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How do you imagine a generic person in your mind? Purple? Multicolored? Probably each person has some mind-image that’s more common than others (probably guide

by tomp 6y ago

How do you imagine a generic person in your mind? Purple? Multicolored? Probably each person has some mind-image that’s more common than others (probably guided by early childhood experiences, or mirror image of you), or even if you’re on average unbiased there’s still going to be some image you have in mind for each particular person, which is a perfectly legitimate reason to be surprised upon finally meeting that person. Honestly the only reason this is controversial is because of “skin color” and the current political climate. “Oh, I’m surprised, I imagine you having red hair.” “How come you imagined me having red hair?” “Don’t know, just because.”

falcolas 6y ago
> Honestly the only reason this is controversial is because of “skin color” and the current political climate. Inherent in assuming a skin color is the implied association between, for example, intelligence and skin color. "I'm surprised you're black," is not so far off from the acknowledged insult, "You're really $X for a woman." WRT your example, anger issues are stereotypically associated with red hair, so there could be an implied "you have anger issues" that goes with that. "Oh, no reason," is also a very common deflection when being called out for poor assumptions or implied insults.
- tomp 6y ago
  Some people (you, apparently) have these associations, others (e.g. me) don’t. It’s quite prejudiced to assume that everyone has them.
  - falcolas 6y ago
    It's more likely that folks who claim to not have these associations simply haven't identified their unconscious biases yet. There is always a reason associations between mental traits and physical features exist, even if you're not consciously aware of it. EDIT: And to go a different direction, if someone truely doesn't make such associations... Now that they know some people do recognize those associations, just be polite and don't make such comments about people's appearance - be it skin color, hair color, height, weight, etc.
    - tomp 6y ago
      I’d prefer if other people were polite and didn’t accuse others of racism over innocent remarks.

by tomp 6y ago

falcolas 6y ago

> Honestly the only reason this is controversial is because of “skin color” and the current political climate. Inherent in assuming a skin color is the implied association between, for example, intelligence and skin color. "I'm surprised you're black," is not so far off from the acknowledged insult, "You're really $X for a woman." WRT your example, anger issues are stereotypically associated with red hair, so there could be an implied "you have anger issues" that goes with that. "Oh, no reason," is also a very common deflection when being called out for poor assumptions or implied insults.

tomp 6y ago
Some people (you, apparently) have these associations, others (e.g. me) don’t. It’s quite prejudiced to assume that everyone has them.
- falcolas 6y ago
  It's more likely that folks who claim to not have these associations simply haven't identified their unconscious biases yet. There is always a reason associations between mental traits and physical features exist, even if you're not consciously aware of it. EDIT: And to go a different direction, if someone truely doesn't make such associations... Now that they know some people do recognize those associations, just be polite and don't make such comments about people's appearance - be it skin color, hair color, height, weight, etc.
  - tomp 6y ago
    I’d prefer if other people were polite and didn’t accuse others of racism over innocent remarks.