I was raised with all the usual admonitions against generalization. Not so much from my parents, but from the culture; society. TV, School, music...
I grew to adulthood thinking that generalization was roughly equivalent to bigotry; a lazy way to discern; unfair to individuals; closed-minded. I was aided in that belief by the fact that I was not a conventional person. Long hair, musician type. Spent the 80's wearing pretty outlandish hair and clothing. I was the object of other people's generalization, and I made a game out of showing people that I wasn't the idiot they assumed me to be.
So I held on to that as a basic value well into my late 30s, even though I could see around me that sometimes generalization was just what it is.
Then one day I heard Dennis Prager say something that has stuck with me ever since: "Generalization is the mother of wisdom. You cannot have wisdom without generalization."
He then went on to offer several examples of exactly why this is so. It seemed so painfully obvious to me after hearing him say it. But societal norms are powerful. Unless one has reason to put specific thought into assumptions that permeate the whole society, one has little cause to question them. I didn't think I had any reason to question that assumption until I heard it articulated.
Now EVERY time I see or hear somebody admonishing against generalization, I say, "Generalization is the mother of wisdom. You cannot have wisdom without generalization."
Never once, has someone come back with a challenge to that. They are forced to either stand down, or they are reduced to change their point of attack, or usually, ad hominem.
All that to say, speaking of race without generalization is not wise.
