Sociological issues of race and ethnicity?

Within sociology, the terms race, ethnicity, minority, and dominant group all have very specific and different meanings. To understand the sociological perspective on race and ethnicity, it is important to understand the meanings of these concepts.

An ethnic group is a social category of people who share a common culture, such as a common language, a common religion, or common norms, customs, practices, and history. Ethnic groups have a consciousness of their common cultural bond. An ethnic group does not exist simply because of the common national or cultural origins of the group, however. They develop because of their unique historical and social experiences, which become the basis for the group’s ethnic identity. For example, prior to immigration to the United States, Italians did not think of themselves as a distinct group with common interests and experiences.

However, the process of immigration and the experiences they faced as a group in the United States, including discrimination, created a new identity for the group. Some examples of ethnic groups include Italian Americans, Polish Americans, Mexican Americans, Arab Americans, and Irish Americans. Ethnic groups are also found in other societies, such as the Pashtuns in Afghanistan or the Shiites in Iraq, whose ethnicity is based on religious differences.

Like ethnicity, race is primarily, though not exclusively, a socially constructed category. A race is a group that is treated as distinct in society based on certain characteristics. Because of their biological or cultural characteristics, which are labeled as inferior by powerful groups in society, a race is often singled out for differential and unfair treatment. It is not the biological characteristics that define racial groups, but how groups have been treated historically and socially. Society assigns people to racial categories (White, Black, etc.) not because of science or fact, but because of opinion and social experience. In other words, how racial groups are defined is a social process; it is socially constructed.

A minority group is any distinct group in society that shares common group characteristics and is forced to occupy low status in society because of prejudice and discrimination. A group may be classified as a minority on the basis of ethnicity, race, sexual preference, age, or class status. It is important to note that a minority group is not necessarily the minority in terms of numbers, but it is a group that holds low status in relation to other groups in society (regardless of the size). The group that assigns a racial or ethnic group to subordinate status in society is called the dominant group.

Major Sociological Theories of Race and Ethnicity

There are several sociological theories about why prejudice, discrimination, and racism exist. Current sociological theories focus mainly on explaining the existence of racism, particular institutional racism. The three major sociological perspectives (functionalist theory, symbolic interaction theory, and conflict theory) each have their own explanations to the existence of racism.

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Functionalist theorists argue that in order for race and ethnic relations to be functional and contribute to the harmonious conduct and stability of society, racial and ethnic minorities must assimilate into that society. Assimilation is a process in which a minority becomes absorbed into the dominant society – socially, economically, and culturally.

Symbolic interaction theorists look at two issues in relation to race and ethnicity. First, they look at the role of social interaction and how it reduces racial and ethnic hostility. Second, they look at how race and ethnicity are socially constructed. In essence, symbolic interactionists ask the question, “What happens when two people of different race or ethnicity come in contact with one another and how can such interracial or interethnic contact reduce hostility and conflict?”

The basic argument made by conflict theorists is that class-based conflict is an inherent and fundamental part of society. These theorists thus argue that racial and ethnic conflict is tied to class conflict and that in order to reduce racial and ethnic conflict, class conflict must first be reduced.

In general, the functionalist perspective views society as a complex system and focuses on different phenomena's contributions to social solidarity and stability. Classic structural functionalism did not develop particularly critical analyses of race or ethnicity per se, instead seeing race as another constituent element within the larger whole of society that was integrated into its relatively smooth functioning. As noted sociologist Michael Omi observes, "The structural-functionalist framework generally stressed the unifying role of culture, and particularly American values, in regulating and resolving conflicts. This approach was notably in evidence in respect to the sociology of race" (Coulhan 2007, Sociology in America, p.559). From this perspective, societies are seen as coherent, bounded, and fundamentally relational constructs that function like organisms, with their various parts (such as race) working together in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion toward achieving an overall social equilibrium.

Given this emphasis on equilibrium and harmony, the functionalist perspective easily allows for specific macro-analyses of more contentious race-related issues such as power inequalities and racial conflict. It also allows for the micro-analyses that much of modern sociology is oriented around, such as identity formation and the socially constructed nature of race. It is less well-adapted to understanding individual discrimination because it ignores the inequalities that cause tension and conflict.

During the turbulent 1960s, functionalism was often called "consensus theory," criticized for being unable to account for social change or structural contradictions and conflict, including inequalities related to race, gender, class, and other social factors that are a source of oppression and conflict.

The classical conflict perspective pioneered by Karl Marx saw all forms of inequality subsumed under class conflict. For Marx, issues related to race and ethnicity are secondary to class struggle.

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Other early conflict theorists saw racial and ethnic conflict as more central. Sociologist Ludwig Gumplowicz, in Grundriss der Soziologie (Outlines of Sociology, 1884), described how civilization has been shaped by conflict between cultures and ethnic groups , theorizing that large complex human societies evolved from war and conquest.

Since the social, political, and cultural upheavals of the 1960s, there has been a wellspring of conflict theory-inspired analyses of race and ethnicity, many of which eventually developed into an overlapping focus on the intersectional nature of various forms of conflict and oppression.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is a feminist sociological theory first highlighted by leading critical theorist thinker Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989). The theory proposes that different biological, social, and cultural factors, such as as gender, race, and class, do not operate in isolation of one antoher. Rather, they are interrlated, forming a system of oppression that consists of different forms of discrimination. This theory will be further discussed under the feminist perspective of gender stratification in the chapter, "Understanding Gender Stratification and Inequality".

W. E. B. Du Bois theorized that the intersectional paradigms of race, class, and nation might explain certain aspects of Black political economy. Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins writes "Du Bois saw race, class, and nation not primarily as personal identity categories but as social hierarchies that shaped African American access to status, poverty, and power" (2000 Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, 42).

Following founding symbolic interactionist George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer claimed that people interact with each other by attaching meaning to each other's actions instead of merely reacting to them. Human interaction is mediated by the use of symbols and signification, by interpretation, or by ascertaining the meaning of one another's actions.

One of the most influential symbolic interactionist theorists on race and ethnic relations was Robert Park. Evolving out of the mid-20th century "Chicago School" of urban sociology, Park created the term human ecology, which borrowed the concepts of symbiosis, invasion, succession, and dominance from the science of natural ecology.

