Transcript Chap 02 lecture notes

PREJUDICE
CHAPTER 2
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Ethnocentrism
• The tendency to assume that one’s culture and
way of life are superior to all others
Hate Crimes
• Criminal offense committed because of the
offender’s bias against a race, religion, ethnic /
national origin group, or sexual orientation group
• Hate crimes statistics act became law in 1990
o Government definition of Hate Crime
• An ordinary crime is a hate crime when offenders choose
a victim because of some characteristic-for example,
race, ethnicity, or religion-and provide evidence that
hatred prompted them to commit the crime. Hate or
bias crimes which is another name can also be based on
hatred because of national origin or sexual orientation
Distribution of Reported Hate Crimes in 2007
Prejudice & Discrimination
• Prejudice
o Negative attitude that rejects an entire group
• Discrimination
o Behavior that deprives a group of certain rights
or opportunities
• Ethnophaulism
o Ethnic slurs that include derisive nicknames and
include speaking about or to members of a
particular group in a condescending way
Derogatory Terms
Whites
Blacks
Hispanics
East Asians
Native
Americans
whitey
cracker
honky
white trash
redneck
hillbilly
wigger
gringo
peckerwood
roundeye
goy
squarehead
nigger
spook
jungle bunny
jigaboo
bluegum
coon
porch monkey
darkie
spade
spearchucker
tar-baby
spic
wetback
greaser
beaner
chink
gook
jap
nip
ching chong
coolie
dink
slanteyes
slopehead
squinty
zipperhead
zip
redskin
squaw
apple
chief
half-breed
injun
prairie nigger
Jews
Irish
Italians
West Asians
Arabs
kike
heeb
hymie
yid
Christ killer
mick
paddy
dago
goombah
greaseball
guido
guinea
wop
eyetie
dothead
towelhead
towelhead
camel jockey
dune coon
raghead
sand nigger
Merton’s Typology
• The unprejudiced nondiscriminator –
or all weather liberal
• The unprejudiced discriminator –
or reluctant liberal
• The prejudiced nondiscriminator –
or timid bigot
• The prejudiced discriminator –
or all-weather bigot
Prejudice and Discrimination
As sociologist Robert Merton’s formulation shows, prejudice and
discrimination are related to each other but are not the same.
LaPiere’s Study
• Merton’s typology points out that people do not
always act as they believe
• Richard LaPiere (1934, 1969)
 Exposed the relationship between racial attitudes and
social conduct
 Traveled with a Chinese couple across the United States
 Despite alleged intolerance, couple was treated
courteously at hotels, motels, and restaurants
Theories of Prejudice
• Four theories of prejudice
o Scapegoating
• occurs when an individual (group) projects
and blames their own inadequacies or
problems onto another group
o Criticisms of Scapegoat Theory
• Fails to explain why one group is used as
a scapegoat and not another
• Fails to explain why two individuals who
share the same experience vary in tolerance
• Does not explain personality differences
Theories of Prejudice
o Authoritarian Personality
• Adorno et al 1950 – study of authoritarianism and
prejudice
• Authoritarian Traits
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Rigid adherence to conventional values
Uncritical acceptance of authority
Power and toughness
Intolerance and aggression toward those that
don’t conform to conventional values
o Criticisms of Authoritarian Personality
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Focus on right wing groups and ignored left wing groups
Prejudice is related to other traits such as social class
Methodology employed
Focused on only extreme forms of prejudice and not on
other forms of prejudice
Theories of Prejudice
o Exploitation
• Prejudice is rationally and economically
motivated on the basis of self interests
• The dominant group benefits from prejudice
in that it is rooted within the exploitation of
a group
o Criticisms of Exploitation Theory
• Not all subordinate groups are exploited equally
• Prejudice occurs for reasons other than economic
• Prejudice is not necessarily rational and may
undermine dominant group interests
Theories of Prejudice
o Normative
• prejudice is patterned into the cultural norms
and values of a group or society
• Prejudice is a function of conforming to
group norms of intolerance
• All four theories of prejudice have
contributed to its understanding
Theories of Prejudice
What are Stereotypes?
