Certainly the metaphor works if you are writing primarily to entertain like-minded thinkers, or aggravate those with different points of view. If you simply chose the metaphor without much thought to how others perceive your words, maybe you can see how easy it is for Roger to do the same.

The professor analogy is very real. Usually professors who have “american” names were born here and since UW is really big into research they bring a lot of “foreign” professors here from other countries. Math teacher evaluation forms we fill out actually have a space to describe how well your prof spoke english. The thing about this is that your just shooting percentages. Sometimes all the info you can get about a prof is their last name. If I can’t figure out which prof is better then all I can do is guess which speaks clearer english. Most science majors do this when picking profs where there isn’t any information available about them. Most of the time you can find information about profs such as advice from other students.

I think there is a difference between stereotypes and discrimination. Simple stereotypes can be useful to some extent to “guess” what somebody is like and therefore most people carry around stereotypes without even realizing it. If I see you walking around with a Mariners shirt, I can guess that we might have something in common to talk about. The problem is that stereotypes lead to discrimination because it makes us think we know too much (ie ignorance). If we use stereotypes, it is very important for us to be able to easily cast them aside when we even get a hint of info that goes against our assumptions.

You telling me your name and ethnicity tells me very little about yourself. Basically male and thats all. I’m not saying I can know somebody without knowing them. About all I can do is give my best guess which also isn’t very good.

I guess the worst part about Clemens (or other well known people) doing this is that it gives the impression that lumping groups together is acceptable behavior and works all the time. I hope that people are smart enough to figure out this doesn’t work. I think the biggest thing is that you can’t just tell people that they can’t just lump people into groups and then they know everything about them. People really need to experience life to learn this lesson and meet a diverse group of people. It’s hard to discriminate against people once you get to know them and once you get to know people from these “groups” you find out that the assumptions you had at one point often aren’t very good. Then once you question some of your assumptions then you start questioning all the assumptions you once had. Just shaking my finger at someone isn’t going to do much and that’s why I don’t.

When students at UW (and many other diverse colleges) pick classes and there is a choice between a prof with an “American” name (Smith) or a “foreign” name (Sasaki), usually students will pick the Smith if they have no other information because many students have had bad experiences with professors who do no speak English very well. I know this is sometimes caused by laziness and some of the best profs I’ve had have not spoken good English but the worst profs I have had have definitely not spoken English well. Students who have no info about the prof (new professor for example) use this method because it has a logical basis. Does this mean that these students do not like “foreign” people? No. Does this mean that these students are being ignorant? I would argue yes and no. If they are able to get information about the prof and they are not getting the info to make a good decision, they are being ignorant. If the info needed is not available wouldn’t it be ignorant not to use this stereotype when trying to find a professor that you can understand.

Another example. You want to get Asian food in some small town. You go to your phone book and look up the possible places to order some take-out. The two restaurants offering Asian food are called Billy Bob’s Asian Food and Sasaki’s Asian Food. You don’t have any way of getting additional information about these two restaurants because of various reasons (I know, very unlikely but go with it). I bet Sasaki’s Asian Food gets your call because you assume that an Asian person is better at making Asian food than Billy Bob.

We all use stereotypes when we lack information. The problem happens when people do not seek out the information so that they do not need to rely on stereotypes. As people have more contact with other cultures, we have seen the use of the most harmful stereotypes decrease but not disappear. Stereotypes will get used but if the info is availible then you should use it and not a stereotype.

The point of this whole thread is that Clemens’ comments were just not very tactful. It didn’t do anything but make him look like an ignorant guy who made a bad joke.

#32 – I’m sorry I didn’t include those negative Asian stereotypes. I just didn’t really think that they were that widespread but the stereotypes Asians have are not very bad and I don’t know how widespread they are in mainstream culture. I’m saying that Clemens did not make that offensive of a statement. If you get offended by Clemens saying that many Asians work at drycleaners then maybe I should feel offended when you say many white males watch NASCAR. Oh and all the jokes in my house are told ironically just like Clemens when he made this joke to some reporter.

I love the writing you do about the team but random social commentary really turns me off the site. I’m sure a lot of people agree with me but don’t comment for fear of such a scathing response.

Regarding discussion of racism/lack of political correctness, some of which I’ve initiated in the past… lundgren said this:

“picking apart everything people say, do, think, imply, should think, and encouraging people to look for racial bias in everything, is, in my opinion and in the opinions of many others, many times more damaging to our society.”

I think you’d be hard-pressed to find members of minorities who feel that looking for racial bias is “many times more damaging to society” than looking too hard for racial bias. Personally, I’d rather err on the side of thinking about what I’m saying and what it really means. Even if that mean, you know, busting a cap in the proverbial ass of our society. Sorry, society! My bad!