Reminds me of people referring to southerners as Rednecks or western state residents as Cowboys or Midwesterners as farmers, or New Englanders as snobs, or New Yorkers as arrogant bullies, etc (Cuomo and Trump aside).

My children who are half Asian complain that people think they are good at math because they are half Asian, not because their Asian mother forced them to study hours and hours and take private tutoring to become good at math. Point being they were not "born" good at math.

People think I am organized because I am German (I'm really not that organized, but I am okay with them thinking that) and I am fully Americanized, so whatever cultural values might be present among many Germans, they are not particularly definitive to who I am.

Stereotypes are just that... they are not "racist" per se, since they come in all flavors.

But to be clear, while not inherently racist, stereotyping is wrong... perhaps the most damaging stereotyping occurs in American politics and really took off when Obama used identity groups to appeal to people based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender and culture.

While effective as a campaign strategy, it is destructive to the country. This political strategy has at its core the purpose of defining us as being less than an individual and thus anyone that tries to assert their individuality is guilty of "selling out".

When Biden said, if you don't vote for me, you ain't black. He was stereotyping. I know many African Americans that did not vote for Biden.

I wish Obama had stuck with his campaign message of 2008 where he said I am African American, but my skin color does not define me. That is the message all Americans need to internalize... we are individuals... not carbon copies of some identity group.

While it easy to point out the flaws of stereotyping by people in American, my daughter in law comes from Africa. Even in Africa stereotypes are common among Africans when speaking of other tribes. So while it is hard to say they are "racist" when they stereotype other Africans, it is just as easy to say it is wrong.

So why is stereotyping so common among all humans...

Human brains are designed to stereo type. Contrast that with other species brains that don't. As an example, if you walk down the street, the might tell someone you saw ten beautiful houses... what you have done is "group" all the houses into one group. Other species will recall each house as a distinct house and not group them. This "grouping" process is the cognitive function that contributes to stereotyping and understanding how it works should help us be on alert when it is being used in the wrong setting.