Blur once pontificated, in their era defining 1990‘s album, that ‘there must be more to life than stereotypes’. Of course, sometimes there is, and yet why have we become so afraid of them? The politically correct (or should that be politically confused?) generation have undoubtedly shied away from stereotypes and their negative ramifications. And yet, whether we like it or not, we spend a lifetime generating stereotypes in our heads and often acting upon these, quite logically and sensibly I believe.
Otherwise referred to as intuition, this prejudice seems like a sensible, evolutionary trait. As Kahneman has shown, we are not the rational sentients that we like to think that we are and so our survival has often depended on our ability to sense opportunity and danger as well as to shift with the herd. Nowadays, our stereotypical intuition determines who we socialise with, where we live, how we vote, what we buy, what paper we read and so on. And yet we seem scared to admit the role that this pattern awareness plays and go to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate that we are not ‘stereotyping’.
Some of you will have noticed recently that Trevor Philips, former Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality and Human Rights and doyen of Blairite sycophancy, has had a change of heart. In his recent Channel 4 documentary, he argues persuasively that we should pay more attention to stereotypes if we want to address the issues that lie at their root; it is not the stereotypes that are the cause of the issues in the first place and they only become the issue when individual cases are approached with stereotypical prejudice.
I concur. In my worlds of teaching and policing, being scared of stereotyping is manifestly everywhere: witness many overly generous end of year reports and reductions in stop and search numbers, for instance. In the nature and nurture debate (notice, not versus), each individual is unable (currently) to adapt the natural traits that they inherited and they then spend significant amounts of time, effort and money establishing their role in society. This inheritance and conditioning inevitably leads to choices that are inspired by and generating of stereotypes.
Whilst glass ceilings, segregation and indoctrination will always be wrong, stereotyping and prejudice is not always and the acceptance of this is more likely to identify patterns and generate solutions to the issues that cause the former. Like most people, I am an individual in certain ways and yet I am also a stereotype of my own inheritance and upbringing in more ways than I can imagine. Accepting this allows me to recognise the balance that luck and graft play in my life; accepting this of me allows others to get to know me more quickly and deeply. In a social society, both acceptances are helpful.
To answer Blur’s question therefore, there is more to life than stereotypes. But the exceptions prove the rule.
Leatherhead, 21st July 2015
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