--- Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:
>
> CB: Sociological and other social scientific
> thinking of the present would
> benefit from some return to emphasis on unconscious
> processes, as in the
> 20th Century. Racism is both conscious and
> unconscious. The stereotype
> process is a locus of significant unconscious
> racism. The "greatest amount"
> of racism is unconscious. Most racism is not
> consciously vicious. Klu Klux
> Klanners and Nazis are a tiny, tiny minority. Imus
> didn't and still doesn't
> think he is a racist.
--- snip ---
[WS:] I am not in disagreement with the above. But I do not think that it gets to the crux of my argument. That argumen is that streotyping of all sorts is an ingeral part of human cognition in _any_ social situation, not just in race relations. Therefore it is unreasonable to villify one type of stereotyping while ignoring other. But to villify all kinds of stereotyping is tantamount to villifying everything that people think, because it is not possible to avoid stereotyping altogether. Stereotyping is a natural cognitive response in the condition of insufficient/imperfect information - and this is the condition of most of our thinking.
The only reasonable thing to do in this situation is to provide more information that dismisses stereotypes and to encourage people to use that information in their thinking. I think that the great majority of people, save a few hardcore bigots, would be receptive to this and change their stereotypes when receiving adequate information. This of course would not stop them from stereotyping in other circmustances - hence the need for constant reeducation :)
However, using dergatory terms like 'racist' toward peopl ewho merely hold negative stereoptypes - which is a natural part of human cognition - does not seem a very constructive - it merely puts people on the defensive and makes them less receptive to any information that may challenge their stereotypes.
Wojtek
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