The Political Psychology of Race

Racism was responsible for one of the most repressive regimes in modern history, the apartheid government of South Africa Understanding racial divisions and conflicts requires us to go beyond explanations that rely upon competition for resources as causes of conflicts Political psychology enables us to understand how racial groups can live together harmoniously for years, and then erupt in rise to extremes of hatred and fear, when people convinced by leaders and by rumors that their group is threatened by others How issues can be framed to produce anxieties in the minds of citizens stereotypes

Group differentiation 4 components of prejudice: a response to group members based on their membership in the group, a negative evaluative orientation toward a group and consequently an aversion to group members, an attribution of negative characteristics toward a group and its members that is incorrect, and consistency in the negative orientation toward the group and its members

Stereotype: a set of beliefs about the personal attributes of a group of people Stereotypes and prejudices that produce discriminatory behavior are filled with negative evaluation of the groups and its members

Explaining racism and ethnocentrism Why do people stereotype others and engage in discriminatory behavior? One of the oldest explanation for prejudice and discrimination is realistic conflict theory: discrimination is result of competition over scare resources such as jobs, housing, and good school Competition becomes more severe View the other in increasingly negative terms and their won group as superior Superordinate goals: goals that both competing groups desired and that required cooperation of groups, reduce the tension created as a result of competition

Second explanation is social learning theory: according to this view, children learn negative attitudes and discriminatory behaviors from their parents, teachers, family, friends, and others when they are rewarded (love, agreements)for such behaviors Social norms are also a powerful mechanism for learning prejudice

Social identity theory: prejudice and stereotype among groups occur even in the absence of conflicting goals Competition can occur even when the sates are only psychological with no real interaction or conflicting goals Social categorization and group identity are partially responsible for the initial process of group differentiation into in-groups and out-groups

Motivation and personality traits have also been examined in efforts to explain the causes of racism and ethnocentrism Authoritarian personality across cultures and are directly related to ethnocentrism: authoritarian submission, aggression, and conventionalism (blind acceptance of social norms)

Social dominance theory: examines personality characteristic Social dominance orientation measures that differentiatives those who prefer social group relations to be equal or hierarchical, and the extent to which people want their in-group to dominate out-groups Behaviors as a product of social status and human disposition to form social groups that are arranged in a social hierarchy Three broad hierarchies: gender (male dominate females), age (adult elders), socially constructed groups identified as differentiated in terms of race, ethnicity, class, clan, or nationality. People in dominant groups are socialized, as individual, to have social dominance orientation. They belong to groups that are on the top of hierarch (dominate ideas and institutions), the social and political system benefit them most and they use social and political structures to maintain the hierarchical relationships among groups

Why do racism and ethnocentrism occur? People tend to think of race as denoting biological differences among people, but in fact it is largely socially constructed What explains who the particular targets are? Social dominance perspective has provided an explanation as to why some groups receive the worst treatment: competition for resources as a motivating factor producing prejudice Scapegoating sis result of social causality assessments-finding an out-group to blame for bad things that happen to the in-groups Projection: ascribing one’s own unacceptable and repressed impulses or attributes to out-groups, explains whey they are regarded as inferior.

Race in the USA Since 1950s democratic principle of equality Changing attitudes have not produced socioeconomic equality between Blacks and Whites in the USA, great disparity between White and Black families living in poverty More blacks are employed in white-collar jobs today, which is up from 5% in 1940 to 32% in 1990 White Americans no longer regard African-Americans as biologically inferior to Whites, as they did during slavery Racist attitudes in the USA have diminished as education levels have increased over the years

Race and the Obama election: racial prejudice did not influence the election of Barack Obama’s Presidency It signals tremendous progress, but this election alone cannot undo the socioeconomic impact of racism of the past

Racial prejudice in the USA Politics-is-complicated model (principled objection model): it is argued that White Americans vary in the degree to which they blame the inequalities between the cases on the structural factors (historical legacy of slavery and current system-wide discrimination) as opposed to individual factors people broadly ethnocentric, hold number of social stereotypes, and are generally socially intolerant Values related to authoritarianism Lack of consistency between support for equality between the races and lack of support for policies to achieve that equality

Symbolic racism: what we have in America today as traditionalist American individualist values Replaced that of the old pre-civil rights era racism, the new racism has its foundation in conservative political values and the Protestant ethic’s moral values The data indicate that modern White prejudice toward Blacks is not based on the old notions of biological inferiority, but on the belief that Blacks fail to try hard enough Symbolic racism is composed of: a conviction that Blacks are no longer treated unfairly; that they do not have traditional American values, such as the work ethic and obedience to authority; that, despite this, they continue to demand special treatment from government Hostile feelings toward Blacks blend with conservative values to produce new form of racism