Using the city of Chicago as an example, he proposed that cities were environments like those found in nature. Park and fellow sociologist Ernest Burgess suggested that cities were governed by many of the same forces of Darwinian evolution evident in ecosystems. They felt the most significant force was competition. Competition was created by groups fighting for urban resources, like land, which led to a division of urban space into ecological niches. Within these niches people shared similar social characteristics because they were subject to the same ecological pressure.

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This theory served as a foundation for his influential theory of racial assimilation known as the "race relation cycle". The cycle has four stages: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. The first step is contact, followed by competition. Then, after some time, a hierarchical arrangement can prevail—one of accommodation—in which one race is dominant and others dominated. In the end assimilation occurs. Park declared that it is "a cycle of events which tends everywhere to repeat itself," also seen in other social processes.

One of the most important social psychological findings concerning race relations is that members of stereotyped groups internalize those stereotypes and thus suffer a wide range of harmful consequences.

Stereotype Threat is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. Since its introduction into the academic literature in 1995, Stereotype Threat has become one of the most widely studied topics in the field of social psychology. First described by social psychologist, Claude Steele and his colleagues, Stereotype Threat has been shown to reduce the performance of individuals who belong to negatively stereotyped groups. If negative stereotypes are present regarding a specific group, they are likely to become anxious about their performance, which in turn may hinder their ability to perform at their maximum level.

Stereotype Threat is a potential contributing factor to long-standing racial and gender gaps in academic performance. However, it may occur whenever an individual's performance might confirm a negative stereotype. This is because Stereotype Threat is thought to arise from the particular situation rather than from an individual's personality traits or characteristics. Since most people have at least one social identity which is negatively stereotyped, most people are vulnerable to Stereotype Threat if they encounter a situation in which the stereotype is relevant.

Situational factors that increase Stereotype Threat can include the difficulty of the task, the belief that the task measures their abilities, and the relevance of the negative stereotype to the task. Individuals show higher degrees of Stereotype Threat on tasks they wish to perform well on and when they identify strongly with the stereotyped group. These effects are also increased when they expect discrimination due to their identification with negatively stereotyped group. Repeated experiences of Stereotype Threat can lead to a vicious circle of diminished confidence, poor performance, and loss of interest in the relevant area of achievement.

The opposite of Stereotype Threat is known as Stereotype Enhancement, which entails an individual's potential to confirm a positive stereotype about their social group, and a subsequent increase in performance ability in the related task as compared to their ability prior to their exposure to the stereotype.

Advocates of Stereotype Threat explanation have been criticized for exaggerating it and for misrepresenting evidence as more conclusive than it is.

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I.     How to Think about Racial and Ethnic InequalityA.     Minority and Majority Groups

Different racial and ethnic groups are unequal in power, resources, prestige, and presumed worth. The basic reason is power -- power derived from superior numbers, technology, weapons, property, or economic resources.

1.     Majority Groups

Those holding superior power in a society -- the majority group -- establish a system of inequality by dominating less-powerful groups. This system of inequality is then maintained and perpetuated through social forces.

2.     Minority Groups

Various social characteristics denote minority status.   They include race, ethnicity, religious preferences, and age.

Ultimately, however, the terms majority and minority describe power differences. The critical feature of the minority group's status is its inferior social position, in which its interests are not effectively represented in the political, economic, and social institutions of the society (Eitzen et al., 2011:209).

B.     Racial stratification

Racial privilege reaches far back into America's past. The racial hierarchy, with White groups of European origin at the top and people of color at the bottom, serves important functions for society and for certain categories of people. It ensures, for example, that some people are available to do society's dirty work at low wages. The racial hierarchy has positive consequences for the status quo: It enables the powerful to retain their control and their advantages. Racial stratification also offers better occupational opportunities, income, and education to White people. These advantages constitute racial privilege (Eitzen et al., 2011:209).

C.     Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Because majority-minority relations operate basically as a power relationship, conflict (or at least the potential for conflict) is always present. Overt conflict is most likely when subordinate groups attempt to alter the distribution of power. Size is not crucial in determining whether a group is the most powerful. A numerical minority may in fact have more political representation than the majority, as was the case in South Africa (Eitzen et al., 2011:210).

Determining who is a minority is largely a matter of history, politics, and judgment -- both social and political. Population characteristics other than race and ethnicity such as

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age, gender, or religious preference are sometimes used to designate minority status. However, race and ethnicity are the characteristics used most often to define the minority and majority populations in contemporary U.S. society (Eitzen et al., 2011:210).

The different experiences of racial groups are structurally embedded in society even though races, per se, do not exist. What does exist is the idea that races are distinct biological categories. Most scientists reject race as a valid way to divide human groups. Although there is no such thing as biological race, races are real insofar as they are socially defined (Eitzen et al., 2011:210).

D.     Racial Categories

1.     Racial Formation

Racial formation refers to how society continually creates and transforms its definitions of racial categories.

Groups that were previously self-defined in terms of specific ethnic background (such as Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans) have become racialized as "Hispanics" and "Asian Americans."

2.     The Census and Multi-race Identification

Even the U.S. Census Bureau, which measures race on the basis of self-identification, has revised the way racial and ethnic statistics will be collected in the 2000 census. For the first time, people will now be able to identify themselves as members of more than one racial group on census and other federal forms (Eitzen, 2000:215).

3.     Ethnicity

Whereas race is used for socially marking groups based on physical differences, ethnicity allows for a broader range of affiliation. Ethnic groups are distinctive on the basis of national origin, language, religion, and culture.  Ethnic groups experience a high degree of interaction among its members.  They see themselves as a cultural unit.

The contemporary world is replete with examples of newly constructed ethnicities. In the United States, people started to affiliate along ethnic lines such as Italian American or German American much more frequently after the civil rights movement. In Europe, as the Western countries move toward economic and political integration, there is a proliferation of regional identification -- people may no longer identify as Italian, but as Lombardians, Sicilians, or Romans, as these regions lose economic resources to a larger entity: the European community (Eitzen, 2000:217).

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E.     Racism

Racism refers to attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors that favor one group over another. The minority group might be seen as biologically (innately) inferior and, therefore, practices involving their domination and exploitation are justified.

II.     Patterns of Race and Ethnic RelationsA.     Assimilation

Assimilation is the process of being absorbed into the mainstream of the dominate culture.   The assimilation model demands that other groups conform to the dominant culture. New comers are to be socialized into the dominant culture that is already present.

