Poll: Poll: Is it racist if it's true or the only examples of this group match this?

[Olas]

I don't think it's racist because Scandinavians aren't a race.

I'm also pretty sure racism implies believing there to be a superiority/inferiority between races not simply believing all members exhibit some trait.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Putting aside Scandinavian not being a race, I wouldn't say it's racist to have a perception of people of a certain race, but I would say it's racist to impose that perception on people who do not conform to it. I'd say you're perfectly within the bounds of tolerance to think that most Scandinavians are interested in Vikings, and when referring to a hypothetical Scandinavian you may assume they like Vikings. It's only racist when that's not the case and you insist that it is.

Although I would be careful to have a reasonable sample size and not to go to absolutes.

 

[Vegosiux]

I grew up on a native reservation. Many outsiders claim that those who live on reservation are all drunks.
Many who live on reservation are drunks, so I correct them by saying "most, not all".

Stereotypes frustrate me.

I'm only half native, and I'm supposed to be drunk all the time as well, if I'm to listen to most people.

And then you decide that you kinda have to be drunk if you want to stomach listening to them?

I kid, I kid.

Now stereotypes are frustrating, I agree. And treating someone differently because of their race is racist, whether you're treating them better, worse, or differently equally, by definition. There's this misconception in our modern collective consciousness that for something to be an "-ism", it must be bigoted, and it's not an "-ism" if it's not bigoted.

But making a factual blanket statement about a race, a gender, etc. (e.g. "Black people have more melanin in their skin than white people" or "Women have the 23rd chromosome pair of XX") while it could be said to be discriminatory by necessity ("discrimination" in its most basic meaning is merely "making a distinction" and often those have to be made, or we might end up eating poisonous stuff), is not bigoted of course.