106. "Stereotype"

"This year, 569 Asian-Americans qualified [for admission to Stuyvesant High School], along with 179 whites, 13 Hispanics and 12 blacks. Results like that feed the stereotype that Asians are smart, hard-working, repressed and conformist" (David Brooks, NYT 12-19-11).

That sounds bad, feeding a stereotype. I thought we were supposed to starve those things. A stereotype is "a set of inaccurate, simplistic generalizations about a group that allows others to categorize them and treat them accordingly." You don't want anything like that to grow.

Like take this stereotype of Americans, that they don't know foreign languages. Oh how that lets Europeans categorize them and treat them as people beneath them in culture. They've got this joke:

"What are you when you know three languages?"

"Trilingual"

"What are you when you know two languages?"

"Bilingual."

"What are you when you know one language?"

"American."

The word for that joke is "offensive."

But suppose Asians really are smart and Americans really are culturally deficient? What are you feeding then with your statistics and your jokes? Something simplistic, maybe, but certainly not inaccurate. You're saying it's generally true of people in their category."

As for the treatment you give them, what's appropriate for people who are, say, culturally deficient? Education, obviously. But just heavy education? Can you include some razzing, some jokes? I think an embarrassed American who goes home from a party determined to learn another language is an improved American.

But you've improved him at the cost of hurting his feelings. I'll admit that light-hearted teaching, the kind that goes on at parties — and on television and in magazines — is a very effective, sometimes the most effective, way to teach, but it's too dangerous. Politically it can be disastrous.

Even if what you say is the truth about that group?

Hah, the truth. Who knows what it is about any group? And if somebody does know it who's going to trust his announcement of it? Anybody who stands up to do so will belong to the group. Is there a group we trust enough to credit what a member announces?

Yes, the group of scientists. We trust them because they try so hard to eliminate from their work and their announcements the group and personal interest we're worried about. They are, of all groups, the most disinterested.

Are you sure of that, or is it just a stereotype?