Understanding Racism. Hephzibah Strmic-Pawl
ideas, due to a lack of comprehension, while an older child knows how to practice discrimination while deferring to social graces. As adults, people learn to mold their prejudices to their life experiences and fit their biases to their particular needs.23
Prejudice also develops out of a psychological desire to project one’s personal problems onto someone else. This desire can arise from frustration with one’s personal life, community, or broader conditions of living; it can arise from aggression and hatred that an individual generally feels; and/or it can come from anxiety or guilt associated with fear, economic insecurity, or low self-esteem. Generally, projection emerges “whenever, and in whatever way, a correct-appraisal of one’s own emotional life fails and gives way to an incorrect judgment of other people.”24 Allport notes three types of projection: (1) direct, (2) mote-beam, and (3) complementary. Direct projection helps solve one’s own inner conflict by ascribing it to another group and then directly blaming the out-group members for it. Mote-beam projection is when a person exaggerates qualities in others, which both the out-group and the prejudiced person hold but go unrecognized within the prejudiced person. Complementary projection is the process of explaining one’s own state of mind by projecting imaginary intentions and behaviors onto others. A particular type of projection is scapegoating—that is, when one assigns to a group one’s own negative characteristics. Scapegoating is a common form of projection because it allows the individual not to accept responsibility or guilt for personal issues because it is assigned to others.25
A third psychological explanation for prejudice is the prejudiced personality. Allport outlines eight general characteristics of a prejudiced personality: (1) The person has underlying insecurity and buried feelings; (2) the person has ambivalence toward his/her/zir parents; (3) the person has rigid moralistic views, such as an irrational allegiance to manners and conventions; (4) the person has strong dichotomized thinking, with a clear line set between good and bad people; (5) the person has little tolerance for ambiguity; (6) the person is extropunitive, in that the person assigns blame to others, rather than taking internal stock of personal faults or limitations; (7) the person strongly adheres to social order and is devoted to institutions and organizational memberships; and (8) the person prefers an authoritarian type of power.26 Of course, prejudiced people may have all or some of these characteristics, and some may be more or less present, but these eight characteristics are typical of prejudiced personalities. On an extreme level, demagogues, as leaders who appeal to prejudiced people rather than logic, cater to this prejudiced personality by emphasizing broad sweeping narratives, such as the people have been cheated, there is a conspiracy against the people, the government is corrupt, and the people cannot trust foreigners. Demagogues and fascists, as seen with Hitler, often exhibit a high level of paranoia, a characteristic that commonly belongs to those with extreme prejudice.27
Prejudice in Action
Understanding how or why someone has come to be prejudiced is important, but Allport also looks at how prejudice manifests. All prejudiced people do not translate their beliefs into action, and the level of discrimination varies. There are five general manifestations of prejudice: (1) anti-locution, (2) avoidance, (3) discrimination, (4) physical attack, and (5) extermination. Anti-locution is the verbal expression of prejudice, usually by talking about one’s bias with others, but the target is not directly addressed. For example, a person talks to friends about their dislike for a group but doesn’t openly share this information. Avoidance is when prejudiced people take active measures to avoid the target of their prejudice. In this case, a person will choose their important locations, such as home, school, and house of worship, based on their likelihood of coming into contact with the target of their prejudice. Discrimination is the typical manifestation of prejudice, such as rejecting employment or housing. People often do not practice discrimination if there is a challenge to doing so but will discriminate if they can do so without confronting the target. Physical attack is the forceful removal of the target from communities or general intergroup violence. The most extreme prejudice results in extermination, such as measures taken by Whites to lynch Blacks or massacre indigenous people. Physical violence is more likely in certain contexts, including when there is a long period of categorical prejudgment or a long period of verbal complaint, when there is growing discrimination in society, when prejudiced people feel some strain upon them (real or imagined), when people tire of their inhibitions, when organizations create a culture and structure for malcontents, when individuals find that their wrath is sanctioned by organizations, when there is some precipitating event or riot, and when others participate in the violence.28
How to Challenge Racism
Throughout The Nature of Prejudice, Allport suggests opportunities for challenging prejudice, both on the structural level and on the individual level. On the structural level, Allport looks to studies that suggest increased contact between groups can lessen bias if authentic relationships occur. Residential integration, where communities of color occupy equal status and common goals with Whites, can be an effective route.29 Other options include formal education, intercultural programs, group retraining, and positive mass media messages.30 Education programs should particularly emphasize that race is not a biological reality. On the individual level, Allport provides the characteristics of a non-prejudiced personality, which can be used to develop goals for individual therapy plans for prejudiced people. A non-prejudiced personality deemphasizes individualism, develops self-insight, is intropunitive rather than extropunitive, has tolerance for ambiguity, and has a trusting approach.31 Allport emphasizes that no one strategy is the answer and that a multimethod approach, on the structural and individual level, should be taken.
By the Numbers
Seventy-two percent of Whites, 71% of Blacks, and 58% of Hispanics say that it is never acceptable for a White person to use the N-word.
Forty-five percent of Whites say that people assume they are racist or prejudiced, compared to 25% of Blacks, 24% of Asians, and 21% of Hispanics.
Sixty-two percent of Asian-White multiracials feel very accepted by Whites, compared to 47% of Asian-White multiracials who feel very accepted by Asians. Twenty-five percent of Black-White multiracials feel very accepted by Whites, compared to 58% who feel very accepted by Blacks.
Sources: Horowitz, Brown, and Cox (2019); Ibid.; Parker et al. (2015).
Evaluation
Methodological Benefits
This theoretical examination of prejudice relies on an exhaustive methodological review of earlier studies from a range of disciplines. Allport regularly pulls on interdisciplinary sources, such as Journal of Personality, Fortune (the magazine), American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Educational Sociology, and Public Opinion Quarterly. He moves through masses of research by providing specifics of studies, by using multiple examples to illuminate a particular facet of prejudice, and by summarizing the contributions of several researchers. For example, in Chapter 16 of The Nature of Prejudice, on the effect of contact among groups, he provides several tables from other studies, such as “Opinion of U.S. Soldiers Regarding Germans as Related to the Frequency of Their Contact with German Civilians,” from the book The American Soldier (1949); “Percentage of Respondents Giving Indicated Reasons for Wanting to Exclude Negroes from Their Neighborhood,” from the unpublished work Residential Contact as a Determinant of Attitudes Toward Negroes (1950); and “Are They (the Negro People in the Project) Pretty Much the Same as the White People Who Live Here or Are They Different?” from Interracial Housing: A Psychological Evaluation of a Social Experiment (1951). Allport also relies on interviews or excerpts from first-person historical accounts. This use of supportive data from a range of studies and disciplines is typical of the methods employed by Allport throughout the book. Although Allport’s theory does not rely on primary research, the range and rigor of sources used to illuminate the multiple facets of prejudice are impressive and invaluable for attaining a broad framework of prejudice.