B.     Pluralism (multiculturalism)

In a pluralist society unique groups coexist side by side. The uniqueness of each group is considered a trait worth having in the dominant culture.

C.     Segregation

Segregation is the physical and social separation of categories of people.

D.     Genocide

Genocide is the systematic killing of one category of people by another.

III.     General Observations Concerning Prejudice

The following material explores prejudice. Theories that explain prejudice focus on:

personality needs social learning and conformity

A.     Prejudice and Discrimination

1.     Prejudice

Prejudice refers to a positive or a negative attitude or belief directed toward certain people based on their membership in a particular group. The root word of prejudice is "pre-judge." It is "a set of attitudes which causes, supports, or justifies discrimination. Prejudice refers to a tendency to "over categorize." Prejudiced people respond to others in a more or less fixed way (Farley, 2012:20).

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2.     Discrimination

Discrimination refers to actions (behaviors) against a group of people.

B.     Forms of Prejudice

Farley (2012:21) calls attention to three kinds of prejudice.

1.     Cognitive Prejudice

Cognitive prejudice refers to what people believe is true

2.     Affective Prejudice

Affective prejudice points to peoples likes and dislikes

3.     Conative Prejudice

Conative prejudice refers to how people are inclined to behave. Note that this is still an attitude because people don't actually act on their feelings. An example of conative prejudice might be found in the statement "If I were in charge I'd send all the Wallonians back to where ever they came from."

While these three types of prejudice are correlated, they don't have to all be present in a particular individual. Someone, for example, might believe a particular group possesses low levels of intelligence, but harbor no ill feelings toward that group. On the other hand, one might not like a group because of intense competition for jobs, but still recognize no inherent differences between groups.

IV.     Theories about Personality and PrejudiceA.     Is Prejudice Generalized?

Prejudice probably resides within the individual. Sometimes, prejudiced people (i.e., those with antagonistic attitudes toward different groups) tend to be antagonistic toward any out-group.

Adorno contends that people are prejudice because their prejudice meets certain needs associated with their personality. People do not become prejudiced simply based on negative encounters with members of different groups. Further, prejudiced people tend to be prejudiced towards a wide variety of groups.   Adorno contends that the tendencies to be prejudice is associated with the authoritarian personality.

If prejudice is associated with a personality pattern then a prejudice person should be prejudiced regardless of who or what the group is (Farley, 2012:23-24).

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Farley (2012:23-24) notes that prejudice is not associated with conservatism. While conservatives show slightly higher rates of prejudice than do liberals, there are many examples of conservatives who are not prejudice and many liberals who are prejudiced.

B.     Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism refers to a tendency to view one's own group as the norm.  Other groups are not only viewed as different, but they are seen as strange and sometimes inferior.

C.     Stereotyping

A stereotype us a mental image, or an exaggerated belief, which assumes that whatever is believed about a group is typical for the entire group. Stereotypical thinking is unavoidable in social life and it is not automatically bad. "The essence of prejudicial thinking, however, is that the stereotype is not checked against reality. It is not modified by experiences that counter the rigid image (Farley, 2000:19).

One might note that even positive stereotypes are a mixed blessing.   On one hand, positive stereotypes justify the use of more negative stereotypes.   On the other hand, they provide unrealistic attributes that the individual has to try to live up to.

D.     Authoritarian Personalities

Theodore Adorno contends that many prejudiced people have a distinct set of personality traits.

They are centered around conformity, intolerance, and insecurity (Farley, 2012:25).  People with an authoritarian personality are superstitious and engage in stereotypical

thinking. They tend to project in that they see inappropriate behavior in others but not in

themselves.

The authoritarian personality results from family environment. Parents are "cold, aloof, disciplinarian, and themselves bigots" (see Farley, 2012:25).  People who have an authoritarian personality are prone to prejudice because prejudice meets certain personality needs.

F.     Scapegoating and Projection

Adorno, borrowing from Freud, argues that people with authoritarian personalities have an unusually strong need to scapegoat and to project (Farley, 2012:26-27). These behaviors are the result of unique childhood experiences.

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1.     Scapegoating (Displaced Aggression)

Scapegoating occurs when one blames one's troubles on someone else who is relatively powerless. This may occur when one group feels threatened, but are themselves powerless to act against the actual source of the threat (Farley, 2012:26-27). 

Example:  A fellow has a low level of education and can't find a job.  Rather than acknowledging that his lack of education is the problem, he blames his inability to find a job on minorities and immigrants.

2.     Projection

Projection is a concept where the individual denies particular characteristics in him/her self but notices them in others (2012:27).

Example:  Continuing with the example above, the fellow with little education will not acknowledge his own educational deficiencies.  Instead, he will call attention to others who do not have sufficient education.

V.     Social Learning and Conformity as a Cause of Prejudice

The above discussion of prejudice is rather psychological. There is also the social context to consider when one attempts to understand prejudice. Social scientists who study social learning and conformity as causes of prejudice focus on the social environment within which people live. 

People learn to be prejudice through socialization processes like internalization, modeling, and reward and punishment.

A.     Agents of Socialization

Values are internalized as people encounter various agents of socialization.  Attitudes and behaviors are learned within a social context where agents of socialization are important (Farley, 2012:30-31).

1.    The Family

The family is probably the most important of the agents of socialization. Family is responsible for, among other things, determining one's attitudes toward religion and establishing career goals.

2.    The School

This agency is responsible for socializing groups of young people in particular skills and values in our society.

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3.    Peer Groups

Peers refer to people who are roughly the same age and/or who share other social characteristics (e.g., students in a college class).

4.     Media

The effect on prejudice of television and the movies is substantial.   The media's portrayal of racial and ethnic groups may be a person's principal source of information. Therefore, since the media communicates primarily in stereotypes and if the viewer has little opportunity for personal contact with members of that minority, the probability of the stereotype becoming the reality for the viewer is high.

Hollywood movies have thoroughly dehumanized the nonwhite world. The whites, who are the exploiters, consistently show up as the "good guys."   Whites are portrayed as the bearers of civilization and all that is just and humane. Their superiority is taken as the natural order of things, and their "justified" extermination of the nonwhites provides a "happy" ending (Kitano, 1985:52).

B.     Selective Exposure and Modeling

Farley (2012:33) notes that "if a child is exposed to one set of values over time, the child will eventually come to view that set of vales as the "natural way." This is especially true when the models are someone whom the child is especially close to like parents or close relatives.

