The following is based mainly on the psychology textbook, “Psychology Applied to Modern Life” (2009) by Westen, Lloyd, Dunn and Hammer:
Prejudice is where you believe bad things about those who belong to a particular group, like a race, religion, country or sex. If you act on your prejudice it becomes discrimination.
Most Americans seem to be less prejudiced than they were 40 years ago. This is partly because they are less open about it – even to themselves. A good example of this is aversive racism: whites will say all the right words about people being equal and yet still discriminate against blacks when they think no one will know.
Causes – or at least some of them:
- Stereotypes: fixed ideas about how people of another group are supposed to be. We pick these up from society. They are kept in place partly by:
- Confirmation bias: We notice when people fit our stereotypes and overlook it when they do not. This makes our stereotypes seem true.
- Attribution error: blaming people’s shortcomings on their group not their circumstances. For example, when blacks are poor some will say it is because blacks do not like to work hard – their group is blamed. But when whites are poor the same people will say it is because of some particular misfortune, like being thrown out of work – their circumstances are blamed because they are not seen stereotypically as part of a group.
- Defensive attribution: blaming others for their own troubles to ease our fears of suffering the same thing. Like thinking Aids is a punishment from God.
- Collective self-esteem: We feel good about ourselves not just because of our own achievements but also because of those of our group. It becomes part of our identity. So when our group is threatened we can take it personally. It tends to make us act prejudiced in two ways:
- Ingroup favouritism – “ingroup love” – favouring those within our group. This is the main cause of discrimination – helping our own ingroup, not so much trying to hurt an outgroup.
- Outgroup derogation – “outgroup hate” – making those of an outgroup look bad.
- Competition – particularly for things in short supply, like money, power, land, rank, work. This does not always increase prejudice, but it can, particularly if we feel our group is being threatened.
Cures – or at least some things known to lessen prejudice:
- Knowing that you apply stereotypes – stereotyping is done without thinking, but noticing it and trying to stop it helps.
- Experiences with those of an outgroup – be careful: this can backfire and make you even more prejudiced! For it to be successful you must:
- work with them towards a common goal
- be successful at it – otherwise it can get ugly
- be on an equal footing with them
- deal with them at a serious level – do not just go through the motions
That is why football or the army can sometimes make people less racist while owning black slaves or having a black servant does not.
See also:
- colour-blind racism – aversive racism
- The five walls of racism – my take on prejudice in regard to race
- lies
- white self-interest – competition
- wall of the white self – collective self-esteem
- white society – fear of becoming an outcast
- white guilt and shame
- How to help end racism – according to damali ayo
Great post Abagond.
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This is one of your top ten! Great job!
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Amazing post. One of the best in the last few months.
PS-So, who’s racist?
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@Mira:
Here’s the full pic.
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Guess the racist? I guessed the white man, then I saw the whole poster and it said if I guessed either one, I’m a racist. Equality is about treating everyone equally.
Sorry, but the whole notion of equality is bullshit. The idea of “Equality” came about during the civil rights movement, when being racist became a sin for white people and then everyone resorted to masking their racist tendencies under the umbrellas of “logic (code)” and political correctness. Aversive racism, as you mentioned.
Human beings have never treated anybody equally. The simplest example is how women have always been an oppressed class. Now, dark skinned peoples all over the world are now an oppressed class due to the very real aspect of RACISM WHITE SUPREMACY.
White supremacy uses the notion of equality as a logically/politically correct term to lull POC to sleep amidst the discrimination they receive each day. The king’s language is a code to pacify and confuse POC. Equality is a myth. I do not consider myself to be racist but just for jollies, let’s say I am. There is no way in hell anyone can tell me my racism is a match to that of a white supremacist. I guess it’s all equality.
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brilliant article again
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Excellent post as usual.
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Awesome post.
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@Abagond:
No post re Dr. Laura? Was looking forward to your take on her racist rant, fake ass apology and quitting her radio program to “take back her first amendment rights from special interest groups”. Also Palin’s twitter that Dr. Laura needs to stay put and “reload”.
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I will do a post on her rant.
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I wonder how much internalized racism influences the (in)frequency of in-group favoritism? It seems some who are on the receiving end of pervasive prejudice reserve their greatest contempt for those who look like them.
Thank you for this post, Abagond. Looking forward to your post on Dr. Laura.
