enemy. The same as during the mid-1800s when every Native American was accused of being the enemy as well. Due to their different skin color, practices, and culture they were considered freaks and a rival. People judged them of being an opponent without looking into how much they could of taught us of their culture or how to live off the land as they had for hundreds of years.
Yes, we Americans have been known to judge other people quite quickly because they weren't like us. Those who don't do the same as our society are judged of being a freak or monstrosity even at times. I mean look at poor Frankenstein's monster, worse judged creature of all time.
Do we really judge those who look, act, or talk differently than us because we don't know about them? Or the fact that we're scared to learn about it or to hear this change?
This is definitely one question I have no answer or conclusion for......