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Burlington Commission on Human Rights, 1964-1965

Iowa Law Review, "State Civil Rights Statute: Some Proposals" Page 1084

1084 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49

reason for this is that legally mandated nondiscriminatory conduct increases contacts with minority groups. "Such contacts permit familiarization and improved communication between majority and minority group members. Knowledge and familiarity, studies show, abate prejudice. Moreover, outward nondiscriminatory action which tha law compels, 'has an eventual effect upon inner habits of thought and feeling.'"69 As a result, nondiscriminatory behaviour induced by law may be self-perpetuating, since it tends to shatter the preconceptions of prejudice and force a more realistic assessment of each person as an individual.
Past the change in attitude which may be caused by legally mandated and enforced nondiscriminatory conduct, the mere existence of the law itself affects prejudice. People usually agree with the law and internalize its values. This is because considerable moral and symbolic weight is added to a principle when it is embedded in legislation. Additionally, most people are conformists, and the law usually represents the prevailing attitudes in the community. The law, emprivate attitudes. As a result, "While we may not be able to repeal prejudice by law, [it] . . . is an essential part of the enterprise of education which alone can end prejudice."70
Granting that the law is capable of dealing with the kind of discriminatory conduct under discussion, and also that it tends to indirectly lessen prejudice, the question remains as to the desirability of using law to do so. Why should not society eschew the use of law in this highly sensitive area and limit its efforts to "educating" the citizenry as to the folly of their discriminatory conduct? The gross inadequacy of such limited action is immediately apparent.
Effective education is a long drawn-out process. The injury suffered by minority groups and the community in the interim period would be pointless, irremediable, and unconscionable. Legislation, with appropriate enforcement provisions, can assure a relatively substancial and immediate lessening odf racial, religious, and ethnic discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. This is not true of educational efforts to secure the same end. As the director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission recently noted. "The immediate value of anti-discrimination laws . . . is to prevent people from carrying out certain acts of discrimination, while the Commission, educators, churchmen, and others are conducting
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69 GREENBERG, op. cit. supra note 68, at 26.
70 SCHLESINGER. THE VITAL CENTER 190 (1949).
bodying as it does the Societally acceptable norm, constantly holds before people an image of what their feelings should be. Over an appreciable period, this cannot help but influence them in their

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1084 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 49 reason for this is that legally mandated nondiscriminatory conduct increases contacts with minority groups. "Such contacts permit familiarization and improved communication between majority and minority group members. Knowledge and familiarity, studies show, abate prejudice. Moreover, outward nondiscriminatory action which tha law compels, 'has an eventual effect upon inner habits of thought and feeling.'"69 As a result, nondiscriminatory behaviour induced by law may be self-perpetuating, since it tends to shatter the preconceptions of prejudice and force a more realistic assessment of each person as an individual. Past the change in attitude which may be caused by legally mandated and enforced nondiscriminatory conduct, the mere existence of the law itself affects prejudice. People usually agree with the law and internalize its values. This is because considerable moral and symbolic weight is added to a principle when it is embedded in legislation. Additionally, most people are conformists, and the law usually represents the prevailing attitudes in the community. The law, emprivate attitudes. As a result, "While we may not be able to repeal prejudice by law, [it] . . . is an essential part of the enterprise of education which alone can end prejudice."70 Granting that the law is capable of dealing with the kind of discriminatory conduct under discussion, and also that it tends to indirectly lessen prejudice, the question remains as to the desirability of using law to do so. Why should not society eschew the use of law in this highly sensitive area and limit its efforts to "educating" the citizenry as to the folly of their discriminatory conduct? The gross inadequacy of such limited action is immediately apparent. Effective education is a long drawn-out process. The injury suffered by minority groups and the community in the interim period would be pointless, irremediable, and unconscionable. Legislation, with appropriate enforcement provisions, can assure a relatively substancial and immediate lessening odf racial, religious, and ethnic discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. This is not true of educational efforts to secure the same end. As the director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission recently noted. "The immediate value of anti-discrimination laws . . . is to prevent people from carrying out certain acts of discrimination, while the Commission, educators, churchmen, and others are conducting ________________ 69 GREENBERG, op. cit. supra note 68, at 26. 70 SCHLESINGER. THE VITAL CENTER 190 (1949). bodying as it does the Societally acceptable norm, constantly holds before people an image of what their feelings should be. Over an appreciable period, this cannot help but influence them in their