Disrespect and Harm

Abstract This chapter uses Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa’s groundbreaking feminist anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color to develop a modestly pluralistic theory of what’s wrong with stereotyping. It begins by documenting two themes that run throughout its essays and poetry: the disrespect of stereotyping and the harms of stereotyping. It then introduces a theory that formalizes Bridge contributors’ insights. According to the disrespect or harm theory, stereotyping is wrongful when it is disrespectful or causes harm. Keeping discrimination theory in conversation with the lived experience, the chapter argues that the best interpretation of this theory features hybrid understandings of “disrespect” and “harm.” What emerges is a novel philosophical theory of wrongful stereotyping that riffs on existing theories of wrongful discrimination while also challenging them. Though ultimately not pluralistic enough, it lays the groundwork for a theory that recognizes an even richer array of ethical objections to stereotyping in lived experience.