We are concerned about the recent uses of stereotypes in public debate, whether in the context of immigration reform, suggestions on improving educational performance or comments by inebriated celebrities. It is time to conduct our conversations without resorting to stereotypes.

The Anti-Defamation League's "A World of Difference" Institute defines a stereotype as an oversimplified generalization about a person or group of people without regard for individual differences. Stereotypes lead to a shorthand that assumes because someone is X they will behave in a certain way. By lumping together everyone in a group, stereotypes transmit inaccurate, hurtful and unproductive messages.

Stereotypes exist because it is human nature to want to organize the world.

From when we are young and first learn that the round peg goes into the round hole, we try to put things into groups to help create order. However, when it comes to grouping people, this "organization" has much larger implications.

For example, the stereotype that some ethnic groups are lazy is a belief about the ethics of all or most of the members of those groups. That belief informs attitudes (prejudice) that in turn create actions (discrimination).

My beliefs and attitudes about a group, unless unchecked, will shape my treatment of the members of the group with whom I interact. If I believe that one ethnic group has a strong work ethic and another does not, then it would take much conscious effort not to be influenced to hire an applicant from the "hardworking" group instead of an applicant from a "lazy" group. I'm likely to reward someone from a group identified as having "positive cultural values" - and conversely penalize someone from a group negatively stereotyped - without seriously investigating to see whether the individual applicant shows evidence of those values.

Whether my decision is made consciously or not, stereotypes lead straight to the fulfillment of my own beliefs.

Countless studies bear out how easily stereotypes affect important aspects of people's lives, from hiring to housing to educational expectations. Unfortunately, these stereotypes can come into play as soon as people read a name. For example, Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan of the University of Chicago and Massachusetts Institute of Technology sent out résumés, identical except for the ethnicity of the name of the applicant, in response to help-wanted ads. They found that résumés with white-sounding names, such as Emily and Brendan, received 50 percent more callbacks than African-American names, such as Lakisha and Jamal.

Even seemingly positive stereotypes that link a person or group to a specific positive trait can have negative consequences. Defining an ethnic group as athletic or smart or good at music sets unrealistic expectations for the members of that group - expectations that can never be met by many people in that group - because the generalization simply is not true for all. Additionally, labeling one group with positive attributes and saying to another "why can't you be like them" only pits groups against each other, making it even harder to solve social problems and break down barriers between people.

Some might say that generalizing about a group's cultural values opens up new ways to look at things or that the use of stereotypes only brings into the open things that people are thinking anyway. But that's the rub - once beliefs about entire groups of people are openly accepted, they quickly become shorthand, and easily lead to unconscious prejudice and discrimination in all areas of life, such as hiring, unfair expectations by teachers and countless other ways in which people interact in society.

No one can deny that there are serious problems that need to be addressed in communities across America. The use of stereotypes, however, creates more problems than it solves. Let's focus on the needs and the solutions, let's stop labeling whole groups of people with broad-brush traits, and let's look at people as individuals, each with personal, unique values and characteristics.