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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: Neeka who wrote (47105)5/26/2004 5:29:41 PM
From: Lane3  Read Replies (2) of 793926
 
believes that many problems would be solved if we did less stereotyping and judged people individually on what they do rather than on learned or statistical perceptions

Can't argue with anything that you said, except that I think you are talking about prejudice rather than stereotyping.

Stereotypes are just hackneyed generalizations about groups of people. There are valid and invalid stereotypes. There are positive and negative stereotypes. Negative stereotypes are a precursor to prejudice, which is not a Good Thing. So perhaps it's best to just not stereotype at all, as you say. But, if you'll pardon the nuance, it seems to me like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. As long as one is aware that one is entertaining a stereotype, is not mean-spirited in doing so, nor clumsy enough to apply that stereotype to each individual in the group, I don't see the harm. Stereotypes can be educational. And they certainly provide lots of fodder for comedy clubs. Yakov Smirnoff and Jeff Foxworthy entertained millions off of stereotypes. And even if stereotypes were inherently negative, people will adopt them regardless and there's nothing to be done about it. Better to focus mitigation on prejudice rather than stereotyping, seems to me.

Have we had this discussion before? I'm getting a feeling of deja vu.

I responded to your previous post about stereotyping with a flip retort because I didn't really understand your point and figured you'd elaborate if you wanted to. Was there something in particular that bothered you about my reporting what I suspect is the newsroom stereotype of social conservatives? I think that that particular stereotype is a function of ignorance--we all live on our separate cultural islands, after all--rather than mean-spiritedness, although perhaps willful or negligent ignorance given the role of reporters in society.
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