We know that traditional ethnic minorities--in America and elsewhere--have often been stereotyped. But what exactly is a stereotype? Some sociologists (Lee et al) don’t think stereotypes are necessarily bad (Baron). Is it a stereotype to say, for instance, that Italian-Americans love Italian food? Yet stereotypes are often employed in an insulting, demeaning manner; they can be used to trivialize, humiliate, intimidate, and de-humanize people. So, where does the legitimate use of criteria to define a group end; where does bigotry begin?

Well, there is often an element of truth to stereotypes; yet, they distort. Here’s how stereotyping too often works: Think of all the traits you admire in people. Imagine all the traits that society seems to admire in people. Most of us would mention things like courage, intelligence, industriousness, a sense of responsibility and so forth. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be qualities universally disrespected: cowardice, foolishness, laziness, irresponsibility and so on.

The thing is, large groups of people, including ethnic groups, are composed of individuals--individuals who perhaps share qualities that allow them to be grouped but who are individuals nonetheless. Some will be sinners, some will be saints, most will be a mixture of the two--the common stuff of humanity. What stereotyping does is to point to those individuals at the bottom of that judgmental hierarchy--the most pathetic or contemptible examples of humanity--and imply or openly argue that these “bad” human beings represent the group. Thus, these degraded individuals--even though they may be exceptional within the group--are seen by others as the group norm. So, yes, negative stereotypes are true in the sense that there are such individuals in the group, but they’re false in assuming that “the bottom of the barrel” accurately represents all. They accentuate the negative, eliminate the positive, and forget Mr. In Between.

Negative stereotyping of hippie types occurs when people recognize the existence of the stereotypical hippie but are blind to the many hippies who are good, productive citizens and neighbors--people with character, people who make a positive contribution to society, people who deserve respect. An example of this mindset is a Newsweek column written by powerful pundit George F. Will on the death of Grateful Dead icon Jerry Garcia: “About that ‘Sixties Idealism’: Meet Wolfgang and Lisa Von Nester, who ‘did their own thing’”:

If you’re going to San Francisco, said a song of the sixties, “you’re gonna meet some gentle people there.” If you had gone this June you might have met Wolfgang and Lisa Von Nester. . . . Wolfgang, 23, and Lisa, 24, will be sentenced next week by a California judge . . . . He could sentence the Maryland couple to six years in prison for abandoning their 3-year-old son at a San Bernardino mall on June 2. “I figured that without food and money and without diapers to put on his butt what else could I do,” says Wolfgang, who also says, “I walked away in tears.” Then he dried his tears and he and Lisa, who were not really without money, abandoned their car and took a bus north to a Grateful Dead concert in San Francisco. . . . Wolfgang and Lisa really represent that survival [of 1960’s idealism]. (emphasis added)*

It’s clear from the piece that “1960’s idealism” refers to the counterculture; so, what Will is really saying is that Wolfgang and Lisa represent hippies. Having told us that the Von Nesters are typical hippies, having implied that the reason the Von Nesters have behaved in the disturbing manner they allegedly have is because they are hippies, Will then uses the Von Nesters as a beachhead for attacking the counterculture as a whole, branding it "infantile," holding it responsible for everything from inner-city rot to moral decay. The result? Millions of Americans say to themselves, “Wow, that George Will is really a smart guy,” and conclude that hippie culture is indeed degenerate. After all, they’ve seen concrete evidence: the Von Nesters. “Yeah, and they’re hippies, typical hippies--‘real’ hippies!” That’s how stereotyping works.**

And it’s not just that, like other minorities, hippies are stereotyped; it gets better--and worse. As we’re about to see, the particular stereotypes themselves echo the same themes that have historically targeted traditional American ethnic groups--though in a different mix. It’s almost like the bigots just reached into their grab-bag of traditional prejudices and took a little of this, a little of that and then synthesized those elements to create hippie stereotypes--many of the same old ethnic and racial prejudices recombined into a new form of bigotry.

Let’s begin with that most ugly of stereotypes, the notion that the target group is “subhuman” and “primitive.” . . .

FN 1--We'll discuss the stereotype of minority member as bad parent and menace to youth later in the chapter; for now, suffice it to say, one way we know Will is engaged in stereotyping is that a great many hippie types are, in fact, excellent parents.
FN 2--The sentence just before this ("Wolfgang and Lisa . . ." ) has Will quoting the New York Times to the effect that Garcia “had come to represent the survival of 1960’s idealism.“ So, although I’ve had to repackage the quotation, I haven’t distorted its meaning or put words in Will’s mouth.