• Stereotypes
 Unreliable generalizations about all members of
a group that do not take individual differences
into account
 Stereotypes are often exaggerated and
negative images of a group
 Stereotypes come from a variety of sources
• a kernel of truth
• the media
• but power plays a role in their effect
Power of Stereotypes
• Stereotypes often become a self-fulfilling
prophecy
o Affect how we feel
o Affect how we relate to others
• Stereotyping In Action: Racial Profiling
o Any police-initiated action based on race, ethnicity, or
national origin rather than the person’s behavior
o Assumes that people fitting certain descriptions are
likely to be engaged in criminal activity
o Can be an explicit use of stereotypes
• “driving while Black”
• Latino men in groups
• Men with dreadlocks
• Arabs in airports
Stereotyping in the 21st Century
Trends in Prejudice
• Nationwide surveys consistently show growing
support by Whites for integration
o Interracial marriage, minorities attaining political office
• A change of attitude may create a context in
which legislative or behavioral change can occur
• Opposition by Whites to immigration or affirmative
action is a more acceptable, veiled way to
express prejudice – no overt racism
• Described as “modern racism, color blind racism, or
laissez-faire racism”
o Ignores patterns of groups being disadvantaged and
racial inequality
The Mood of the Oppressed
• Opinion polls have demonstrated interest in
White attitudes on racial issues longer than
they have measured views of subordinate
groups
o Bias of White researchers
o Dominant group is more important to study because it is in
a better position act on its beliefs
• Prejudice and its affect on the self esteem
of the subordinate group
The Mood of the Oppressed
• Prejudice affects perceptions on fairness or equality
of opportunity
o Jobs, Housing, Justice
• Research literature of the 1940’s through 1960’s
emphasized the low self esteem of minorities
o Should not assume minority status influences
personality traits in a good or bad way
• Such assumptions may create a stereotype
• Characteristics of minority-group members are nor
entirely the result of subordinate racial status
• Many studies of personality imply that certain values
are normal or preferable, but the values chosen are
those of the dominant group
Intergroup Hostility
• Content and extent of prejudice and stereotypes
between ethnic - racial groups
• Members of oppressed groups have adopted the
widely held beliefs of the dominant culture
concerning oppressed groups
• Some groups feel they get along better with
Whites than with other minority groups
o Low-income people compete
with each other and do not see
the larger societal forces that
contribute to their low status
Studies show that all racial and ethnic minority groups have prejudiced
and stereotypical views of other racial and ethnic minority groups
Reducing Prejudice
• Obvious way to eliminate prejudice is to eliminate
its causes
o The desire to exploit
o The fear of being threatened
o The need to blame others for one’s own failure
• Answer rests with programs directed at society as a
whole
• Prejudice is attacked indirectly when discrimination
is attacked
Reducing Prejudice
• Despite contrary prevailing beliefs, prejudice
can be legislated
o Statutes and decisions do affect attitudes
• Studies to determine how to change negative
attitudes toward groups of people find the
following encouraging
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Education
Mass Media
Intergroup Contact
Workplace training programs
Education and Mass Media
• Research consists of two types:
o Artificially (experimentally) created situations
o Studies that examine the influence on attitudes of
motion pictures, television, and advertisements
• Media has had both positive and negative
effects depending on the program, situation
and subjects exposed.
• Well constructed programs tend to have an
impact on reducing prejudice but to be
effective they have to address the cognitive,
affective, and action tendency dimensions
Education and Mass Media
• Some programs only focus on the cognitive
or affective
• Formal education is related to a reduction
in prejudice
o Formal education may not reduce prejudice
uniformly within a group.
• Mass media may reduce prejudice without
the need of specially designed programs
Avoidance versus Friendship
• It is difficult to quantify the extent of
prejudice between groups
• Measure the relative extent of prejudice
between groups
• Social Distance
o The tendency to approach or withdraw from a racial
group
• Emory Bogardus’ Scale
o used to measure social distance empirically and describes
different degrees of social contact or social distance
Equal Status Contact
• Contact hypothesis: An interactionist perspective
stating that intergroup contact between people of
equal status in noncompetitive circumstances will
reduce prejudice
• Corporate Response: Diversity Training
o Prejudice carries a cost not only to the victim but also to any
organization that allows prejudice to interfere with its functioning
o Most organizations have initiated some form of diversity training
o Difficult to assess their effectiveness because of variation in
structure between organizations
o Content also varies
o To have a lasting impact, training should not be separated from
other aspects of the organization
Ways to Fight Hate
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1. Act
2. Unite
3. Support The Victims
4. Do Your Homework
5. Create An Alternative
6. Speak Up
7. Lobby Leaders
8. Look Long Range
9. Teach Tolerance
10. Dig Deeper