Quote:
|
Originally Posted by All Systems Go
A stereotype based on statistical analysis isn't a stereotype. If I said all French people smell of garlic it would be a stereotype. If I found evidence emperical evidence to back it up it wouldn't be a stereotype.
|
I didn't mean statistical analysis. There is a large distintiction between saying '
All French people smell like garlic' and 'French people smell like garlic'.
The latter sentence I will clearly identify as a stereotype / prejudice when you say it, and I will expect a miss-rate. The first sentence, on the other hand, is invalidated by me meeting a single person who doesn't smell like garlic.
With the second sentence, when I go to France, I will expect to find a much a larger percentage of people smelling like garlic than back home. Finding large sub-groups or large quantities of people who doesn't smell like garlic, will in my opinion
not invalidate your statement as long as there are more people smelling like garlic on average.
And this is my point, a stereotype doesn't have to be perfect to be true, because nobody expects it to be. All it takes is for the statement to be distintictivly truer than its negation.