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By Root 1313 0

of stereotyping is "mine is better" thinking, especially in its extreme form, ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism – the belief that one's nationality, race, or religion is superior to other people's – can be present in out-groups as well as in the majority, and in newcomers to a country as well as in "established" groups. For example, in the United States the heavy immigration of the past hundred years brought millions of people who had their own language and culture. These people understandably tended to remain for a time within their own groups. Later when they became assimilated into the general culture, they retained many of their fixed views of outsiders. Traces of ethnocentrism can linger for generations and resurface in movements of ethnic pride. Despite the obvious value of such pride, particularly for groups whose rights have been denied and whose emotional well-being has been undermined, it can do great harm.

James G. Martin sees ethnocentrism as "the root of almost all the evil in intergroup relations." :We are almost constantly obligated to choose sides in human relations," he argues, "to identify ourselves with one group or another. There is often no room for neutralism… one must be either for or against, enemy or patriot, in-group or out-group."8

Another cause of stereotyping is what Gordon Allport calls "the principle of least effort." Most of us learn to be critical and balanced in our thinking in some areas, he notes, but we remain vulnerable to stereotyped thinking in others. "A doctor," for example, "will not be swept away by folk generalizations concerning arthritis, snake bite, or the efficacy of aspirin. But he may be content with overgeneralizations concerning politics, social insurance, or Mexicans."9 Will Rogers may have had a deeper insight than he knew when he observed how most people are fools when they venture from their areas of competence.

EFFECTS OF STEREOTYPING

Stereotyping does a great injustice to those who are stereotyped. It denies them their dignity and individuality and treats them as nameless, faceless statistical units of a group. The effects of stereotyping on all who encounter it are similarly disturbing. It triggers their frustrations and anxieties, feeds their fears of conspiracies, and creates a network of suspicion and scapegoating.

Given the popular stereotypes, what is more natural than seeing the Jews as responsible for periods of economic instability, the Italians as responsible for the soaring crime rate, blacks as responsible for the decay of the inner city, and radicals and atheists as responsible for the erosion of traditional values and the loss of influence of organized religion. Stereotypes proved a ready supply of simplistic answers to whatever questions happen to be plaguing us at the moment.

Nor do the Stereotypers themselves escape the rippling effects of their fixation. Indeed, they are often its most pathetic victims. Stereotyping cuts them off from reality and cripples their thinking. Anton Chekhov was right in observing that people are what they believe. When they believe that others fit into neat categories, they believe a lie. In the sense in which Chekhov spoke, they become that lie.

A good many people see all police officers as corrupt "pigs," all college professors as impractical or misguided theorists, all sex education teachers as leering perverts, and all advocates of nuclear disarmament as subversives. It is difficult, sometimes impossible, for such people to deal with complex issues with such views in mind. How, for example, can people deal sensibly with questions of Indian land claims when they see every Indian as a feathered savage uttering bloodcurdling shrieks while burning settlers' homes and scalping women and children? And how can people be reasonable about the issue of welfare when they see the poor as scheming, lazy, irresponsible, filthy, immoral, wasteful, undeserving scoundrels?

AVOIDING STEREOTYPING

It is not easy to set aside stereotypes that have been in your mind since childhood, particularly if they have