Prejudice

The kidnaping and beating death of a gay University of Wyoming student; the dragging death of a black man in Jasper, Texas, by advocates of "white pride" -- these two isolated incidents of violent crime occurred in 1998, not 1898, and are painful reminders that bigotry and prejudice stubbornly remain well entrenched in American culture.

What, in today's seemingly enlightened society, compels a bigot? How do prejudice and hatred emerge, and sometimes lead to such horrific violence? What can be done to overcome this subversive social undercurrent?

Updated and augmented with new essays on crimes against religious groups, gay bashing, and current court cases, this is a concise and relevant collection of essays that pinpoints the definitions, origins, and outcomes of intolerance in America.

"Though America had been rightfully portrayed as born of democratic principles, to no less an extent was it born of undemocratic ones. America is thus a living contradiction of many dimensions -- historical, sociological, and psychological -- that have manifested themselves at every level of society -- individual, communal, and natural".

So writes Philip Perlmutter, whose Legacy of Hate explores this "living contradiction" by tracing the development of American minority group relations, beginning with the arrival of white Europeans and moving through the eighteenth and industrially expanding nineteenth centuries; the explosion of immigration and its attendant problems in the twentieth century; and a final chapter exploring how prejudice (racial, religious, and ethnic) has been institutionalized in the educational systems and laws.

Throughout this provocative book, Perlmutter focuses on where and why various groups encountered prejudice and discrimination and how their experiences have shaped the society,we live in and how we think about one another.

Many Americans forget that, until recently, racially prejudiced thought and writing was an accepted part of public discourse, in many cases supported by specious but widely accepted scientific or philosophical theories, and practiced by some of the country's most influential and respected public figures. Documents of American Prejudice provides an anthology of writings on how racial prejudice ha evolved since early colonial times, and helps readers understand racism through the prism of American history.

Over 70 selections spanning more than 300 years of injustice encompass specific groups victimized by racial prejudice as well as different kinds of racial prejudice. Opinions of both reviled an well-loved figures are included in the writings of everyone from Thomas Jefferson to David Duke. Organization of material into thematic sections (such as Social Darwinism and eugenics, immigration, and other categories) and by groups who were the focus of racist attacks makes this volume especially user-friendly.

According to Simon Wiesenthal, nearly half of the crimes associated with the Holocaust were committed by Austrians, who comprised just 8.5 percent of the population of Hitler's Greater German Reich. Bruce Pauley's book explains this phenomenon by providing a history of Austrian anti-Semitism and Jewish responses to it from the Middle Ages to the present, with a particular focus on the period from 1914 to 1938. In contrast to works that view anti-Semitism as an inherent national characteristic, his account identifies many sources and varieties of the anti-Semitic sentiment that pervaded Austrian society on the eve of the Holocaust.

Finding ways to reduce prejudice and discrimination is the central issue in attacking racism in our society. Yet this book is almost unique among scientific volumes in its focus on that goal. This important book combines critical analysis of theories about how to reduce prejudice and discrimination with cutting-edge empirical research conducted in real-world settings, as well as in controlled laboratory situations. This book's outstanding contributors focus on a common set of questions about ways to reduce intergroup conflict, prejudice, and stereotyping. They summarize their own research, as well as others, interpret the conclusions, and suggest implications concerning the practical methods that have been, or could be, used in programs aimed at reducing intergroup conflict. The chapters present solidly based critical analyses and research findings in clear, reader-friendly prose. This book evolved from the Sixteenth Annual Claremont Symposium on Applied Social Psychology. Each Symposium in the series concentrates on a single area in which social psychological knowledge is being applied to the resolution of a current social problem. Ideal for teachers, social workers, administrators, managers, and other social practitioners who are concerned about prejudice and discrimination, this book will also serve as a valuable foundation of knowledge in courses that examine this topic.

This book presents evidence that childhood prejudice is not only different from the adult kind, but also changes in a pattern inverse to that of moral judgement. Changing Childhood Prejudice describes longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of city and suburban children in grade, middle, and high school. Davidson used interviews to supplement observations made during playing her board game, then compared scores on the prejudice that emerged with scores on Kohlberg's Measure of Moral Development. Considering childhood prejudice as a detour in the possible strong development of caring, character and moral judgement implies a school context smaller, warmer, and more encompassing than one relying only on mainstreaming and multiculturalism. The fact that nearly 40% of the nation's public school children will be from minority backgrounds within a few years requires new goals, including influencing parents. The authors call for school-by-school mission statements drawing parents into cooperative development of anti-prejudice and character curricula, supplementing the leadership of faculty members and some adolescents. New roles for the mental health community are also described. Examining the research of others and their own case studies from cognitive, clinical, and social perspectives, the Davidsons conclude that ways of opposing prejudice and insisting on caring can be adapted to children's changing moral assumptions at each level of schooling. Children's might-makes-right and favor-trading assumptions in grade school change through identification with a conforming goodness. Conformity can be gradually replaced by independence in ideals, particularly when secondary students ponder theirown community service. Coauthored by a clinician and a professional writer, the book tells how to achieve more caring in public schools and more cooperative discipline at home.