# Can an ethnic group ever have a collective reputation which is deserved? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 22, 2013, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-ethnic-group-ever-have-a-collective-reputation-which-is-deserved/651049 "2013-02-22T03:36:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 9
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-ethnic-group-ever-have-a-collective-reputation-which-is-deserved/651049/9 "2013-02-23T00:58:21Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > But knowing only their ethnicity wouldn’t tell me anything, and seeing the artifacts of their culture, knowing their ethnicity wouldn’t add anything significant to my knowledge. This addresses one of the things that generated my interest, from the prior thread cited in the OP: > [@Did strong anti-Gypsy/Roma racism exist in the USA?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-strong-anti-gypsy-roma-racism-exist-in-the-usa/650782/45): > > When I was a kid in the Boy Scouts on the east coast, we ended up near a group of Gypsies on one of or camping trips. We, as kids, were fascinated and wanted to interact as much as we could, but the adults would have nothing of that, and made sure we stayed clear of them for the entire weekend. So by your reasoning (Alan Smithee), the camp next door to the Boy Scouts were simply a group of random people, and the fact that they were camping out there would have no association or pertinence to the fact that they were Gypsies, and the parents were being unreasonable in steering the kids clear of them. Is that right? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-an-ethnic-group-ever-have-a-collective-reputation-which-is-deserved/651049)._