“You’ve heard it said that, ‘Every person is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.’

Yet we routinely craft our own facts from the fabric of personal experiences, preferences and prejudices. A stereotype is nothing more than a pattern we’ve observed. This pattern isn’t always predictive, but it is a pattern nonetheless and we trust it.

We do this in the misbegotten belief that we have correctly interpreted our past experiences and that our preferences and prejudices are, in fact, correct and reliable interpretations of objective reality. We’re a funny, funny species, aren’t we?”

– Roy H. Williams, The Monday Morning Memo for March 24, 2014