Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero.original_ [38]
Group discussion exercise: Discuss the following dialogue with two or three classmates. Decide the merits of Quentin's view. Be sure to check any tendency to face-saving that arises during discussion.
Quentin: There'd be a lot less ignorance in the world today if parents didn't pass on their views to their children.
Lois: How can they avoid doing so?
Quentin: By letting children form their own views. There's no law that says Democrats have to make little Democrats of their children, or that Protestants have to pass on their Protestantism.
Lois: What should they do when their children ask them about politics or religion or democracy?
Quentin: send them to the encyclopedia, or, if the parents are capable of objective explanation, explain to them the various views that are possible and encourage them to choose their own.
Lois: How can you ask a three-year-old to make a choice about religion or politics or philosophy?
Quentin: in the case of young children and parents would simply explain as much as the children could understand and say that when they get older they can decide for themselves.
Lois: How would all this benefit children or society?
Quentin: it would make it possible for children to grow up without their parents' prejudices and would help control the number of ignoramuses in the world.
1 "T.A.: Doing OK," Time, August 20, 1973, p.44
2 Harold Kolansky, M.D., and William T. Moore, M.D., "Toxic Effects of Chronic Marijuana Use," Journal of the American Medical Association, October 2, 1972, pp.35-41.
3 "Abortion Sought for Retarded Woman," Binghamton Press, September 23, 1982, p.88.
4 "Bar License Church Veto Struck Down," Binghamton Press, December 14, 1982, p.4A.
P2-C09-5
CHAPTER TEN
STEREOTYPING
Stereotypes are a form of generalization. When we generalize, we group or classify people, places, or things according to the traits they have in common. For example, we may say most Masai tribesmen are unusually tall or Scandinavians are usually fair-skinned. If our observations are careless or too limited, the generalization may be faulty, as when someone says, "Hollywood hasn't produced any quality movies in the past fifteen years."
But stereotypes are more serious than mere faulty generalizations. They are fixed, unbending generalizations about people, places, or things. When a stereotype is challenged, the person who holds it is unlikely to modify or discard it, because it is based on a distortion of perception. As Walter Lippmann explains, when we stereotype," we do not so much see this man and that sunset; rather we notice that the thing is man or sunset, and then see chiefly what our mind is full of on those subjects."1
The most common kinds of stereotyping are ethnic and religious. Jews are shrewd and cunning, clannish, have a financial genius matched only by their greed. Italians are hot-tempered, coarse, and sensual. The Irish, like the Poles, are big and stupid; in addition, they brawl, lust after heavy liquor and light conversation. Blacks are primitive and slowwitted. (Often each of these stereotypes includes a virtue or two – Jews are good family members, Italians artistic, Poles brave, the Irish devout, blacks athletic.)
Beyond these stereotypes are numerous other, less common ones; Swedish women, foreign film directors, Southern senators, physical education instructors, fundamentalist clergymen, agnostics, atheists, democrats, republicans, Mexicans, scientist, prostitutes, politicians, English teachers, psychiatrists, construction workers, black militants, college dropouts, homosexuals, and society matrons. There