Part I of the Identities series
Stereotyping of an identity occurs when we come in contact with an individual or a group of people belonging to one particular identity. Our perception of the identity is drawn from the experience we have had with one or more such people. Often it is not even our own experience but the experience of someone else that we know of, perhaps of someone who belongs to our own group. Regardless of whether these experiences are exaggerated, real or imagined, they represent a generalization of an identity. If the member of a particular group happened to be good or bad, it doesn't mean that everyone from his community is good or bad. The perception of an identity however lingers long in our mind and it makes us biased for or against it.
Stereotyping can be applied to any identity group. Think of any identity group and your impression of it. Here are some examples below of statements that I have heard in the past.
Women can't drive.
India is a land of snake and elephants.
Don't be such a Jew.
When I see a group of black people on the road, I normally cross over to the other side.
Lawyers are liars and manipulators that cannot be trusted.
Muslims are fanatical or Muslims are fundamentalists.
Now India is not really a country full of snake and elephants. I have lived more than two decades in India and I don't usually bump into either species. I have met women who drive very competently, thank you very much.
I had never actually heard the expression "Don't be such a Jew" in India though. I first heard it when I working in England. One evening I was in the company of a few friends, a British Asian, a Caucasian male and a Jewish colleague. The conversation was light hearted and my white friend blurted out, "Don't be such a Jew". I had an expression of puzzlement and my Jewish friend was visibility irritated but said nothing. My friend proceeded to apologize and said "Sorry, I didn't realize that you were also there". So would it have been OK to say it if there were no Jewish people around? Well, that was certainly the insinuation. While writing this particular piece, I googled anti Semitic expressions and came up with interesting results. "Eat like a Jew" (manger en en juif) is a French expression and it implies that you are eating alone. "jodenfooi" is a 'Jewish tip' in Holland which means tight fisted. These are expressions that have become part of our linguistic repertoire.
The accusation that Muslims are fanatical is quite common in the decade we live with. 9/11 did not create this perception; it merely cemented it in our living memory. There are over 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, an overwhelming majority of who don't even live in the Middle East or Pakistan where much of the fundamentalism originates from. Even within the Middle East and Pakistan the larger population is peace loving and in tune with this world. Muslim fundamentalism was a political creation to counter the growing influence of the Soviet Union in Central Asia in the 1980s. Yet the rest of the Muslim world is saddled with a perception that all of us are medieval in nature.
A man should be judged by who he is and not by the generalization of his identity. Sadly, all of us are guilty at some level of practicing stereotyping. Even Governments around the world follow it. It's called racial profiling. Stereotyping does more harm than good. It leads to disenchantment, it leads to resentment, in its severity, it leads to hate crimes.
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