Bigots ignore "all of life is on a spectrum of individual idiosyncracies and large group traits".

[pampango]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/09/a-primer-on-bigotry/63056/

I think that all of life is on a spectrum of individual idiosyncracies and large group traits. We're each our own person, but we're all marked to some degree by the categories that contain us. Yes, I am a unique and special and independent thinker! But I'm also an American, a male, a white person, a dreaded Baby Boomer, a member of the dreaded and doomed media, a parent, a rich person compared with most of the world, etc. Along this spectrum, one obvious truth is that the more populous the category, the less it tells you about any individual within it. Yes, "men" are all a certain way. But there are three billion of us, and Kim Jong-Il doesn't have that much in common with Lance Armstrong -- or either of them with Benedict XVI or Stephen Hawking or Lil Wayne. Another obvious truth is that the less contact you have with individuals, the more you necessarily rely on group traits -- or stereotypes - for your images.

These two truths combine with pernicious effect when it comes to mainstream American views of what "Muslims" are like. I put the term in quotes because it's preposterously over-broad. It is just as possible to say what typifies "Muslims" as it is to say what typifies all Indians, or all Chinese, or all of the world's Christians. Each of these is a grouping of roughly a billion people, and each has some similarities but far more dramatic internal differences. (James Earl Ray, Desmond Tutu: both Christians. Discuss.) Most Americans know that about "Christians," and may have some growing awareness when it comes to "Chinese" or "Indians." But a lot of Americans lack the individual awareness of the variety within Islam -- and think that the violent, hateful, dangerous parts define "the Muslims" as a whole.

They don't. A homely analogy: I grew up in a town with a very large Latino population. So whenever I hear some statement about "the Mexicans," I listen about possible group traits but I also know my friends Chris, Hank, Yolanda, etc in their individuality. I also grew up with many gay friends --but wasn't aware until years later that I had done so. It was only from college age onward that I had lots of friends who were out as gays, which inevitably affected my view of "the gays" and made me wince in recalling the standard thoughtlessly cruel high school jokes about "the fags." One reason opposition to same-sex marriage is sure to disappear is that straight Americans born after about 1980 have always been aware of having gay friends and can barely fathom the "threat" posed by their right to marry. (For proof, see here.)

Of course, close contact between different groups doesn't always build amity. (See: history of Northern Ireland, West Side Story, etc.) But the real secret of American inclusion through the generations is that when you grow up with, work with, live next to, intermarry with, and in all other ways get to know people from different categories, you have less patience for generalizations about "the blacks" or "the Irish" or "the Jews" or "the gays" or "trailer trash" etc.

[mmonk]

1. Recommended.

[pinboy3niner]

2. K&R