Quote:
Originally Posted by loochy
You just interchanged stereotypes and racism again. They aren't the same.
Stereotypes are not necessarily racist, although they can be.
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Stereotype - Black people like fried chicken and watermelon: Uhm, ok, big deal. It tastes good. Lots of people like fried chicken and watermelon.
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My wife was gone one night and I was on my own for dinner. I stopped at the grocery store and bought a watermelon because I really like watermelon, and they had barbecue ribs on a half-price special so I picked some of them up on a whim.
Our apartment is vacant, so I had some appointments to show it. I'm eating my dinner and a woman shows up, and as we chat I tell her that my wife is gone so I'm having ribs and watermelon for dinner. It made me kind of glad I'm not black, because I really would have been perpetuating a stereotype, even if it's a non-harmful one.
On that point, though, I don't think it's the "facts" that make stereotypes harmful. It's the fact that you're grouping people together by race and assuming that they're all the same and that they aren't unique individuals. So even a stereotype like "good at math" can be damaging if it implies that you think all Asian people are identical.