Home / Quotes / Quote by W. J. T. Mitchell

Quote by W. J. T. Mitchell

“Stereotypes are ways of making extremely primitive and simple differentiations. Differentiations of gender, race, class, social status - so ordinary social life is very much built upon a whole repertoire of stereotypes we carry around. And those are immediately laminated onto people, and it isn't just visual.”

Quote by W. J. T. Mitchell

Author

W. J. T. Mitchell

W. J. T. Mitchell is an influential scholar in the field of art history and visual culture. His research spans a wide range of topics from classical art to modern visual culture. more

You May Also Like

“Stereotypes, I want to say, have to be thought of not just as these invidious, bad things that we could get rid of, but as images that we cannot get rid of, that we have to live with.”

Want Bad Things Stereotype

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“Obviously invidious and prejudicial stereotypes need to be deconstructed and overcome, but it's not that they can be destroyed. I think that would be an illusion to think that we can somehow get rid of these basic search templates that allow us to sort out our social lives and to sort out the material world as well.”

Thinking World Needs Wells Would Be Social Materials Illusion Overcoming Destroyed Stereotype Social Life Material World

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“I see stereotypes as fundamental and inescapable and not as something that is... The kind of common view is "Oh, we shouldn't think in stereotypes," and I think the reality is we can't help but think in stereotypes.”

Thinking Kind Helping Reality Views Common Fundamentals Stereotype

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“Imperialism, or the conquest and colonization of other populations, other peoples, has had as one of its side effects the growth of a discourse of objectivity. That is, when you encounter something new, something strange, something different, you have to find categories for it, you have to come to terms with new objects.”

Different Sides Growth Term Effects Objects Strange Population Encounters Something New Categories Discourse Imperialism Conquest Objectivity Colonization Side Effects

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“The great moment I think in human consciousness is when you realize that the object in front of you is perhaps not nameable or is new, it does not fit a stereotype, and so you need to reconfigure your whole structure of knowledge to account for it.”

Thinking Needs Humans Doe Whole Moments Realizing Consciousness Fronts Objects Fit Accounts Structure Stereotype Human Consciousness Great Moments

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“I think it's very important to distinguish between objectivity - which tends to be open, flexible, skeptical of its own certainty and open to new information - and objectivism - which thinks, "No, we know it all, we've got it, so real thinking and learning can come to an end."”

Thinking Knows Important Real Ends Information Certainty Flexible Skeptical Objectivity Know It All Objectivism New Information

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“Objectivism is basically the same thing as faith-based science or for that matter faith-based foreign policy, where you start out with the assumption "We are good, they are evil," or "We know what is good and right and we know what is wrong," so all questions are settled in advance by a set of ideological prejudices.”

Knows Matter Evil Policy Prejudice Assumption Foreign Policy Ideological Objectivism Faith Based

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“Distinction between species and specimen is very much like the distinction between images and actual pictures, or, you know, objects that have a definite material identity. The classifications, the categories, the stereotypes, and the images are on one side, and the material pictures, statues, texts, and so forth are on the other.”

Knows Sides Identity Objects Materials Species Distinction Categories Definite Stereotype Statues Classification

Author:W. J. T. Mitchell

“I was 40-something years old. I hadn't shown any entrepreneurial spunk up until that point.”

Years Entrepreneurial Spunk

Author:Alex Blumberg

“There are tons of businesses that exist in the United States. An insane number of people who are in business for themselves. And then there are people on board feeling they're at key early stages of companies.”

People States Feelings United Numbers Company United States Stage Keys Insane Boards

Author:Alex Blumberg