Why is prejudice a problem

We can take time here to focus on gender, education, and region of country and discuss the evidence for the racial attitudes of whites, as most studies do in view of the historic dominance of whites in the United States. The findings on gender are rather surprising. This similarity supports group threat theory, outlined earlier, in that it indicates that white women and men are responding more as whites than as women or men, respectively, in formulating their racial views.

Findings on education and region of country are not surprising. Focusing again just on whites, less educated people are usually more racially prejudiced than better-educated people, and Southerners are usually more prejudiced than non-Southerners Krysan, Evidence of these differences appears in Figure 3.

Whites without a high school degree are much more likely than those with more education to oppose these marriages, and whites in the South are also much more likely than their non-Southern counterparts to oppose them. Although racial and ethnic prejudice still exists in the United States, its nature has changed during the past half-century. Back in the s and before, an era of overt Jim Crow racism also called traditional or old-fashioned racism prevailed, not just in the South but in the entire nation.

This racism involved blatant bigotry, firm beliefs in the need for segregation, and the view that blacks were biologically inferior to whites. The Nazi experience and then the civil rights movement led whites to reassess their views, and Jim Crow racism gradually waned. Few whites believe today that African Americans are biologically inferior, and few favor segregation. So few whites now support segregation and other Jim Crow views that national surveys no longer include many of the questions that were asked a half-century ago.

But that does not mean that prejudice has disappeared. Instead, it involves stereotypes about African Americans, a belief that their poverty is due to their cultural inferiority, and opposition to government policies to help them.

Similar views exist about Latinos. In effect, this new form of prejudice blames African Americans and Latinos themselves for their low socioeconomic standing and involves such beliefs that they simply do not want to work hard.

Evidence for this modern form of prejudice is seen in Figure 3. If whites do continue to believe in racial stereotypes, say the scholars who study modern prejudice, they are that much more likely to oppose government efforts to help people of color. For example, whites who hold racial stereotypes are more likely to oppose government programs for African Americans Quillian, We can see an example of this type of effect in Figure 3.

Those who cite lack of motivation are more likely than those who cite discrimination to believe the government is spending too much to help blacks. Whites who are racially prejudiced are more likely to favor harsher treatment of criminals and in particular are more likely to support the death penalty. Racial prejudice influences other public policy preferences as well.

If racial prejudice influences views on all these issues, then these results are troubling for a democratic society like the United States. In a democracy, it is appropriate for the public to disagree on all sorts of issues, including criminal justice. For example, citizens hold many reasons for either favoring or opposing the death penalty. But is it appropriate for racial prejudice to be one of these reasons?

To the extent that elected officials respond to public opinion, as they should in a democracy, and to the extent that racial prejudice affects public opinion, then racial prejudice may be influencing government policy on criminal justice and on other issues. In a democratic society, it is unacceptable for racial prejudice to have this effect. Adorno, T. The authoritarian personality.

New York, NY: Harper. Barkan, S. Why whites favor spending more money to fight crime: The role of racial prejudice. Social Problems, 52 , — Bobo, L. Laissez-faire racism: The crystallization of a kinder, gentler, antiblack ideology. Martin Eds. Westport, CT: Praeger. Brown, P. Narrower Problems:.

Related Problems:. Subject s :. Problem Type:. The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley; Published December 19, Fiske ST. Interdependence Reduces Prejudice and Stereotyping. In Oskamp S, ed. Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; ; Linville PW. The Heterogeneity of Homogeneity. Plous, S. Plous Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellMind. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.

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Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Reducing Prejudice. Prejudice is a premature judgment - where someone makes a decision on a person or an issue before they have all the information. It is a natural process so that people can make an immediate overall view of a situation.