Sociology 3701: Outline--Week Thirteen

I. Results of tv survey and of class experiments

II. The Social Psychology of Prejudice

A. Prejudice: a hostile or negative attitude toward a distinguishable group based on generalizations from faulty or incomplete information.

B. Theories about the sources of prejudice

1. Attraction and comfort level for "people like us"... an extension of ethnocentrism, which is pretty much universal in human societies

2. Displaced aggression (scapegoating)... e.g. the Nazi hatred of the Jews in the face of Germany's severe economic troubles in the 1920s and 1930s

3. The prejudiced personality. Adorno et al: The Authoritarian Personality

4. Social learning and conformity.

a. Van den Berghe's account of the way newcomers to the Belgian Congo learned prejudice in their voyage on the Tervaete.

"At the outset of the trip, the behavior of the rookies(those new to Africa) was markedly divergent from that of the old hands in the treatment of the Congolese catering staff. Most of the new colonials had virtually no prior contact with blacks and initially treated them quite courteously...The old hands, for their part, treated the blacks with their customary colonial arrogance and discourtesy... Blacks were a stupid. lying, thieving lot. All they understood was force. Give them an inch and they'll take a foot. They were always on the lookout to cheat, steal and deceive you... You had to make clear to them who was master.... To demonstrate to the rookies the proper treatment of Africans, the old hands would be on their best colonial behavior. They would never say "please" or "thank you." They would either ignore the presence of a servant or insult him by calling him a macaque (a favorite Belgian colonial epithet for blacks). Instead of asking for a fresh drink, they would snap their fingers, point to an empty glass, and shout imprecations if the glass was not refilled within ten seconds or if it was refilled with the wrong drink. A handful of the more liberal and better-educated newcomers remained skeptical that this was the best formula for carrying the white man's burden, but the vast majority modified their behavior with alacrity... By the end of the three weeks journey, the behavioral and linguistic boundary separating the two groups(old colonial hands and newcomers) had all but vanished. The Tervaaete (name of the ship) had just graduated a freshly baked class of racists, even before arrival in Africa." (Stranger in their Midst, 1989, pp. 62-63).

5. Cognitive processes. Allport on the "normality of prejudgment" An extension of attribution and cognitive dissonance processes we have already studied.

6. Conflict and competition: what Max Weber called strategies of monopolization by status groups

a. The Sherifs' research with the Rattlers and the Eagles, two groups that were created at a summer camp for boys..brought to the point of dramatic conflict and even hatred simply by engaging in a tournament of games and manipulating them to see the other group as greedy and selfish. Boys who had identified each other as best friends in the pre-camp survey eventually having nothing to do with each other. "Our hypothesis is that when two groups have conflicting aims... their members will become hostile even though the groups are composed of normal, well-adjusted individuals." (Betsy's basketball team)

b. Exacerbated by the perception of dwindling opportunities. E.g. the anti-immigrant fervor which often accompanies a severe decline in the economy. The illegal deportations of Mexican-Americans during the Great Depression.

c. Prejudice and discrimination as an expression of hatred, vs prejudice and discrimination as a means to an end (more privilege for your group).

e.g. NPR show about German women who were not initially sympatethic to anti-Semitism, until someone pointed out how many businesses were owned by Jews: "Why should they have it all without work. It was time we had something."

d. Prejudice and brutality may well follow advantage.

e.g., Frederick Douglass's account of his new mistress, who didn't start out with any deep-rooted prejudice, but the experience of slavery changed her and she ended up as a brutal owner.

"My new mistress proved to be... a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings. She had never had a slave under her control previous to myself, and prior to her marriage, she had been dependent on her own industry for a living.... I was utterly astonished by her goodness. I hardly knew how to behave toward her...My early instruction was all out of place. The crouching servility usually so acceptable a quality in a slave, did not answer when manifested toward her. Her favor was not gained by it; she seemed to be disturbed by it... The meanest slave was put fully at ease in her presence, and none left without feeling better for having seen her...Alas! this kind heart had but a short time to remain such! The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work.That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon." (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Written by Himself, 1960, pp. 57.)

Role of cognitive dissonance

III. Race as a social construct. Remember Thomas theorem again: "What men define as real is real in its consequences."

A. Biology of Race... NO: "Race: the Power of an Illusion. Part I: The Difference Between Us"... Fruit flies have ten times as much genetic variation as human beings... we are a relatively recent species that hasn't had time for the evolution of a great deal of genetic evolution. The majority of anthropologists now believe that homo sapiens migrated out of Africa some 100,000 years ago and gradually spread across the globe.

What about skin color? Melanin and natural selection. Variation by distance from the tropics. No single point where we go from dark to light but a gradual lightening of skin.

Most of the genetic variation is within so-called racial groups and not between racial groups. Students sequencing their mitochondrial DNA.

B. Social-Cultural construction of race

Video: "Race: the Power of an Illusion. Part III. "The House We Live In."

 

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