Jews are cunning businesspeople.
Italians are emotional.
Asians are smart in math but bad at sports.
Blacks are good athletes but poor students.
White men can't jump.

THESE ARE ALL common stereotypes about various ethnic and racial groups. Although they are not uniformly negative—Asians are smart in math, and blacks are good athletes—such stereotypes are the seeds from which bigotry grows. A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people that ignores actual differences among the members of that group. Stereotypes characterize the group and all its members without the benefit of actual knowledge or understanding of the individual members of the group.

Everyone uses stereotypes. Indeed, stereotypes seem to be useful, and even necessary, tools that help human beings make sense of the world around them. After all, a stereotype is a...