Do you ever stereotype people? Of course you do. A better question is: Does stereotyping people make you a bad person? Because I can guarantee you that there is a relatively high percentage of people who think stereotyping is immoral behavior. Btw, is stereotyping actually a "behavior"?
Anyway, you're probably thinking, "What is this guy getting at? Of course we all stereotype, so what? And why does he think he knows what I'm thinking?"
Well, obviously I knew what you were thinking, because great minds think alike. Also, thoughts are provoked by other thoughts.
I was reading this book called The Wager. It's a miraculous story about an 18th century British naval ship that shipwrecked off Patagonia, and a handful of crew members survived and returned to England at different times. Not to go to far into the narrative, but the group ended up splitting up and at least members of 3 different groups made it all the way back across the Atlantic to England. Some took as long as 5 years to return.
What does this have to do with stereotyping? Well, this narrative non-fiction book was comprised mostly of shipman's journals. The author then weaves the journals together into a book. The author's voice should rarely be heard. And for the most part, it isn't. Except at a few different periods within the book when the journalist's discussed encounters with "savages," at which point the author always resorted to modern SJW terminology, like "racist" and such. He always referred to the natives as "indigenous people" as (as is often with the likes, made it seem like the natives were superior to their "pale" counterparts) people of such a mindset always do.
Now personally, I don't really care that this author used said language. The book was still a worthy read, even with his obvious biased slant. But during the times I was reading these particular parts during the book, I just knew that the author had to be Jewish.
So, the question becomes, how did I know he was Jewish? Well, because of stereotyping. The only other possible valid stereotype would have been if the author had a female's name, then I would've said, "The author is either Jewish, an overweight single White female, or both." But since the author's name was David, I could rule out the "overweight single White female."
Now, mind you, I haven't said anything negative about the author, or his views. Maybe I share the same views. But, I would speculate that a good percentage of people would immediately refer to me as an "antisemite," or whatever the term is for recognizing Jewish behavior, even though I didn't say anything negative about Jews. Furthermore, where was I wrong? My stereotype was accurate.
Ironically, the same people whom would have a negative opinion about my stereotyping of others would negatively stereotype me. I don't know what the term is for recognizing White Christian male behavior, but I assume it would be "racist" or something like that.
So, the point is, we all stereotype, because stereotyping is the result of knowledgeable intuition, based primarily on pattern recognition, being inherently computed by the human psyche. There's nothing wrong with it until subjectivity gives it a positive or negative charge, and that charge is primarily stereotypical.
Have an amazing day!
