aggression, there is a cultural context for prejudice. This situation occurs when there is state-sanctioned prejudice, such as racial or religious segregation, or if the state and society do little to curb prejudice. (8) Places where neither assimilation nor cultural pluralism is welcomed leave few options for out-groups to fit in, as they are neither welcomed into the fold, nor are their differences permitted. (9) If there are traditional justifications for ethnocentrism, perhaps ones that originate in cultural or religious rituals, prejudice is likely to have a preexisting hold. For example, societies with a White supremacy framework usually develop because of Whites’ deliberate group move for this ethnocentric viewpoint to be a vital, embedded part of society’s culture. Sometimes religion is also involved because of the ways in which it is used as a rationale for one group to have power over another, as was seen with Hitler’s aggression against Judaism or as seen with hostile Islamic states. Religion, however, is more of a tool and not a determinant of prejudice. Each one of the nine structural contexts can singularly support a prejudiced society, or the contexts may act in concert with one another to cultivate a society where prejudice exists and persists.20
Psychological Explanations
Prejudice can also be a psychological trait and is often studied via questionnaires that inquire into individual beliefs. In fact, at one point, Allport notes:
Studies constitute a very strong argument for saying that prejudice is basically a trait of personality. When it takes root in a life it grows like a unit. The specific object of prejudice is more or less immaterial. What happens is that the whole inner life is affected; the hostility and fear are systematic.21
There are several psychological explanations for how an individual comes to be prejudiced, including acquiring prejudice through the adoption of one’s family or reference group, participating in processes of projection, and developing a prejudiced personality. These explanations are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but each has a different focus.
Individuals are often prejudiced because they have learned this prejudice from their family or other immediate reference group. Parents can foster an atmosphere of prejudice by emphasizing power and authority rather than trust and tolerance. Studies suggest that children as young as 2 and a half learn racial differences and labels before they quite understand them.22 At the first stage of prejudice development, a child learns how to generalize people into groups. Next, the child practices rejection of individuals based on group membership but may not understand this behavior. At the third stage, the child learns how to make prejudice sound rational and acceptable to society. At the last stage, around the age of 12, a child knows how to use language that sounds acceptable while practicing rejection in behavior. The irony of learning prejudice is that a young child often speaks in prejudicial terms but doesn’t believe these 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
