Categories and Stereotypes

I've been thinking lately about an article that was in The Washington Post a few months ago. To the best of my recollection, it was comprised largely of complaining about how difficult it is to find an adjective that fits all black women. And it made me think: why? I'm just a little white girl, so I might not have the credentials to say so, but it seems to me that all the Post is trying to do here is find a stereotype that works--and stereotypes don't work.

The problem with trying to attach a non-tautological* adjective to any group of people, but especially such a broadly defined group as "all females of a given race," is that pretty much any adjective you pick will describe some of those people, thus supporting your suggestion for every instance of a person who can say "oh, yeah, I know a black woman who is exactly like that," but there will also be many instances of "but I know a black woman who is NOTHING like that." In my experience, the latter group tends to get ignored, because people love their stereotypes and want to keep them.

But any stereotype isn't how it is. The Post can't find an adjective that fits all black women because some black women are loud and some are quiet; some sleep around, some are faithfully married, and some don't sleep with anyone; some are poor, some are rich, some are in between, and one is the First Lady of the United States. The stereotypes don't work for a reason that's fairly obvious to me: what a person looks like on the outside has very little to do with what kind of personality they have underneath.

I've read that people talk about how annoying loud black girls are, but I can assure you (because I had at least one of each in the same class--and it was a class I really wanted to pay attention in, too!) that loud white boys can be every bit as irritating. And loud white girls. And loud Asian boys. And loud Hispanic girls. In fact, if it's their race or gender that you're getting mad at, rather than the fact that the interesting lecture is being interrupted yet AGAIN by the individuals whose private conversations never seem to end even when there is obviously something else going on and everyone is raptly attentive, the problem may be with you.

But that's just my opinion.

*I don't see a problem with saying, for instance, "all black women are female," because that's part of the definition of "women." Or "all black women are of African descent," because that's what "black" means in this context. Those statements are just rephrasing the original term, and really don't need saying. Going beyond that, however, gets into stereotyping. People do treat stereotypes as tautological... but when you look at it, "all members of Insert Group Here who are fillintheblank are fillintheblank" is a statement restating itself; "all members of Insert Group Here are fillintheblank" almost never is.