Hate Groups

Definitions

• Prejudice: Negative attitude toward category of people, such as racial or ethnic minority.

• Prejudice- an attitude

• Discrimination- an action (behavior)Two main categories of discrimination: 1. Individual discrimination - one-on-one acts by members of dominant group that harm members of subordinate group or their property

2. Institutional discrimination - day-to-day practices of organizations and institutions that have harmful impact on members of subordinate groups

Robert Merton’s Typology of Prejudice and Discrimination

Four patterns:• 1. Unprejudiced nondiscriminatory – integration• 2. Unprejudiced and discriminatory – institutional

discrimination• 3. Prejudiced and nondiscriminatory – latent bigotry• 4. Prejudiced and discriminatory – outright bigotry

• Ethnocentrism: Tendency to assume that one’s culture and way of life are superior

• Ethnophaulism: Ethnic or racial slurs - including derisive nicknames.

• Scapegoating: Group collectively identifies another group as threat & blames for problems

Forms of RacismActive racism: act intending

to exclude or make person feel inferior because of his/her minority group

Passive racism: act of being complicit in another’s racism

Cultural racism: values that reinforce interests of dominant group while undermining interests of subordinate group, e.g., hostility to employment equity

Why Conflict Between Groups? • Ingroup-outgroup bias

– Favoring ingroup over outgroup: • “we are better than them”• ethnocentrism

– Ingroup favoritism tends to be stronger than outgroup rejection

• Nationalism is produced by 'us' and 'them' orientation.

-Tends to be destructive to multiculturalism

• Two types of nationalism:– Civic nationalism - community of citizens who express loyalty

and patriotic attachment to shared set of values– Ethnic nationalism - involves tracing roots, search for

identity, political recognition of heritage

Type of Social Movements• Alternative: Least threatening, limited change-

Planned parenthood

• Personal transformation - Hippies, New Agers, Meditation, Yoga, Communes

• Social change – environmental and animal rights movements- PETA, GreenPeace

• Reactionary - Aryan Nation, Right-to-Life, Apocalypse Soon

Figure 23.1 Four Types of Social MovementsThere are four types of social movements, reflecting who is changed and how great the change is.Source: Based on Aberle (1966)

• Hate Crimes: Criminal offense committed with provable bias (hate) of perpetrator toward victim due to race, religion, ethnic background, national origin or sexual orientation.

• Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990• 7,489 reported incidents of hate crimes 2003

– 52.5% - motivated by racial bias, 16.4% by religious bias, 16.4% by sexual orientation, and 14.2% by ethnicity or national origin.

– Crimes of violence represented 63.3% of hate crimes. Murder accounted for only .1% of reported hate crimes.

– Majority committed by teens, primarily white males

Amalgamation

Assimilation

Integration

Cultural Pluralism

Segregation

Expulsion

Genocide

Sociological Perspective Level of Analysis Focus

1. Symbolic Interactionism

Micro Use of symbols Face-to-face interactions

2. Functionalism Macro Relationship between the parts of society How aspects

of society are functional (adaptive)

3. Conflict Theory Macro Competition for scarce resources

How the elite control the poor and weak

Sociological Perspectives

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

• Looks at social construction of ethnic differences and subordination of minority groups, through racial labels

• Symbols are language, clothing, cars, etc.

Functionalist Perspective• believes that inequality benefits society

by allowing for discussion of opinions, perspectives, and values

• maintains that inequality produces social conflict that intensifies people's sense of identity and belonging, gives groups more cohesion along with better sense of purpose

Conflict perspective• Focus on how one group more than another

benefits from differentiation, exclusion, and institutional racism.

• Groups are in conflict

What Interpersonal Factors Disrupt Relations

Between Groups? • The Robbers Cave

Experiment

– Conducted by Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif and colleagues in 1950s

– Two groups of 11 yr boys: 11-The Rattlers and 11-The Eagles

The Robbers Cave Experiment

• Result: Reactions to conflict escalated from exclusion to verbal abuse to discrimination to violence

• What caused the conflict between these two groups?

Realistic conflict theory – theory in social psychology that ties into discrimination and stereotypes. Limited resources will lead to conflict within & between groups and this is direct reason why discrimination and stereotypes develop within society. Muzafer Sherif.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate,

violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate

begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Martin Luther King, Jr.