Group think

Do we define people as individuals or as a definable group. Is he called John or is he a white man.
Of course both definitions are true but the consequences of defining by group as against an individual is that the group brings with it baggage.
The shootings in Orlando clearly were based on a group, in this case, the Gay community.

 Representation of a 'collective' is a messy business. If I go to watch football how do I differentiate myself from the soccer hooligans in Marseilles. If I am a black person how do I liberate myself from the image of what goes on in the South African Parliament.

For the onlooker who is too lazy to differentiate, the group gets tarred with the same brush and antagonism becomes rife. The cliché that covers the group builds resentment and becomes a self foretelling prophesy whereby normally confident, intelligent, rational people become twisted with prejudice. There's no shifting the prejudice by reasoning because of the overwhelming hatred displayed against all aspects of the group and sensible people simply close off any sort of accommodation.
As individuals we normally seek out 'like minds' such as other people who support our favourite team and in so doing innocently ghettoise our responses to the opposition. Even the word opposition carries the seeds of conflict. We become prejudiced, even partially psychotic under certain conditions.
The Sunni hatred of the Shia, and on a lighter but no less worrisome note, Arsenals hatred by some fans of Tottenham appears totally irreconcilable. The particular is lost in some sort of blanket cloud resentment based on a historical grievance. The individual Sunni or Tottenham fan are lost in a craving for revenge which has as its basis events which played out long long ago or slights which are amplified by an aggressive football fan culture.
The individual is lost in the mist of the smoke drifting over the battlefield, he/she just collateral damage.