Orientalist generalization treats every observed detail as confirming preexisting racial categories

Evidence

“We” are this, “they” are that. Which Arab, which Islam, when, how, according to what tests: these appear to be distinctions irrelevant to Smith’s scrutiny of and experience in the Hejaz. The crucial point is that everything one can know or learn about “Semites” and “Orientals” receives immediate corroboration, not merely in the archives, but directly on the ground. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 597

Categorization

• DEFINE: Presents the coercive circularity by which Orientalist stereotypes absorb empirical counter-evidence — a core mechanism of the discourse.
• XREF: Connects to the pre-established concept of ‘repertoire’ from earlier in the book, where repertoire precedes and absorbs actual observation. — connects to: Universal generalization is a totalitarian imposition on the world — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 162
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 597