Stereotypes or "Don't Be a Bigot!"

The other day I was discussing an educational video about political correctness with a group of colleagues. This video contained the message that when roaming the streets during the evening on Halloween weekend, one should not dress up as other races or cultural identities. After some discussion, we all agreed that no matter what its politics this video was mainly intended to stop naïve white college students from getting their asses kicked or starting a riot. Nonetheless, the thought of this video left me dumbfounded. This is most likely a misrepresentation, but I imagine that this video warned a somewhat bored, somewhat horrified, and somewhat incredulous audience about the evil that is the stereotype. We’ve all seen this video. Sometime around the sixth grade before being pushed out of the nest of primary school to land underprepared into the pandemonium of Junior High. We watched this video for the same reason that the freshman at my university watched it before Halloween—to avoid injury.

Today, when I think about stereotypes I grow quite confused (admittedly, a common state of mind for me). I understand that stereotypes are two-dimensional caricatures only partially based in fact. I also understand that to judge someone, anyone, based on a stereotype about age, weight, race, nation, height, sexual preference, food preference, or political preference might affect our relationship. But here’s the catch for me. Aren’t people who judge others based on stereotypes what we today call bigots? When we decry the pernicious effects of stereotypes aren’t we talking about racist pricks? Shouldn’t we have videos that argue something like “racists are stupid” or just “racists, boo.” I could imagine a particularly effective campaign.

Lately, I’ve run up against several defenses of the stereotype and even racial slur. Here’s a short list:

1. A puppet show called Avenue Q contains a song that telling me that stereotypes are okay.

2. The PBS musical documentary has informed me that stereotypes on stage in New York city in the early 20^th century actually facilitated cultural integration. In fact, it went so far as saying that when Al Jolson put on blackface he wasn’t slandering African Americans, but channeling them.

3. The Dave Chapelle Show.

I'm not sure at this point whether to believe everything I see on TV, but these arguments give me pause.

Taking the logic of the argument against stereotypes to its extreme, I will now imagine a utopic paradise entirely devoid of stereotypes. In this world, no one is so brash as to judge another based on color, dress, or hairstyle. In fact, in order to avoid ever falling into the pitfall of misrepresentation, punishable by pain of death, no one even looks at another person (stay tuned for a future entry on staring). Think of Swift’s Laputa, except, in this world, people don’t fall down holes, they constantly run into each other because they’re always averting their gaze. Most of the people in this world are happy to live there except for those who drive to and from work, since cars are an indicator of class.

Obviously, I’m overstating (a kind of misrepresentation of) the point, but I’m basically suggesting that stereotypes infiltrate every aspect of our lives. I don’t want to argue against sensitivity training created to turn people away from making judgments based on appearance, but isn’t there another way to wage the war on bigotry? My problem with the censorship of all stereotypes is that often they’re the gateway to growing familiar with people who are different from us. I find I often learn about others as they gradually disprove or refine my preconceptions. As my dearly beloved musical documentary has pointed out, don’t stereotypes also have the positive effect of leading to tolerance, and possibly even friendship?