C.     Reward and Punishment

All agents of socialization reward behavior and expression of attitude that conform to their norms and punish those that do not. These rewards and punishments are sometime very formal. Other types of rewards and sanctions are informal and impromptu (Farley, 2012:33).

VI.     Reducing Prejudice:Some Principles and Approaches

Given that there are many causes of prejudice: personality, social, and structural, the solutions are going to be varied also. If, for example, prejudice is related to a personality trait, then education might not eliminate prejudice. On the other hand, if prejudice is due to social learning, education and personal contact may reduce prejudice (Farley, 2012:43-44).

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A.     Persuasive Communication

1.     Description

Persuasive communication refers to any form of communication (written, verbal, visual) specifically intended to influence attitudes. A couple of considerations are in order (Farley, 2012:44-47).

Success depends, in part, on who is giving the message.  A communication must be heard.  The credibility of the source is important in bringing

about long-term change in attitudes. The message must be understood Receiving the message must be a positive experience. The message must be retained. A failure at any points means that no persuasion will

take place.

2.     Drawbacks

It appears that people who receive and understand antiprejudiced messages tend to be people who are already antiprejudiced (Farley, 2012:44-47).

People who are highly prejudiced tend to not hear the messages. One explanation is that most people tend to not like to have their beliefs seriously challenged. When this happens they either ignore or rationalize away the message.

Whether one hears the message depends on why the person is prejudiced in the first place.  For example, people who are prejudiced as a result of an authoritarian personality will not hear the message.

Prejudiced people tend to not view themselves as prejudiced . Therefore, when the message is heard, it is assumed that it applies to someone else.

A further concern is that as prejudice becomes more subtle, it becomes easier to rationalize it away (Farley, 2012:44-47).

B.     Education

1.     Description

Intergroup education is similar to persuasive communication. The big difference is that education's purpose is not to change attitudes, but rather to impart information , although the latent goal of changing minds might be there. Education is most successful when it causes the least amount of stress. I.e., education should not put people on the defensive. One way to facilitate a positive environment is to make students feel that they are participants in the process (Farley, 2012:47-50).

2.     Drawbacks

Education has difficulties reducing prejudice, in part, because there is some self-selecting taking place in that the most prejudiced people probably do not take the courses designed to increase the understanding of majority/minority issues.  On the

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other hand, required courses in inter-group relations might avoid the problem of self-selection.

Teachers, like other people, are some times prejudiced.  If the teacher is prejudiced against minorities, then it would be difficult to promote a non-prejudiced environment.

In general, education appears to be most beneficial in reducing prejudice when prejudice is not very intense and when personality disorders are not dominant (Farley, 2012:47-50).

If a person is prejudiced as a result of social learning, then education (combined with change of environment) may be successful in reducing prejudice.

C.     Intergroup Contact:  The Contact Hypothesis

1.     Description

Intergroup contact appears more effective in reducing prejudice than communication and education. This "contact hypothesis" receives support in public housing projects where people have to live in close proximity to each another. It also receives support in the military. It appears, for example, that school desegregation is associated with decreasing levels of prejudice (Farley, 2012:50-56). This is the philosophy behind school-busing.

For intergroup contact to be successful in reducing prejudice, the contact has to be more than superficial.  Casual contact will have little impact on reducing prejudice.

2.     Drawbacks

a.     A primary problem here is that the lessening of prejudice appears to only take place in the environment where the contact takes place (e.g., the school or work place)

b.     The contact hypothesis does not always receive support. Examples are the school desegregation problems found in Boston and Pontiac, MI. It appears that a precondition for intergroup contact to work in reducing prejudice is that the two groups be of similar social status. For example, prejudice is reduced when the two groups are working on the same job for the same pay or living in a housing project where each pays the same rent. If people are not of equal status, contact may foster resentment (Farley, 2012:50-56).

D.     Simulation Exercises

The simulation exercise devises a situation where people, who don't normally experience prejudice and discrimination, experience discrimination.  They learn about the feelings that result from being discriminated against.  They see in a direct way the irrationality of prejudice and discrimination (Farley, 2012:56-57).

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E.     Therapy

1.     Description

Communication, education, and intergroup contact are not effective when a prejudiced person suffers from personality disorders. Many argue that personality problems are best dealt with through therapy (either individual or group therapy). The goal of therapy is to:

Resolve the problem that caused people to be prejudiced in the first place. Convince prejudiced people that prejudice is not an appropriate way of dealing with

one's insecurities (Farley, 2012:57-59).

2.     Drawbacks

The authoritarian personality is an example of prejudice that results from personality disorders.  Unfortunately, a characteristic of the authoritarian personality is Anti-Intraception, or a rejection of self analysis.  If one doesn't acknowledge they have a problem requiring therapy, then they won't see a need to seek therapy.

VII.     How Important is Prejudice?

A.     LaPiere Study

There is substantial evidence which suggests that the prejudice and discrimination are not always linked.

B.     Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Can Behavior Determine Attitudes?

The general answer is yes.  Behavior can determine attitudes.  Farley (2012:62-63) calls upon Cognitive Dissonance Theory for an explanation of why this can be true. He argues that people prefer to have their attitudes and behavior in sync. The theory argues that if behavior does not match attitudes then people will slowly, unconsciously, change their attitudes.

2.     The Deep South Today

Farley (2012:62-63) contends that cognitive dissonance theory explains why the South desegregation was so successful. He argues that Southerners, not being able to discriminate any longer, changed their attitudes toward discrimination.

VIII.     Explanations of Racial and Ethnic InequalityA.     Bias Theories

Bias theories blame the members of the majority.   In particular, bias theories blame individuals who are prejudiced or racist (Eitzen, 2000:223).

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B.     Structural-Discrimination Theories

The alternative view is that racial inequality is not fundamentally a matter of what is in people's heads, not a matter of their private individual intentions, but rather a matter of public institutions and practices that create or perpetuate discrimination (Eitzen, 2000:225).

1.     Individual Discrimination

Individual discrimination consists of overt acts by individuals that harm other individuals or their property. This type of action is usually publicly decried.

Examples: 

A homeowner refusing to see to Jews A taxi driver refusing to pick up Black fares An employers who pays lower wages to Mexicans

Institutional racism is more injurious than individual racism to more minority-group members, but it is not recognized by the dominant-group members as racism.

