Summary

Solnit writes in this essay about categories and the way discrimination works. First of all, she points out that “discrimination” has two contradictory senses: distinguishing clearly, or not distinguishing clearly and lumping people and things together in groups regardless of what differences they may have. It is that latter sense that includes such unpleasant beliefs about people of color, women, homeless people, and others, which act as “airtight categories” for judging anyone one deems to be part of that group. This pigeonholing is especially pernicious in that it allows for collective punishment.

There is also the hypocrisy in how categories are perceived in violent crimes. When a black or Muslim person commits a crime, their actions are taken to account for the whole group in which they belong. However, in the case of someone like Dylann Storm Roof...