Counting only to two

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Apr 19, 2007, at 8:32 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> What I had to say about Gypsies wasn't meant to be funny. The fact of
> the matter is that stereotypes are all too often extensions of
> reality. A recent unfortunate example is the shootings at VA Tech. I
> was deathly afraid that the shooter would turn out to be black. When
> it became clear that he was *not* some crack-crazed, black street thug
> who'd lost what was left of his mind after he was finally dumped by
> the naive, white-liberal, teen coed that he'd been pimping off of, a
> great weight was lifted from my shoulders.

well, now korean-americans are sweatin' real bad.

one of the things that comes with being in a stigmatized group is
that Every Individual Stands for the Whole Group.  so when things go
bad, that just shows what "those people" are like.  to take examples
from my own world: the gay kid who strikes back at harassers with a
gun shows that gays are mentally unstable; ditto the gay mass
murderer, the gay pedophile, etc.  when a well-known gay couple
breaks up, that shows that gay people can't maintain relationships.
and so on.  every such event is dismaying to lgbt people.

arnold

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