guns prevent violence!

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Thu May 6 11:11:33 PDT 1999


At 01:13 PM 5/6/99 -0400, Margaret wrote:
>If I understand what Ross is saying, then I disagree
>with his analysis in important ways. What's going on
>is the same old same old: devalued groups are held at
>a great social distance. Thus individuals blur
>together, socially, and every member of the group
>becomes an avatar for all members of the group -- the
>still-heard 'X is a credit/discredit to his race' being
>exemplary (so exemplary that I'm sure I needn't even
>mention which race). The smaller the social gap
>between group members and Real Humans (CUMCWASPs), the
>more individuals begin to stand out, and individualised
>explanations are sought. Significantly, overly-
>rapacious behavior by a member of the ruling class is
>*never* seen as exemplary of all members of the ruling
>class; that failing is invariably ascribed to
>individual aberration -- and often only a momentary
>one, at that!

Margaret, that is really impressive. I may add yet another example to support your argument: attribution of guilt for a transgression. If a woman screws up on a job or black person is caught shoplifting - the attribution of guilt is often to the salient gender/ethnicity characteristic - as something to be expected of woman or an African American. By contrast, when a male committs a crime - that is usually seen as an individual aberration rather than a pattern or male propensity toward antisocial behavior. Thus, our jails hold some 90% of exceptions to the virtue of being a male!

Social proximity, as you claim, undoubtedly plays a role in that attribution, but I would also emphasize the power structure: members of dominant groups are always portrayed as individuals. Thus, Millikens may be socially distant to most US-ers, but they are members of the ruling elite - so their crrimina behavior is alsways individual aberration, never an example of the rule.

Our wonderful educational system actively contributes to that stereotyping - just look at the graduation ceremonies, who is recognized individually, and who is recorgnized collectively.

Wojtek
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