Stanley Fish: We’ve Seen This Movie Before

Stanley Fish writes in the context of the 'ground zero mosque' and the attack on the NYC Muslim taxi driver about when something is attributed to 'the lone acts of an individual' vs. a whole group 

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/weve-seen-this-movie-before/

The formula is simple and foolproof (although those who deploy it so facilely seem to think we are all fools): If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on or is in the air (he came from nowhere) and characterize him as a one-off, non-generalizable, sui generis phenomenon.