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OMG I just read this post; how on earth did I miss this?! Great post! I’m bookmarking it. You pretty much summed up the mechanisms behind racism today in 500 words. Everybody needs to read this.
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Experiences with those of an outgroup – be careful: this can backfire and make you even more prejudiced! For it to be successful you must:
work with them towards a common goal
be successful at it – otherwise it can get ugly
be on an equal footing with them
deal with them at a serious level – do not just go through the motions
I spent all of my formative years being brainwashed with the kind of “love everybody except the people that don’t love everybody and hate those ignorant, backwards people” until my “enlightened state” led me out of the “gifted” classroom and into reality. I have watched many of these “poor, downtrodden” “thems” actively throw away every advantage offered them. You can’t work with someone who won’t work. “Be successful at it.” Yeah. Win the future. Words are cheap so you can throw them away and pretend you are doing something. “Be on an equal footing with them.” I was. I was offered a rope to climb and I took it, they said they’d rather stay at the bottom. “Deal with them at a serious level.” I did then, and I continue to now. Mind you, you said “them” first, not me. I treat individuals individually with respect until they give me reason not to, and that reason can be dress, attitude, etc.
Suffice to say I went from FAR left to mid-right in the course of about a year. “They” got less intelligent and more violent. They spent their money on rims and their early mornings (Tuesday, 2:30am) at a gas station. One of “them” pulled out an AK47. “They” do it, it’s just another day. A “non-them” does it, it’s national news, probably a hate crime.
Keep spouting those cures, if it makes you feel better. Maybe one day you’ll end up finding out that the general population isn’t as well spoken, well educated or well meaning as your followers.
And before your let YOUR prejudices run wild, I just cling to my guns, not so much God. God hasn’t helped me lately, but with AKs going off down the road, you’re damn right I’m clinging to my guns.
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[…] prejudice […]
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Is prejudice only related to the belief of “bad” things? What about generalized beliefs where it is difficult to determine whether they are bad or not?
To me, it is still prejudice and discrimination even if the prejudice is neutral or positive or indeterminate.
For example, the belief that someone is a foreigner, good at math or has a large penis or uncircumcised based on his race or religion or something else might not be labelled “bad”. It is still prejudice and the behaviour related to that prejudice is still discrimination.
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I believe it can go both ways as with stereotypes.
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Positive stereotypes still result in having poor expectations for a group. Example: Is there a downside to thinking that a group is good at math? Yes, they may also be thought of as not down to earth. They may be accused of taking jobs away from some other “more deserving” group. We see this kind bias towards those coming into the US on H-1 visas.
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I have learned a lot from this post. I was trying to sort out if or how certain people really are biased. This post helps about 1/3 of the way. Another 1/3 might be that psychology has measured that we pervasively don’t like those we disagree with, or those who may be different from us.
I do find some trouble with the assertion that, “Most Americans seem to be less prejudiced than they were 40 years ago. The example citing aversive racism leaves an important impression that Most Americans seem to be less prejudiced because secretly they still are just as prejudiced. These two thoughts are juxtaposed with no evidence. I think this prematurely leads the reader to make up their mind about others, whether favorably or unfavorably. A nice article on prejudice would do better to not encourage more of it.
Also there may be a missed opportunity for addressing a failure to recognize prejudice, which I think naively happens in groups who don’t suffer from prejudice, i.e. they may be largely unaware of it’s pervasiveness. Some call this “entitlement.” The notion that White judgement is not biased because it is regular, innocent … It’s hard to believe that some people say this out loud. That it is the disadvantaged who are prejudiced. So win – lose should be perpetuated, instead of lose – win. Not recognizing and identifying prejudice perpetuates Winner Take All. I think this mentality needs to be solved at the same time.
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@rclabaugh
” Another 1/3 might be that psychology has measured that we pervasively don’t like those we disagree with, or those who may be different from us.”—I tend to view most racist as mentally unstable. They have an irrational idea of any given group, but have a high sense or idea of their own. Whites have formed a system (white supremacy) that keeps the idea for themselves and other group that they (whites) are the top and valued group. I will go into more detail once my mind is clear, but I hope this is a starting idea.
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@sharnalr
Some of the literature states a belief that defining prejudice narrowly and in the extreme has caused less openness and less discussion. White supremacy, is one such extreme. White privilege can be much, much less so. Even more of a failure of reaching out.
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