2.     Institutional Discrimination

Institutional discrimination refers to those "processes which, intentionally, or not, result in the continued exclusion of a subordinate group [and... activities and practices which are intended to protect the advantages of the dominant group and/or maintain or widen the unequal position of a subordinate group."

Some times individuals and groups discriminate whether they are bigots or not. These individuals and groups operate within a social milieu that ensures racial dominance. The social milieu includes laws, customs, religious beliefs, and the stable arrangements and practices through which things get done in society. The major sectors of society -- the system of law and the administration of justice, the economic system, the formal educational structure, and health care are all possible discriminators. Thus, the term institutional discrimination is a useful one.

The institutions of society:

have great power to reward and penalize. They reward by providing career opportunities for some people and foreclosing them for others. They reward as well by the way social goods and services are distributed by deciding who receives training and skills, medical care, formal education, political influence, moral support and self-respect, productive employment, fair treatment by the law, decent housing, self-confidence, and the promise of a secure future for self and children (see Eitzen, 2000:226).

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C.     Four Basic Themes of Institutional Discrimination

1.     The Importance of History

Historically, institutions defined and enforced norms and roles that were racially distinct. The United States was founded and its institutions established when Blacks were slaves, uneducated, and differed culturally from the dominant Whites.

From the beginning, Blacks were considered inferior (the original Constitution, for example, counted a slave as three-fifths of a person).

Religious beliefs buttressed this notion of the inferiority of Blacks and justified the differential allocation of privileges and sanctions in society.

Laws, customs, and traditions usually continue to reinforce current thinking. Institutions have an inertial quality: Once set in motion, they tend to continue on the same course. Thus, institutional discrimination is extremely difficult to change without a complete overhaul of society's institutions (Eitzen, 2000:226).

2.     Discrimination Without Conscious Bigotry

With or without malicious intent, racial discrimination is the "normal" outcome of the system. Even if "racism-in-the-head" disappeared, then "racism-in-the-world" would not, because it is the system that disadvantages.

a. Minorities suffer if the law continues to favor the owners of property over renters and debtors.

b. Job opportunities remain unequal if employers hire people with the most conventional training and experience.

c. Poor children get an inferior education if

we continue tracking, using class-biased tests, making education irrelevant in their work, rewarding children who conform to the teachers' middle-class concepts of the good

student, paying disproportionately less for their education (buildings, supplies, teachers,

counselors).

a. In other words, all that is needed to perpetuate discrimination in the United States is to pursue a policy of business as usual (Eitzen, 2000:227).

3.     Institutional Discrimination Is More Invisible

Institutional discrimination is more subtle and less intentional than individual acts of discrimination. As a result, establishing blame for this kind of discrimination is extremely difficult (Eitzen, 2000:227).

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4.     Institutional Discrimination Is Reinforced Because Institutions Are Interrelated

The exclusion of minorities from the upper levels of education, for example, is likely to affect their opportunities in other institutions (type of job, level of remuneration). Similarly, poor children will probably receive an inferior education, be propertyless, suffer from bad health, and be treated unjustly by the criminal justice system. These inequities are cumulative (Eitzen, 2000:227).

IX.     Contemporary Trends and Issuesin U.S. Racial and Ethnic Relations

A.     Nativism

Social scientists use the term nativism to denote hostility toward immigrants. Here, and in other countries, racial diversity is marked by growing conflicts (Eitzen, 2000:237).

Racial violence is often associated with uncertain economic conditions. Lack of jobs, housing, and other resources can add to fear. It can also lead to minority scapegoating on the part of Whites. Despite evidence that immigrants actually strengthen the social fabric, immigrants are becoming a scapegoat for social problems. In Florida and many parts of the West and Southwest, perceptions that Cubans, Mexicans, and other Hispanics are taking jobs from Anglos have touched off racial tensions (Eitzen, 2000:238):

1.     More Racially Based Groups and Atrocities

The Southern Poverty Law Center documented an increase in U.S. hate groups. Their research found 474 hate groups involved in racist behavior in 1997, a 20 percent rise over the previous year. The jump reflects continued growth of racially-based separatism, religion, and hate, along with the fervor produced by the approaching millennium. Groups include White supremacist groups with such diverse elements as the Ku Klux Klan, Nazi-identified parties, and skinheads. With many hate sites on the Internet and increasing popularity of White power rock, racist organizers are reaching more young people.

I.     How to Think about Racial and Ethnic InequalityA.     Minority and Majority Groups

Different racial and ethnic groups are unequal in power, resources, prestige, and presumed worth. The basic reason is power -- power derived from superior numbers, technology, weapons, property, or economic resources.

1.     Majority Groups

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Those holding superior power in a society -- the majority group -- establish a system of inequality by dominating less-powerful groups. This system of inequality is then maintained and perpetuated through social forces.

2.     Minority Groups

Various social characteristics denote minority status.   They include race, ethnicity, religious preferences, and age.

Ultimately, however, the terms majority and minority describe power differences. The critical feature of the minority group's status is its inferior social position, in which its interests are not effectively represented in the political, economic, and social institutions of the society (Eitzen et al., 2011:209).

B.     Racial stratification

Racial privilege reaches far back into America's past. The racial hierarchy, with White groups of European origin at the top and people of color at the bottom, serves important functions for society and for certain categories of people. It ensures, for example, that some people are available to do society's dirty work at low wages. The racial hierarchy has positive consequences for the status quo: It enables the powerful to retain their control and their advantages. Racial stratification also offers better occupational opportunities, income, and education to White people. These advantages constitute racial privilege (Eitzen et al., 2011:209).

C.     Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Because majority-minority relations operate basically as a power relationship, conflict (or at least the potential for conflict) is always present. Overt conflict is most likely when subordinate groups attempt to alter the distribution of power. Size is not crucial in determining whether a group is the most powerful. A numerical minority may in fact have more political representation than the majority, as was the case in South Africa (Eitzen et al., 2011:210).

Determining who is a minority is largely a matter of history, politics, and judgment -- both social and political. Population characteristics other than race and ethnicity such as age, gender, or religious preference are sometimes used to designate minority status. However, race and ethnicity are the characteristics used most often to define the minority and majority populations in contemporary U.S. society (Eitzen et al., 2011:210).

