Is it not wise to stereotype, generalize, discriminate, and judge people things, places and situations always?
117052
You're exactly right. \n\nStereotyping and generalizing is not wrong, its just very broad, and not always entirely accurate. To say that 'most people have 2 eyes' is a stereotype, and a generalization. \n\nTo discriminate and to judge is also to determine what is right and wrong. I don't know anybody that doesn't have at least some type of morals or standards. Where would society be if we didn't look at a particular situation and say "Thats simply wrong" ? \n\nGood stuff. Keep up the interesting and truly thought provoking questions.
923697
Stereotypes usually contain a wee bit of truth,  but have been highly exaggerated and then stretched to apply to the entire race in question.\nStereotyping is a bad idea, because it causes you to generalize about an entire race, just based on what a few individuals may do.\nI love curry, and often I smell like it because I'm cooking with the spice, that doesn't make me Indian, now, does it?\nI've got a friend who used to be a crack addict, is she black or white? (she's white, by the way).\nThe Dog Whisperer on National Geographic, used to be an illegal from Mexico. Now he makes more money than you and me, combined.\nDoes this help you any?
343743
Everyone has their prejudices, but some people are more likely to act on them than others are.  I try to judge the individual, but I am just as guilty as anyone else of having my stereotypes.  I'm sure others feel the same way about me in that regard.  I guess the best rules of thumb that I use in dealing with my personal prejudices is to keep in mind that one person, or a few people, demonstrating negative traits isn't representative of the whole group that he or she belongs to, and you have to be willing to look at the positive traits demonstrated by others in the group.
298652
Generalizations are actually a useful social construct - you don't have to start from the ground up every time you meet a person you've never met before.  As a for instance, if you are in a city in the U.S. you can generalize that any person you run into will speak English.  You don't have to ask every person "Do you speak English?" before starting a conversation.  \n\nIt is very important, though, for people to recognize that they are using generalizations - these should be considered a sort of template that is modified as specific information is acquired. Applying a generalization to a specific person should be based on similarities, NOT differences and any negative judgement should be thrown out.\n\nWhere generalizations become stereotypes and unacceptable is when:\na) a person insists that another person fit the generalization:  "People should learn to speak the language if they're going to live here"\nb) The generalization is not based on reality, or is seriously over-generalized, or is based on traits that the first person doesn't share with the second person. "What do you mean you can't dance?  You're black, aren't you?"\nb) the generalization is negative in any way: "She's beautiful, so she must be stupid"\nc) the generalization is negative and verbalized, especially when the generalization is tied to a trait the first person doesn't share.  Double points off it the subject is a child. "Little thieving *****" \nd) a negative generalization is acted upon.  "She can't be a good system administrator because women aren't good with computers.  I won't hire her"
1031275
These are stereotypes.  The saying asks us not to believe them.\n\nSeems simple enough to me!
969325
Not necessarily.  Anyone can be prejudiced.  We all have areas of life that we don't know much about.  We all make assumptions that might turn out to be wrong.\n\nIn life, we all make up our own minds.  We choose what we believe is right and wrong.  We find there are leaders and experts we generally agree with, and others we don't agree with as often.\n\nBut I do find that I learn more from listening to people I disagree with, than people I agree with.\n\nRikki
917097
People tend to ridicule what they do not understand or feel comfortable with.
393095
People are ignorant. There are positive stereotypes and negative stereotypes. If the majority of one group has a certain characteristic, that becomes a stereotype. The problem is that it does not leave room to individuality or behaving "outside-of-the-box". Stereotypes trap us in a role and it trap us with possibly incorrect views of others.
337038
I think people stereotype because of their lack of knowledge about what they're saying. They just assume something and makes it a general statement. Yeah I'm pretty sick of it.
398977
Good question!  Discrimination is a leftover survival instinct.  Long ago when our distant ancestors were living on the African savanna, they had to make quick decisions every hour of every day with very little information in order to survive.  This led to the development of the human ability to conceptualize and classify.\nHumans change slowly.  The downside of the useful ability of conceptualization is the unfortunate tendency to discriminate without any truly rational basis.\nBut take heart - although it is taking a lot of time, things are changing for the better.
452630
No. I don't categorically write off an entire race. I tend to write off small minded bigots though!
114071
Categorizing people by their heritage or race is not racist. There is a right way and a wrong way to refer to ones race. Common sense should tell you the difference between a racial slur as opposed to a description.
821393
Stereotyping usually promotes negative attitudes (Eg. Women can't drive)\n\nWhereas grouping people groups them based on similar characteristics (people with boob are women)
134255
because they choose to be, if they do not and we categorize, then thats called generalizing and stereotyping.
1050855
I do my best not to stereotype people and I have gotten pretty good at it, but I was guilty of it in the past for sure.  Most of the time my stereotyping is not racial or religious or based on hair color though.  It is more based on social cliques and behaviors and I really do try my hardest to avoid it.
120024
No, because racism is something that stands because they are different. If something is different, you'll have a hard time understanding it, if you can't understand it, you won't like it. And society reinforces it in television and the such.
415401
i suffer from the same problem. racism and narrowmindedness is an uncivilized behavior but you cant generalize it. for example in my work i meet doezens of americans, all of them are nice, but i met a couple of stupid blowhards who were in a mission in egypt, the guy would wave to egyptians and say "hi johnny", and his mate would laugh loudly and disgustingly snort while laughing. in addition, sometimes at work i say good morning to an american lady and she wouldnt say good morning back, and i say it loud enough not to assumme that she didnt hear me. \nyou know what, what matters is what you do. treat people the way you think is right, not the way they treat you.