Quote:
Originally Posted by Rubato
The Irish were assumed to be all thieving drunks, if you were refused entry into a shop because you were Irish would you feel discriminated against? Of course people will still assume, but just because a problem is hard to get rid of doesn't make it is so virtuous in itself. There is simply no excuse for assuming anything about someone before you've met them.
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There's no excuse, but I think he is right in saying stereotypes and assumptions will be around forever. There is seriously no getting rid of them. Humans are naturally categorizing creatures. This extends beyond race...in fact, I just had an argument with someone about my assumptions of engineers and hers on biologists. She said something along the lines of "Biologists are just not technical and really don't know what they are doing most of the time." Then I came back with "Engineers all have OCD". We also both consider each other very non-discriminant types of people. These kinds of assumptions are just unavoidable.
The difference, however, is actually acting upon these assumptions. Will I refuse to be friends with an engineer because of what most of them think about me? No, but I will probably think that person has OCD until I get to know them better. The same applies to race.