Vincent Parrillo
Strangers to These Shores
Chapter Three
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice
• Prejudgment, … inadequate definition
• Louis Wirth: “ an attitude with an emotional
bias”
• Ralph Rosnow: “any unreasonable attitude
usually resistant to rational influence”
– “ My mind is already made up, don’t confuse
me with the facts”
• May be either Positive or Negative
– In minority relations, … usually negative
The Psychology of Prejudice
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Prejudice may develop from:
– Imitation or conditioning (Conditioning)
– Perceived similarity-dissimilarity (Cognitive)
– Personality characteristics (Psychoanalytic)
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Three Levels of Prejudice (B. Kramer)
1. Cognitive
2. Emotional
3. Action orientation
Cognitive Level of Prejudice
• Encompasses a persons beliefs, … perceptions
of a group,
– threatening or not, … inferior or equal, … seclusive or
intrusive, … in negative or positive characteristics
• Ethnocentrism: … a generalized rejection of all
groups based on an ingroup focus
• Prejudice is a rejection of certain people based
solely on their group membership
– Or the possibility of social interaction
Emotional Level of Prejudice
• Based on the feelings that a minority
group arouses in an individual
• Feelings may be based on stereotypes
• Emotional attitudes may be negative or
positive
• Beliefs or feelings may be triggered by
social interaction
Action-orientation Level
• A predisposition to engage in
discriminatory behavior
– Positive
– Negative
Self-Justification
• Denigrating a person or group to justify
maltreatment of them
– We “rationalize” our treatment of others
– Examples: Native Americans, … Slaves, …
Japanese, …
• Some sociologists believe it works the
other way around
– Subjugation occurs first then justification
follows
Authoritarian Personality
• T. W. Adorono’s studies (1950)
• Authoritarian Personality, correlated with
harsh treatment as a child
– F Scale (Potential Fascism)
– Study using a “shock” generator to “teach”
• Frustration, the result of relative
deprivation
– A lack of resources, or rewards, in one’s
standard of living compared to others in the
society
Authoritarian Personality Cont.
• Scapegoating
– Blaming others for something that is not their
fault
– Examples? …
Sociology of Prejudice
• Socialization
– The acquisition of values, attitudes, beliefs,
and perceptions of ones culture or subculture
– Includes Material and Nonmaterial cultural
elements
– We “learn” to become prejudice and to
discriminate
• Jim Crow laws, … for example
Sociology of Prejudice Cont.
• Economic Competition
– We tend to be more hostile towards others
who threaten our security, our livelihood
– Economic competition and conflict breeds
prejudice
– Negative stereotyping, prejudice, and
discrimination increase when competition for
jobs increases
• Examples: Chinese, … Germans (John Dollard)
• Both studies and historical evidence support this
position
Sociology of Prejudiced Cont.
• Social Norms
– Sociologists suggest a relationship between
prejudice and a person’s tendency to conform
to societal norms, (expectations)
• Social Norms form the generally shared
rules defining “proper” behavior
– Theorizes a direct relationship between the
degree of conformity and the degree of
prejudice
• Explains prevailing attitudes but not their
origin
Sociology of Prejudice Cont.
• Stereotyping
– An oversimplified generalization by which we
attribute certain characteristics to a group
without regard to individual differences
– Can be Positive or Negative, … Examples?
• Can become ingrained in our everyday
thinking
– Can serve to enhance or denigrate a group
• Once established, hard to eradicate, even
in succeeding generations
Ethnophaulisms
• Ethnophaulism:
– A derogatory word or expression used to
describe a racial or ethnic group
– This is the language of prejudice
– See picture on p. 87
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•
•
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Examples of ethnopuhaulisms in text?
Disparaging nicknames, … (. 87)
Explicit group devaluations, …
Irrelevant ethnic group nicknames, …
Sociology of Prejudice Cont.
• Ethnic Humor
– Are ethnic, racial, gender jokes funny?
• One’s view of the group influences their
reaction to the joke, comment
• Derogatory humor (jokes) about one’s
own group
• The key to ethnic humor lies in both the
joker’s and the audience’s attitudes
Sociology of Prejudice Cont.
• Perpetuation of Stereotypes
– Discuss
• Influencing of Attitudes
• Advertising and prejudice
• Can prejudice be reduced?
– Interaction, contact between people of
different racial and ethnic groups
• May worsen, … ?
• May improve, … ?
Discrimination
• Discrimination
– Actual behavior, the practice of differential
and unequal treatment of groups of people
• Racial, … religious, … ethnic, … others, …
• Five levels of Discrimination
• First: Verbal expression, … statement of
dislike, … a derogatory term, …
• Second: Avoidance, … the prejudiced
person takes steps to avoid social
interaction with a group
Levels of Discrimination Cont.
• Third: Exclusion, … exclusion from
certain jobs, … housing, … education, …
etc.
– De jure segregation, … segregationist laws
– De facto segregation, … by social custom
• Fourth: Ethnoviolence, all forms of
violence, … because of religion, … race, …
ethnicity, …
• Fifth: Extermination, … massacres, ..
Genocide, … pogroms, …
Prejudice & Discrimination
• Prejudice can lead to discrimination and
discrimination to prejudice
– Not certain one will follow the other
• Robert Merton (1949) Model describing
prejudice and discrimination (Fig 3.1, p. 98)
• Nonprejudiced Nondiscriminator
• Non prejudiced Discriminator
• Prejudiced Nondiscriminator
• Prejudiced Discriminator
Social & Institutional Discrimination
• Social Discrimination:
– Established patterns of social distance
– Social disassociations, exclusionary patterns
• Institutional Discrimination:
– Unequal treatment imbedded in institutional
rules, … and regulations
– Entrenched in customs, … laws, … practices
– Discriminatory patterns can exist in all
business, .. educational, .. religious, .. social, ..
and government institutions
Affirmative Action
• Affirmative Action, origin:
• President Roosevelt, Exec. Order 8802,
July 1941 ( pre WW II)
– Defense contractors, … “not discriminate, …
race, … creed, … color, … national origin, …”
• President Kennedy, Exec. Order 10925,
1961
– Take affirmative action, … treatment without
regard to race, … creed, … color, … national
origin
Affirmative Action Cont.
• Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, Sec. 703
– Seems to address the need for fairness, …
openness, … and color-blind opportunity
– Bans preference by race, … ethnicity, …
gender, … and religion, … in business and
government
• President Johnson Exec. Order 11246
– Mandated employer affirmative-action to
correct existing deficiencies through specific
goals and deadlines
Affirmative Action Cont.
• Legislation in 1972 amended the 1964 Civil
Rights Act
– Preference programs became the rule, …
through reserved minority quotas
– Seen as reverse discrimination
• The Bakke vs. the U.C. Regents
– U.S. Supreme Court ruled, … “quotas were
not permitted but race could be a factor in
university admission
• Supreme Court in 1995, “race could not
longer be the predominant factor… “
Has Affirmative Action Worked?
• Evidence of success has been mixed
• The Bakke decision has had little impact
on the enrollment of African Americans
and Hispanics in medical and law schools
• A considerable number of minorities and
women have better jobs than they would
have without antidiscrimination laws
Key Terms
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Affirmative action
Authoritarian personality
Three Levels of Prejudice
De facto discrimination
De jure Discrimination
Discrimination
Ethnophaulism
Jim Crow laws
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Prejudice
Scapegoating
Social Discrimination
Social Norms
Socialization process
Stereotype
Ethnoviolence
Institutional
Discrimination