On Stereotypes

Stereotypes are always partially truthful and partially fictional. Most stereotypes
couple accurate observations of certain traits with baseless and pernicious
explanations for them, which emphasize a supposedly natural propensity as the
reason for the existence of said traits. People who have shared roughly the same
cultural and material circumstances over long periods of time do manifest traits
in common. For example, when a group of people live under slavery, they tend
to shirk work whenever possible as a matter of self-preservation. The stereotype
couples an accurate observation with a lie: it assigns the tendency of slaves to
shirk work with “laziness”. We must learn how to critique stereotypes without
endorsing the liberal banality that we’re all individuals and there is no such
thing as social identification.
Equally complex is the role of positive stereotypes such as the noble savage or
the loyal slave. They seem to articulate themselves in a structure that is eerily
familiar: the emotional, sensitive,