Stereotypes are not things that fall from the sky and attach themselves to persons, groups and peoples. They are generally based on the values, habits, practices and activities of that group. What is generally referred to and explained as racial stereotyping are simply expressed observations based on a set of behaviors that are more common to one group of people than another. When someone makes a statement, for example, that the Irish are lushes, they do not mean ALL Irish people are.

They mean, generally speaking, Irish men tend to drink more than any other group. Drinking alcohol is an inveterate social custom which manifests certain behaviors associated with imbibing that is common to this group. There are always going to be exceptions to the rule, so to say that stereotyping means all is erroneous and simply not the case.

As it pertains to crimes—particularly violent crimes—if we are to dissect stereotypes, we cannot use a homogeneous nation as the petri dish. For example, we cannot conclude that crimes in China are committed by Chinese, ergo Chinese commit crimes as much as any other race. This would be terribly incorrect and absurd. It has to be comparative. What is the crime rate in China as opposed to other homogeneous nations such as India, Japan, Israel, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, etc? Yes, in any racially homogeneous society the crimes committed will be by that race. This is called in-group violence or intra-conflict. An essential question to be asked is, in a multi-racial society, which group(s) commits the most crime? Which group(s) commit the most violent crime? The empirical data will reflect observable evidence and vice versa—stereotypes do not fall from the sky and attach themselves to any particular group or people.

Furthermore, stereotyping is not going to simply disappear by employing and resorting to cognitive dissonance or worse, punishing thought crimes and shaming those who subscribe to reality and their observations. Labeling people who speak on observable evidence as racist will not help. Without groups working on changing their values and behaviors, stereotypes are here to stay. Unless Irish men as a collective reduce their alcohol intake and the behaviors that come with imbibing, they will continue to self-sustain their own stereotypes. Likewise, any other group of people who exhibit certain pathologies. The responsibility to shed stereotypes lies solely on the stereotyped correcting their behavior and, not in having the general public ignore their behavior. Stereotypes are society’s way of shaming poor behavior and it is a necessary social tool.

—Specular Effect