What is Racism?

             The prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically
             superior to members of other races ; discriminatory or abusive behavior
             towards members of another race.

What is Prejudice?

            A partiality that prevents objective consideration of an
            issue or situation ; an opinion that is preconceived and
            usually unfavorable.

Where does prejudice begin?

It is thought that prejudice is learned by the style of child training given to young children.  This is demonstrated in a study by Harris, Gough, and Martin.  These people first examined the extent to which 240 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children expressed prejudiced attitudes toward minority groups.  Then they sent surveys to their parents, asking them questions of certain practices in child training.  Most were returned with the mother's replies.  The results were that mothers of prejudiced children, more often than the mothers of unprejudiced children, held that:

 - Obedience is the most important thing a child can learn.
 - A child should never be permitted to set his will against that of his parents.
 - A child should never keep a secret from his parents.
 - "I prefer a quiet child to one who is noisy."

Overall, the results indicate that pervasive family atmospheres do slant the child.  Especially in a home that is suppressive, harsh, or critical -- where the parents' word is law -- is more likely to lead to group prejudice.  In fact, investigators have reported how impressed they are by the frequency with which broken homes have occurred in the childhood of prejudiced people.

How are prejudiced attitudes justified?

It has been reported that as soon as babies are able to distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar faces, they become uneasy when strangers approach.  Especially if the stranger moves all of a sudden or tries to touch the baby.  They may show special fear if the stranger wears eyeglasses or has skin of an unfamiliar color.  This shyness continues sometimes up to the child's preschool years or more.

However, according to professionals, the anxiety of a child in the presence of strangers is no more striking than his/her fast adaptability to their presence.  In many cases people do not recall if they ever were related to a colored person when in fact they were very close.  They only remember him/her by their personality traits and attitude.

When are racist attitudes first recognized?

Although we know where prejudism is learned, where do children first begin to exercise these types of ideas?  In investigations conducted in a nursery school, it appears that the earliest age at which children take any note of race is two and a half.

        One white child of this age, sitting for the fist time beside a
        Negro child said,  "Dirty face."  It was an unemotional remark,
        prompted only by his observing a wholly dark-skinned visage  --
        for the first time in his life.

The observation that some kids are white and some colored seems to be the first trace of racial awareness.  The child's world is full of fascinating distinctions.  Facial color is only one of these.

The situation becomes more of a problem by the age of three and a half or four.  The sense of dirt still scares them and they ask to be thoroughly scrubbed at home to be completely free of dirt.  Why then does it exist so darkly on other children?  One colored boy, confused of his membership, said to his mother, "Wash my face clean; some of the children don't wash well, especially colored children."  This child was really colored but did not realize this.

Actually, it has been proven that Negro children are, by and large, "racially aware" earlier than are white children.  They tend to be confused, disturbed, and sometimes excited by the problem.  Very few realize that they are Negro.  For example, even at age seven, one little Negro girl said to a white playmate, "I'd hate to be colored, wouldn't you?

The question is, Why is there a sense of inferiority associated with dark skin?  An important part of the answer is the similarity between dark pigmentation and dirt.  Another part may be in subtle forms of learning by children where value judgments are conveyed to them.  Some parents of white children may, verbally or by act convey to their children a sense of their rejection of Negroes.  Still, this rejection is still only small in the four-year-old, for in practically no case could the investigators find anything they were willing to label "prejudice" at this age level.

What are the stages in learning prejudice?

STAGE 1

The first stage of ethnocentric learning is the period of pre generalized learning.  This term draws attention to the fact that the child has not yet generalized after the fashion of adults.  He/she does not understand what a Jew is, what a Negro is, or what his/her own attitude toward them should be.  He/she may not know what they are -- in any consistency.  The child seems to live his/her mental life in specific contexts.  What exists here and now makes up the only reality.  The strange-man-who-knocks-at-the-door is someone to be feared.  It doesn't not matter is he is a delivery man.  The Negro boy at school is dirty, he is not part of  a race.  These pre generalizations are given to children by their parents.  The place of linguistic tags is very important at this stage.  They stand for adult abstractions, for logical generalizations of the sort that mature adults accept.  The child learns these names before he/she is ready to apply them to adult categories.  They prepare children for prejudice, but the process takes time.

STAGE 2

While totalized rejection starts earlier, it seems to reach its peak in early puberty.  First and second grade children usually don't mind sitting with a child of a different race.  However, by fifth grade, this friendliness disappears and children begin to choose their own crowds.  Negroes with Negroes, Italians with Italians, and so on.

As children grow older, they tend to lose this pattern of total rejection and overgeneralization.  In fact, Blake and Dennis found that in the 12th grade the white youth ascribed several favorable stereotypes to Negroes.  They considered them more musical, more easygoing, and better dancers.  Thus, after a period of total rejection, a stage of differentiation sets in.  The prejudice attitude is less totalized and usually all children completely lose their prejudice attitudes.

However, their is many people that never lose their racist attitudes.  This is proven by many hate groups that exist in our country.  Everyone is racist in their actions sometime in their life.

Examples of Racist or Prejudiced acts:

Many people feel that they are not prejudice or they think that they do not "have one prejudice bone in their body." Well to all that think this...HA! Sorry but you are all wrong! We, as humans all have prejudices against whatever. For example, some people have a prejudiHREF="http://www.whitesonly.net/niggerlynching.html">Lynching*
 

Let us show you what can happen when people take their prejudices to the next level and turn them into racist thoughts. and more importantly actions. The link is a little harsh and shouldn't be seen by minors or people that have weak stomachs. But this link is just one way that prejudices can get out of hand if we let them.