When Communication Fails

1. When Communication Fails Prejudice, Discrimination, And the Descent into War

2. What causes hate? • Psychologists and even philosophers have struggled to explain the cause of hatred • For example, Aristotle observed the differences between hatred and anger • He said that anger is usually felt towards individuals • Hatred may be directed at whole classes of people

3. Prejudice and Discrimination • Prejudice is a negative attitude toward an entire category of people • Prejudice involves ethnophaulisms, or ethnic or racial slurs, including derisive nicknames • Discrimination is the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons.

4. Theories of Prejudice • Scapegoating Theory – a person or group blamed irrationally for another person’s or group’s problems or difficulties • Jews, Hispanics, etc • Authoritarian Personality Theory – a psychological construct of a personality type likely to be prejudiced and to use others as scapegoats. Criticized for a number of reasons.

5. (cont.) • Exploitation Theory – Marxist theory that views racial subordination in the United States as a manifestation of the class system inherent in capitalism • As minority groups begin to compete for positions of power and authority, the dominant group uses prejudice and discrimination to maintain power and control over subordinate groups • Normative Approach – the view that prejudice is influenced by societal norms and situations that encourage or discourage the tolerance of minorities

6. The content of Prejudice: Stereotypes • What are stereotypes? • Unreliable, exaggerated generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account • Trends in stereotypes • Mass media has influenced our stereotypes: • Nearly all TV leadership roles are white • White = affluent, well-educated • Minority = “breaking the law” “being lazy” or “acting goofy”

7. Stereotypes cont. • Stereotyping in Action: Racial Profiling • Racial profiling is any arbitrary police-initiated action based on race, ethnicity, or natural origin rather than a person’s behaviour

8. The Extent of Prejudice • The Social Distance Scale – the tendency to approach or withdraw from a racial group. Often called the Bogardus Scale, after the researcher who developed the scale • How close would you be willing to be to a member of another racial/ethnic group? • Trends in Prejudice – study findings are mixed: people are less likely than they used to be to be openly racist, but many still resist programs and policies that provide disadvantaged minorities with equal opportunity.

9. The Mood of the Oppressed • When asked the status of race relations between Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics: • 65% of Whites reported “good” White-Black relations, and 61% “good” White-Hispanic relations • 49% of Blacks thought that Black-White relations were “good” and 61% thought that Black-Hispanic relations were “good” • 55% of Hispanics thought that Hispanic-White relations were “good” and 51% thought that Hispanic-Black relations were “good”

10. Intergroup Hostility • A national survey revealed that, like Whites, many African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans held prejudiced and stereotypical views of other racial and ethnic minority groups • (article: The bias finders: a test of unconscious attitudes polarizes psychologists)

11. Hate Crimes • Ethnocentrism – the tendency to assume that one’s culture and way of life are superior to others • A Hate Crime can be defined as: “a criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, ethnic/national origin group, or sexual-orientation group” • U.S. Department of Justice, 2001 c:58

12. Hate Crimes cont. • Although most hate crimes are not reported, a 2003 study reported 8,800 hate crimes and bias-motivated incidents • 48% motivated by race • 19% motivated by religion • 16% motivated by sexual orientation • 14% motivated by ethnicity/gender • 3% motivated by disability or social status

13. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes • Video 1: East Texas • Video 2: Ireland • Video 3: Wyoming • Video 4: Montreal • Video 5: Colorado

14. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes cont. • 1. The hatred is intense and impersonal • Not the same as strong anger directed at an individual with whom there was a previous conflict or rivalry • Hatred is not directed at any one person in particular • The Belfast mob didn’t know anything about the school girls except their religion • Mark Lepine ordered all of the men out of the room before he turned his gun on the women

15. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes cont. • 1. The hatred is intense and impersonal • James Byrd was dragged to death because of his skin colour • Matt Sheppard met his killers at a bar because they were looking for a homosexual • Columbine shooters were shooting at jocks and people wearing sports hats

16. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes cont. • 2. The hatred is based on prejudice and power • Three men forcibly tied a black hitchhiker to a truck bumper • Two men intent on ‘gay bashing’ picked up one victim smaller in stature than themselves • Columbine used an arsenal of pipe bombs and guns to terrorize several hundred students

17. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes cont. • 2. The hatred is based on prejudice and power • The perpetrator has power of authority or a physical advantage over the intended victim or victims • Belfast – crowd of youths and adult men used rocks and bottles against women and little girls • Mark Lepine used surprise in Montreal by bursting into a school heavily armed

18. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes cont. • 3. The hatred is directed at scapegoats for other frustrations • Frustrations and the difficulties in life may be found at the center of intense hatred toward out-groups • The out-groups selected as targets for this displaced frustration and hostility are called scapegoats • For example: in the late 19th century hundreds of blacks were hanged each year in the southern US often as a part of the cross burning rituals organized by the KKK

19. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes cont. • 3. The hatred is directed at scapegoats for other frustrations • The perpetrator of the 1989 Montreal Massacre left a suicide note claiming that he killed the female engineering students because they were feminists/he wanted to “put them in their place”

20. Four Characteristics of Hate Crimes cont. • 4. Genocide is an expression of national hatred • The greatest excesses of hatred directed against minority scapegoats are those that have been carried out by order as national policy