The different experiences of racial groups are structurally embedded in society even though races, per se, do not exist. What does exist is the idea that races are distinct biological categories. Most scientists reject race as a valid way to divide human groups. Although there is no such thing as biological race, races are real insofar as they are socially defined (Eitzen et al., 2011:210).

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D.     Racial Categories

1.     Racial Formation

Racial formation refers to how society continually creates and transforms its definitions of racial categories.

Groups that were previously self-defined in terms of specific ethnic background (such as Mexican Americans and Japanese Americans) have become racialized as "Hispanics" and "Asian Americans."

2.     The Census and Multi-race Identification

Even the U.S. Census Bureau, which measures race on the basis of self-identification, has revised the way racial and ethnic statistics will be collected in the 2000 census. For the first time, people will now be able to identify themselves as members of more than one racial group on census and other federal forms (Eitzen, 2000:215).

3.     Ethnicity

Whereas race is used for socially marking groups based on physical differences, ethnicity allows for a broader range of affiliation. Ethnic groups are distinctive on the basis of national origin, language, religion, and culture.  Ethnic groups experience a high degree of interaction among its members.  They see themselves as a cultural unit.

The contemporary world is replete with examples of newly constructed ethnicities. In the United States, people started to affiliate along ethnic lines such as Italian American or German American much more frequently after the civil rights movement. In Europe, as the Western countries move toward economic and political integration, there is a proliferation of regional identification -- people may no longer identify as Italian, but as Lombardians, Sicilians, or Romans, as these regions lose economic resources to a larger entity: the European community (Eitzen, 2000:217).

E.     Racism

Racism refers to attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors that favor one group over another. The minority group might be seen as biologically (innately) inferior and, therefore, practices involving their domination and exploitation are justified.

II.     Patterns of Race and Ethnic RelationsA.     Assimilation

Assimilation is the process of being absorbed into the mainstream of the dominate culture.   The assimilation model demands that other groups conform to the dominant culture. New comers are to be socialized into the dominant culture that is already present.

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B.     Pluralism (multiculturalism)

In a pluralist society unique groups coexist side by side. The uniqueness of each group is considered a trait worth having in the dominant culture.

C.     Segregation

Segregation is the physical and social separation of categories of people.

D.     Genocide

Genocide is the systematic killing of one category of people by another.

III.     General Observations Concerning Prejudice

The following material explores prejudice. Theories that explain prejudice focus on:

personality needs social learning and conformity

A.     Prejudice and Discrimination

1.     Prejudice

Prejudice refers to a positive or a negative attitude or belief directed toward certain people based on their membership in a particular group. The root word of prejudice is "pre-judge." It is "a set of attitudes which causes, supports, or justifies discrimination. Prejudice refers to a tendency to "over categorize." Prejudiced people respond to others in a more or less fixed way (Farley, 2012:20).

2.     Discrimination

Discrimination refers to actions (behaviors) against a group of people.

B.     Forms of Prejudice

Farley (2012:21) calls attention to three kinds of prejudice.

1.     Cognitive Prejudice

Cognitive prejudice refers to what people believe is true

2.     Affective Prejudice

Affective prejudice points to peoples likes and dislikes

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3.     Conative Prejudice

Conative prejudice refers to how people are inclined to behave. Note that this is still an attitude because people don't actually act on their feelings. An example of conative prejudice might be found in the statement "If I were in charge I'd send all the Wallonians back to where ever they came from."

While these three types of prejudice are correlated, they don't have to all be present in a particular individual. Someone, for example, might believe a particular group possesses low levels of intelligence, but harbor no ill feelings toward that group. On the other hand, one might not like a group because of intense competition for jobs, but still recognize no inherent differences between groups.

IV.     Theories about Personality and PrejudiceA.     Is Prejudice Generalized?

Prejudice probably resides within the individual. Sometimes, prejudiced people (i.e., those with antagonistic attitudes toward different groups) tend to be antagonistic toward any out-group.

Adorno contends that people are prejudice because their prejudice meets certain needs associated with their personality. People do not become prejudiced simply based on negative encounters with members of different groups. Further, prejudiced people tend to be prejudiced towards a wide variety of groups.   Adorno contends that the tendencies to be prejudice is associated with the authoritarian personality.

If prejudice is associated with a personality pattern then a prejudice person should be prejudiced regardless of who or what the group is (Farley, 2012:23-24).

Farley (2012:23-24) notes that prejudice is not associated with conservatism. While conservatives show slightly higher rates of prejudice than do liberals, there are many examples of conservatives who are not prejudice and many liberals who are prejudiced.

B.     Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism refers to a tendency to view one's own group as the norm.  Other groups are not only viewed as different, but they are seen as strange and sometimes inferior.

C.     Stereotyping

A stereotype us a mental image, or an exaggerated belief, which assumes that whatever is believed about a group is typical for the entire group. Stereotypical thinking is unavoidable in social life and it is not automatically bad. "The essence of prejudicial thinking, however, is that the stereotype is not checked against reality. It is not modified by experiences that counter the rigid image (Farley, 2000:19).

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One might note that even positive stereotypes are a mixed blessing.   On one hand, positive stereotypes justify the use of more negative stereotypes.   On the other hand, they provide unrealistic attributes that the individual has to try to live up to.

D.     Authoritarian Personalities

Theodore Adorno contends that many prejudiced people have a distinct set of personality traits.

They are centered around conformity, intolerance, and insecurity (Farley, 2012:25).  People with an authoritarian personality are superstitious and engage in stereotypical

thinking. They tend to project in that they see inappropriate behavior in others but not in

themselves.

The authoritarian personality results from family environment. Parents are "cold, aloof, disciplinarian, and themselves bigots" (see Farley, 2012:25).  People who have an authoritarian personality are prone to prejudice because prejudice meets certain personality needs.

F.     Scapegoating and Projection

Adorno, borrowing from Freud, argues that people with authoritarian personalities have an unusually strong need to scapegoat and to project (Farley, 2012:26-27). These behaviors are the result of unique childhood experiences.

1.     Scapegoating (Displaced Aggression)

Scapegoating occurs when one blames one's troubles on someone else who is relatively powerless. This may occur when one group feels threatened, but are themselves powerless to act against the actual source of the threat (Farley, 2012:26-27). 

Example:  A fellow has a low level of education and can't find a job.  Rather than acknowledging that his lack of education is the problem, he blames his inability to find a job on minorities and immigrants.

