White Girls Are Easy

When I read Namaste's post called Gorillas in the Mist, I laughed my damn ass off for about 10 minutes. Not for nothing, the girl has spunk. Who else would think to ward off an aggressive and inappropriate sexual harasser by making monkey noises? Genius!

But the post generated some less-than-favourable responses from two of my African-American male friends who found her verbage offensive. And initially, I thought, rightfully so. But then I thought further. The paragraph begins, "So, I walked out to the car. On my way, I passed a mid-20's, African-American fellow, who, as many African-American gentlemen of our generation do, felt the need to make a comment on my body..." A statement which begs the question - is she egregiously stereotyping or making a simple statement based on fact? Fact, if you're familiar with legalease, is not necessarily the absolute truth, but ones own convincing interpretation of the truth based on experience and research.

Stereotyping, in its common form, can never be a positive thing. But the evil root underlying this borderline version of racism (or sexism, or ageism, etc.) is presumption, not fact. If you make an assumption about a person prior to your actual encounter, then what you are doing is stereotyping. If you make a judgment about someone subsequent to your actual encounter, and subsequent to collecting adequate information about that person, I would argue that is not a stereotype; so long as that acquired knowledge does not result in future presumptions.

::Gavel bangs::

Let's flip the script for a minute. Here are two different statements which could be construed as stereotypical, both of which I have heard and both of which have struck a nerve. But I'd argue that one potentially has merit based in 'fact,' while the other is unforgivably ignorant.

1. "I've met six white women in the last month and they've all offered to sleep with me on the first date. It seems to me that many white women are easy."
2. "You're a white girl, you must be easy."

Should I be offended by both statements? Probably. But, in my strong opinion, there is a huge difference in the WAY I should be offended. With statement 1, the speaker is basing his opinion on concrete evidence from his own personal experience. Unforunate, annoying, frustrating, exasperating, causation for debate...? Yes. In essence, the speaker has presented me with the fact that there are 6 white girls out there making it that much harder for me to break through the boundaries of the stereotypes that suppress my demographic. The person isn't saying to me that I'm a ho, he's saying that he has encountered 6 other women with my similar physical characteristics who are. So is it the speaker I'm really annoyed by, or the girls about whom he's speaking? With statement 2, on the other hand, the speaker deserves to get ditched immediately and stuck with the bill.

Even with the best of intentions, when in doubt, consider your audience. One person's 'fact' is someone else's statistical outlier. Also remember, even with the 'best' of proof, there are always exceptions to the rule.

• Girls are bad drivers: Danica Patrick
• Chinese men are short: Yao Ming
• Black men have bigger schlongs than white men: Ron Jeremy
• White men can't jump: The Playaz
• People with big noses are Jewish: DC Cookie

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.