Growing up in a town with a population of about 300, I was never exposed to much cultural diversity although I had never really been exposed to any sort of racial discrimination. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I first experienced discrimination, which came from my grandparents at the sight of a colored man holding hands with a white woman. Having experienced such things in movies and on television I had never seen anything wrong with this situation and had spoken up in their defense to much disapproval of my family. Once in high school I realized the major cultural stigma that I was trapped in being in that environment. It was then that I first experienced the group conflicts that are highly prevalent in societies yet today. After attending two years of schooling on a college campus I was thrilled to find that there was not always a presence of group conflicts, yet I eventually moved to yet another small community.
I crossed several states and moved into a new setting, from cornfields to mountains, to once again find that conflicts are a common problem within several communities. In this new small town I recently experienced my first brush with racial bias and in-group and out-group conflicts. Even though this town has a much larger population, a little over 1,000, I feel as if I never left the little blip that I had grown up in. During my lunch break at work while sitting with the owner of the business, I overheard several racially biased remarks as well as derogatory statements that put down the entire out-group; which in this example is African Americans. This conversation consisted of several remarks regarding their supposed choice of diet as well as work ethics, remarks that portrayed them as a lazy race that depended on the Whites for support. With the views I formed while growing up, it is hard for me to comprehend such bias.
The conversation that I overheard is an example of intergroup bias, which is defined as the evaluation of one’s group (in-group) more favorably than other groups (out-group). This bias gives rise to discrimination, prejudice, and stereotyping (Hewstone, Rubin, Willis, 2002). The example used is considered a form of discrimination by theoretical terms since one member of the in-group reached out to the other in confidence and showed favoritism to the in-group. This instance can best be described under the social identity theory, more specifically the self-esteem hypothesis, since speaking of the work attitude of the opposite race seemed to boost his confidence and self-esteem in his own abilities as well as the in-group as a whole (Hewstone, Rubin, Willis, 2002). After listening to the conversation for several minutes I began to wonder what approach would be able to reduce the bias that was being experienced between this particular in-group and out-group.
It was obvious that the intergroup contact hypothesis would not be effective since the instigator of the conversation had contact with the out-group of a regular basis as a part of his job, yet still held such high bias of the group. In order to overcome this it would require a direct approach that would bring the prejudice to the front of the mind and will provide the solutions to combat it (Hewstone, Rubin, Willis, 2002). Within the article by Hewstone, there is mentions of “prejudice with compunction” that causes awareness between a person’s values and their real life actions towards the out-group that would activate a sort of self-directed guilt that would ultimately reduce bias across several settings. Of course this approach would require practice and awareness (Hewstone, Rubin, Willis, 2002).
Experiencing such a conversation has wrecked my brain since then to farther understand the conflicts that are found between the in-group and out-groups of a culture. While the studies themselves can be ultimately interesting and almost satisfying, the topic itself saddens me especially on the racial front since we have tried to overcome the stigma that one race is superior to the rest and can do no wrong. While I know that great progress has been made on this front, it will always be in the back of my mind that there are those that still hold such strong negative views that are not accurately represented in the out-group by any means. My aspiration in life is to live in a culturally diverse environment that will eliminate racial intergroup conflicts and will pave way for better examples of behavior for future generations.
Hewstone, Miles. Rubin, Mark. Willis, Hazel. (2002). Intergroup bias. Annual Review of Psychology 53. 575-604. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/205801786?pq-origsite=summon
Tags: intergroup relations
It constantly amazes me how far we have come, and yet how far we have NOT come at the same time. Various research projects and experiments over the years that have focused on social issues like racism have been enlightening and helpful no doubt. But it so often seems that getting to heart of the matter, the root of where this all started doesn’t happen very much. There was a huge breach of human trust and respect that whites committed when they made the conscious choice to kidnap, torture, and enslave black people. Where was the wisdom in this plan laid out by the founders of this country? There certainly was no humanity in it. How does a race of people come to a land, kill, lie and cheat it’s inhabitants of that land, then simultaneously make slaves of another people and honestly expect that there would be no blow back, no repercussions from their behavior? I would call that highly delusional thinking and grossly immoral and reprehensible behavior. Beyond that it was simple evil. Consider the analogy of a couple, any kind, hetero, gay, lesbian whatever. And one of them, lies, cheats on, betrays, beats, steals from, abuses, tortures the other person. Do you honestly think that this couple, these two human beings would have any shot at reconciliation, or at the least just being civil with each other if the perpetrator did not acknowledge the horrible things they did to their partner and then then try to make amends somehow? The tactic of white americans has always been such, to basically not own up to what they have done and somehow expect that the relationship with black people is somehow going to just be alright. It’s psychotic. The contact hypothesis in all its varieties is a great thing yes. But until those who were responsible and their descendants try to at least make an honest effort to admit, own up to, and try to make amends from a place of true acknowledgment and contrition, the schema of racist thought that formed the sustained support for african slavery will continue to play in the minds of whites until it can be exposed and extinguished. I agree very much that an awareness approach to this problem is a great idea and feel if done correctly will work. I have created my own technique for this and have used it on myself and it worked wonderfully to help me eliminate my former racist thoughts and attitudes towards Muslims. But for now, there is a huge psychological wall protecting the cognitive dissonance that will not let the majority of white people feel and admit to the horrible things they have done while basking in all the benefits of theft, murder, and slavery. It’s a very hard pill to swallow, but it’s simply the truth.