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Civil rights and race relations materials, 1957-1964

What You Can Do About Racial Prejudice In Housing Page 10

scale. Thus we prop up our own status by providing a convenient group to blame for our failures, to ridicule of to look down upon, depending on the needs of our personality at any given moment.
There appear to be three basic conditions for any society-wide tradition of racial prejudice:
1. The need for a social scapegoat to provide a favorable yardstick against which to measure one's own superiority.
2. An easily identifiable outgroup in the society upon which to vent this need. Color of skin is the most easily identifiable difference among America's different cultural and ethnic groups.
3. A tradition that links these two conditions together--a society-wide custom or habit that "authorizes" the use of the Negro as a social scapegoat.
Psychologists tell us that the need for a scapegoat of some kind will probably always exist, man being the kind of animal he is. And some kind of outgroup will probably always exist--whether Irish, Italian or Middle European (as in past decades), or Negro or Puerto Rican (as today).
It is there fore at point number 3 that the hope for a breakthrough against the chain of racial prejudice exists. By breaking the link of habit, the tradition of racial prejudice can most successfully be attacked.
How can this be done?
As shown, rational efforts to break the link that makes Negroes the traditional social scapegoat have often been disappointing. People turn away from unwelcome ideas that shake up their patterns of thinking, or they interpret these ideas in ways that tend to strengthen their prejudices rather than reduce them. Direct personal contact between Negroes and prejudiced persons does not work either--unless this contact is on the basis of equal status.
But there is a way to do it--and integrated housing can be the key factor.
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scale. Thus we prop up our own status by providing a convenient group to blame for our failures, to ridicule of to look down upon, depending on the needs of our personality at any given moment. There appear to be three basic conditions for any society-wide tradition of racial prejudice: 1. The need for a social scapegoat to provide a favorable yardstick against which to measure one's own superiority. 2. An easily identifiable outgroup in the society upon which to vent this need. Color of skin is the most easily identifiable difference among America's different cultural and ethnic groups. 3. A tradition that links these two conditions together--a society-wide custom or habit that "authorizes" the use of the Negro as a social scapegoat. Psychologists tell us that the need for a scapegoat of some kind will probably always exist, man being the kind of animal he is. And some kind of outgroup will probably always exist--whether Irish, Italian or Middle European (as in past decades), or Negro or Puerto Rican (as today). It is there fore at point number 3 that the hope for a breakthrough against the chain of racial prejudice exists. By breaking the link of habit, the tradition of racial prejudice can most successfully be attacked. How can this be done? As shown, rational efforts to break the link that makes Negroes the traditional social scapegoat have often been disappointing. People turn away from unwelcome ideas that shake up their patterns of thinking, or they interpret these ideas in ways that tend to strengthen their prejudices rather than reduce them. Direct personal contact between Negroes and prejudiced persons does not work either--unless this contact is on the basis of equal status. But there is a way to do it--and integrated housing can be the key factor. 10