2.     Projection

Projection is a concept where the individual denies particular characteristics in him/her self but notices them in others (2012:27).

Example:  Continuing with the example above, the fellow with little education will not acknowledge his own educational deficiencies.  Instead, he will call attention to others who do not have sufficient education.

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V.     Social Learning and Conformity as a Cause of Prejudice

The above discussion of prejudice is rather psychological. There is also the social context to consider when one attempts to understand prejudice. Social scientists who study social learning and conformity as causes of prejudice focus on the social environment within which people live. 

People learn to be prejudice through socialization processes like internalization, modeling, and reward and punishment.

A.     Agents of Socialization

Values are internalized as people encounter various agents of socialization.  Attitudes and behaviors are learned within a social context where agents of socialization are important (Farley, 2012:30-31).

1.    The Family

The family is probably the most important of the agents of socialization. Family is responsible for, among other things, determining one's attitudes toward religion and establishing career goals.

2.    The School

This agency is responsible for socializing groups of young people in particular skills and values in our society.

3.    Peer Groups

Peers refer to people who are roughly the same age and/or who share other social characteristics (e.g., students in a college class).

4.     Media

The effect on prejudice of television and the movies is substantial.   The media's portrayal of racial and ethnic groups may be a person's principal source of information. Therefore, since the media communicates primarily in stereotypes and if the viewer has little opportunity for personal contact with members of that minority, the probability of the stereotype becoming the reality for the viewer is high.

Hollywood movies have thoroughly dehumanized the nonwhite world. The whites, who are the exploiters, consistently show up as the "good guys."   Whites are portrayed as the bearers of civilization and all that is just and humane. Their superiority is taken as the natural order of things, and their "justified" extermination of the nonwhites provides a "happy" ending (Kitano, 1985:52).

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B.     Selective Exposure and Modeling

Farley (2012:33) notes that "if a child is exposed to one set of values over time, the child will eventually come to view that set of vales as the "natural way." This is especially true when the models are someone whom the child is especially close to like parents or close relatives.

C.     Reward and Punishment

All agents of socialization reward behavior and expression of attitude that conform to their norms and punish those that do not. These rewards and punishments are sometime very formal. Other types of rewards and sanctions are informal and impromptu (Farley, 2012:33).

VI.     Reducing Prejudice:Some Principles and Approaches

Given that there are many causes of prejudice: personality, social, and structural, the solutions are going to be varied also. If, for example, prejudice is related to a personality trait, then education might not eliminate prejudice. On the other hand, if prejudice is due to social learning, education and personal contact may reduce prejudice (Farley, 2012:43-44).

A.     Persuasive Communication

1.     Description

Persuasive communication refers to any form of communication (written, verbal, visual) specifically intended to influence attitudes. A couple of considerations are in order (Farley, 2012:44-47).

Success depends, in part, on who is giving the message.  A communication must be heard.  The credibility of the source is important in bringing

about long-term change in attitudes. The message must be understood Receiving the message must be a positive experience. The message must be retained. A failure at any points means that no persuasion will

take place.

2.     Drawbacks

It appears that people who receive and understand antiprejudiced messages tend to be people who are already antiprejudiced (Farley, 2012:44-47).

People who are highly prejudiced tend to not hear the messages. One explanation is that most people tend to not like to have their beliefs seriously challenged. When this happens they either ignore or rationalize away the message.

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Whether one hears the message depends on why the person is prejudiced in the first place.  For example, people who are prejudiced as a result of an authoritarian personality will not hear the message.

Prejudiced people tend to not view themselves as prejudiced . Therefore, when the message is heard, it is assumed that it applies to someone else.

A further concern is that as prejudice becomes more subtle, it becomes easier to rationalize it away (Farley, 2012:44-47).

B.     Education

1.     Description

Intergroup education is similar to persuasive communication. The big difference is that education's purpose is not to change attitudes, but rather to impart information , although the latent goal of changing minds might be there. Education is most successful when it causes the least amount of stress. I.e., education should not put people on the defensive. One way to facilitate a positive environment is to make students feel that they are participants in the process (Farley, 2012:47-50).

2.     Drawbacks

Education has difficulties reducing prejudice, in part, because there is some self-selecting taking place in that the most prejudiced people probably do not take the courses designed to increase the understanding of majority/minority issues.  On the other hand, required courses in inter-group relations might avoid the problem of self-selection.

Teachers, like other people, are some times prejudiced.  If the teacher is prejudiced against minorities, then it would be difficult to promote a non-prejudiced environment.

In general, education appears to be most beneficial in reducing prejudice when prejudice is not very intense and when personality disorders are not dominant (Farley, 2012:47-50).

If a person is prejudiced as a result of social learning, then education (combined with change of environment) may be successful in reducing prejudice.

C.     Intergroup Contact:  The Contact Hypothesis

1.     Description

Intergroup contact appears more effective in reducing prejudice than communication and education. This "contact hypothesis" receives support in public housing projects where people have to live in close proximity to each another. It also receives support in the military. It appears, for example, that school desegregation is associated with decreasing levels of prejudice (Farley, 2012:50-56). This is the philosophy behind school-busing.

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For intergroup contact to be successful in reducing prejudice, the contact has to be more than superficial.  Casual contact will have little impact on reducing prejudice.

2.     Drawbacks

a.     A primary problem here is that the lessening of prejudice appears to only take place in the environment where the contact takes place (e.g., the school or work place)

b.     The contact hypothesis does not always receive support. Examples are the school desegregation problems found in Boston and Pontiac, MI. It appears that a precondition for intergroup contact to work in reducing prejudice is that the two groups be of similar social status. For example, prejudice is reduced when the two groups are working on the same job for the same pay or living in a housing project where each pays the same rent. If people are not of equal status, contact may foster resentment (Farley, 2012:50-56).

D.     Simulation Exercises

The simulation exercise devises a situation where people, who don't normally experience prejudice and discrimination, experience discrimination.  They learn about the feelings that result from being discriminated against.  They see in a direct way the irrationality of prejudice and discrimination (Farley, 2012:56-57).

E.     Therapy

1.     Description

Communication, education, and intergroup contact are not effective when a prejudiced person suffers from personality disorders. Many argue that personality problems are best dealt with through therapy (either individual or group therapy). The goal of therapy is to:

Resolve the problem that caused people to be prejudiced in the first place. Convince prejudiced people that prejudice is not an appropriate way of dealing with

one's insecurities (Farley, 2012:57-59).

