Stereotypes (WAS Slut!Seamus and other ships)

[Cindy C.]

Hey,

Jeff wrote:

>It's going to be an uphill battle for the good ones to 
> disprove the facts and the stereotypes. We have several black 
> families living on our street and they're all as nice and quiet as 
> the rest of us. It's only the ones that move into the rental house 
> down the street that always cause problems. 

I only have one issue with this, I think.  I'm not sure it's really
fair to say that some members of a minority group have an uphill
battle to disprove the stereotypes about other members of the group. 
(Correct me if I misunderstood, though, Jeff).  The minority group
members who are not engaged in bad behavior shouldn't have to fight a
battle at all, I would hope.  I mean, if people looked at minority
group members as individuals rather than lumping them together and
generalizing, then the stereotype would vanish all on its own without
any members of the minority group having to do anything differently,
I'd say.  

So in the case of your neighborhood with both polite minority
residents and troublemakers, I'd say the polite residents should just
keep on keepin' on, and nothing more should be expected of them.  It
sounds like some of your neighbors (assuming some of them see the
behavior of some minorities as reflecting on other minorities) may be
the ones who may need to adjust their attitudes.  

JMHO, of course!  ;-)

Cindy -- wishing Jeff's polite neighbors would move in next to her