2.     Drawbacks

The authoritarian personality is an example of prejudice that results from personality disorders.  Unfortunately, a characteristic of the authoritarian personality is Anti-Intraception, or a rejection of self analysis.  If one doesn't acknowledge they have a problem requiring therapy, then they won't see a need to seek therapy.

VII.     How Important is Prejudice?

A.     LaPiere Study

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There is substantial evidence which suggests that the prejudice and discrimination are not always linked.

B.     Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Can Behavior Determine Attitudes?

The general answer is yes.  Behavior can determine attitudes.  Farley (2012:62-63) calls upon Cognitive Dissonance Theory for an explanation of why this can be true. He argues that people prefer to have their attitudes and behavior in sync. The theory argues that if behavior does not match attitudes then people will slowly, unconsciously, change their attitudes.

2.     The Deep South Today

Farley (2012:62-63) contends that cognitive dissonance theory explains why the South desegregation was so successful. He argues that Southerners, not being able to discriminate any longer, changed their attitudes toward discrimination.

VIII.     Explanations of Racial and Ethnic InequalityA.     Bias Theories

Bias theories blame the members of the majority.   In particular, bias theories blame individuals who are prejudiced or racist (Eitzen, 2000:223).

B.     Structural-Discrimination Theories

The alternative view is that racial inequality is not fundamentally a matter of what is in people's heads, not a matter of their private individual intentions, but rather a matter of public institutions and practices that create or perpetuate discrimination (Eitzen, 2000:225).

1.     Individual Discrimination

Individual discrimination consists of overt acts by individuals that harm other individuals or their property. This type of action is usually publicly decried.

Examples: 

A homeowner refusing to see to Jews A taxi driver refusing to pick up Black fares An employers who pays lower wages to Mexicans

Institutional racism is more injurious than individual racism to more minority-group members, but it is not recognized by the dominant-group members as racism.

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2.     Institutional Discrimination

Institutional discrimination refers to those "processes which, intentionally, or not, result in the continued exclusion of a subordinate group [and... activities and practices which are intended to protect the advantages of the dominant group and/or maintain or widen the unequal position of a subordinate group."

Some times individuals and groups discriminate whether they are bigots or not. These individuals and groups operate within a social milieu that ensures racial dominance. The social milieu includes laws, customs, religious beliefs, and the stable arrangements and practices through which things get done in society. The major sectors of society -- the system of law and the administration of justice, the economic system, the formal educational structure, and health care are all possible discriminators. Thus, the term institutional discrimination is a useful one.

The institutions of society:

have great power to reward and penalize. They reward by providing career opportunities for some people and foreclosing them for others. They reward as well by the way social goods and services are distributed by deciding who receives training and skills, medical care, formal education, political influence, moral support and self-respect, productive employment, fair treatment by the law, decent housing, self-confidence, and the promise of a secure future for self and children (see Eitzen, 2000:226).

C.     Four Basic Themes of Institutional Discrimination

1.     The Importance of History

Historically, institutions defined and enforced norms and roles that were racially distinct. The United States was founded and its institutions established when Blacks were slaves, uneducated, and differed culturally from the dominant Whites.

From the beginning, Blacks were considered inferior (the original Constitution, for example, counted a slave as three-fifths of a person).

Religious beliefs buttressed this notion of the inferiority of Blacks and justified the differential allocation of privileges and sanctions in society.

Laws, customs, and traditions usually continue to reinforce current thinking. Institutions have an inertial quality: Once set in motion, they tend to continue on the same course. Thus, institutional discrimination is extremely difficult to change without a complete overhaul of society's institutions (Eitzen, 2000:226).

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2.     Discrimination Without Conscious Bigotry

With or without malicious intent, racial discrimination is the "normal" outcome of the system. Even if "racism-in-the-head" disappeared, then "racism-in-the-world" would not, because it is the system that disadvantages.

a. Minorities suffer if the law continues to favor the owners of property over renters and debtors.

b. Job opportunities remain unequal if employers hire people with the most conventional training and experience.

c. Poor children get an inferior education if

we continue tracking, using class-biased tests, making education irrelevant in their work, rewarding children who conform to the teachers' middle-class concepts of the good

student, paying disproportionately less for their education (buildings, supplies, teachers,

counselors).

a. In other words, all that is needed to perpetuate discrimination in the United States is to pursue a policy of business as usual (Eitzen, 2000:227).

3.     Institutional Discrimination Is More Invisible

Institutional discrimination is more subtle and less intentional than individual acts of discrimination. As a result, establishing blame for this kind of discrimination is extremely difficult (Eitzen, 2000:227).

4.     Institutional Discrimination Is Reinforced Because Institutions Are Interrelated

The exclusion of minorities from the upper levels of education, for example, is likely to affect their opportunities in other institutions (type of job, level of remuneration). Similarly, poor children will probably receive an inferior education, be propertyless, suffer from bad health, and be treated unjustly by the criminal justice system. These inequities are cumulative (Eitzen, 2000:227).

IX.     Contemporary Trends and Issuesin U.S. Racial and Ethnic Relations

A.     Nativism

Social scientists use the term nativism to denote hostility toward immigrants. Here, and in other countries, racial diversity is marked by growing conflicts (Eitzen, 2000:237).

Racial violence is often associated with uncertain economic conditions. Lack of jobs, housing, and other resources can add to fear. It can also lead to minority scapegoating

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on the part of Whites. Despite evidence that immigrants actually strengthen the social fabric, immigrants are becoming a scapegoat for social problems. In Florida and many parts of the West and Southwest, perceptions that Cubans, Mexicans, and other Hispanics are taking jobs from Anglos have touched off racial tensions (Eitzen, 2000:238):

1.     More Racially Based Groups and Atrocities

The Southern Poverty Law Center documented an increase in U.S. hate groups. Their research found 474 hate groups involved in racist behavior in 1997, a 20 percent rise over the previous year. The jump reflects continued growth of racially-based separatism, religion, and hate, along with the fervor produced by the approaching millennium. Groups include White supremacist groups with such diverse elements as the Ku Klux Klan, Nazi-identified parties, and skinheads. With many hate sites on the Internet and increasing popularity of White power rock, racist organizers are reaching more young people.

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