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Prejudice: Are We Born With It

Or does it Grow On Us?





Israfil M. Haniff



Ethnic America 100, Section 7, Final Essay
Professor Hector Topete
May 15, 2014



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Prejudice: Are We Born With It
Or does it Grow On Us?
A thought that has never run through my mind, but has captivated my interest is how the
symptom of being prejudice is something we catch during the early human development stage
of our youth. We first begin by defining what Prejudice means. Prejudice is a negative attitude
toward an entire category of people, such as a racial or ethnic minority (Schaefer, p. 35). This
paper will be an expository one where we will state facts particularly about the origins of
prejudice, through parent-child relations, social environments, early childhood traumas, and
events. We will also observe the living conditions of the youth hood in the early lives of
dictators, and other notable figures. An analysis based on observation will be made particularly
in their homes, their interactions with their parents, and other people. Observing those
interactions may help determine their degree of prejudice using Schaefers Spectrum of
Intergroup Relations (SIR) from our textbook (Schaefer, p. 21).
The SIR describes a degree of harshness, ranging from physical annihilation, to
absorption into a dominant group. In the far left of the Spectrum, we have Extermination, and
to the far right we have Pluralism. Dictators, politicians, and other notable figures namely,
two, will be chosen concurrently (Left and Right of the SIR), researched and observed. They will
then be puzzled in to see where he or she fits into out of the four theories of Prejudice described
by Schaefer. Then we shall build an emphasis on the quality of their environments, social
interactions, and events they have encountered. Some of the dictators or other figures chosen
may exhibit a combination of the four theories, out of which one may be more dominant. There
has to be some kind of trend behind what happened in their early lives that determine where they
fit in the SIR, and what theories of Prejudice(s) coined by Schaefer, they are categorized into.
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The Four Theories of Prejudice
We begin by first defining the four theories of prejudice discussed by Schaefer:
Scapegoating; Authoritian; Normative; and Exploitation, two of which we will venture
into Scapegoating and Authoritive types of Figures Particularly in the context (Schaefer,
pp. 38-40).
1. Scapegoating is a theory that describes an expression where one blames another and
refuses to accept any form of responsibility. The term itself comes from a biblical
injunction telling the Hebrews to send a goat into the wilderness to symbolically carry
away the peoples sins.Similarly, the theory of scapegoating suggests that, rather
than accepting guilt for some failure, a person transfers the responsibility for failure
to some vulnerable group (Schaefer, p. 38).
2. Authoritarian refers to a psychological construct of a personality type likely to be
prejudiced and to use others as scapegoats. This type of personality is also
characterized by aggressiveness towards people who did not conform to conventional
norms or obey authority.

Adolf Hitler: Scapegoat, Extermination
We first begin with the Austrian-born, German Politician and chancellor of the Nazi
Party from 1934 to 1945, Adolf Hitler. His policies precipitated World War II and instigated the
mass extermination of 6 million Jews. The dictator was born in Branau am Inn, Austria on April
20,1889, and was the fourth child out of the six born to his parents Alois Hitler and Klara
Polzl(Adolf Hitler Biography). Hitler was raised by violent, prejudiced parents, who were
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unkindly and strict. He had clashes with his father, who did not approve of his interests in fine
arts instead of business, shaped young Hitler into a person with anger and hatred personality.
We have to remember that children are not born with prejudiced attitudes or stereotypes ("How
Do We Learn Prejudice?"). Prejudice is like a symptom that we catch early from our peers,
teachers, family, media and other environmental instigating mechanisms. We observed that
Hitlers father had a firm disapproval of Hitlers interest in Fine Arts and his desires should be
business.
Moreover, Hitlers father died when he was only fourteen years old in 1903 which two
years later, Alois allowed Hitler to drop out of school. At a young age, he was already put into a
state of pressure in helping sustain the family. He soon moved to Vienna and worked as a casual
laborer and a water color painter. When he grew up into a 20 year old man, he applied to the
Academy of Arts, a school that he was really eager to get into, and was rejected twice by the
Jewish facilitated department. Depressed and taking school out the picture, he sold most of his
school clothes for food money. Now broke, and friendless, he lived on the streets, not having
any interest in finding a job. He cried every night believing that he was indeed an artist. He
believed he was an artist destined for greatness! It turns out that history will never forget him.
He moved into a shelter with the homeless, an institution funded by a Jewish family that
ran as efficiently as a military camp. As men, women, and children were gathered in front of the
gates, they were separated, stripped away from their bug infested clothes that were sent to be
disinfected. Naked and cold, the future Chancellor was directed to take a communal shower
among dozens of other men. A particular event that occurred early in his life and may have
shaped his degree of prejudice occurred when his mother died. Young Hitler reacted by blaming
the doctor, who happened to be of Jewish descent.
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It is as if young Hitler was being denied of all success, and prosperities because of a
group that rejected his efforts, and sent him downhill. Soon, Hitler began to have negative
feelings towards Jewish people, a symptom that Schaefer describes as Prejudice. Young Hitler
was becoming a scapegoat, blaming Jewish institutions, Jewish doctors and generally Jews for
all of his problems, which is one of the theories, or modes of prejudice described by Schaefer
that is most dominant in Hitler. Years later, as a token for suffering throughout the past years, he
joined violent political movements. As he rose in power, he launched the most ultimate assault
in humanity that stains the pages of history text books with images of the mass extermination,
showing piled rotting corpses in wheel barrows and trucks. His early life hood experiences,
makes him more dominant as a scapegoat that correlates with the Extermination side of our SIR
spectrum.

Malcolm X (El-Hajji Malik El-Shabazz): Authoritarian, Pluralism
Malcolm X also known as El-Hajji Malik El-Shabaaz born on May 19, 1925 of Omaha Nebraska
was an African American born Muslim minister and a human rights activist. He was the
courageaous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted the white races of America in
the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His movement was much more of a
cause and effect or more of a response to the hatred of Black Americans by Whites. What
sparked his efforts in the response to extreme whites at the time? We may have to look back to
his childhood for answers.
Malcolm X was the fourth child out of eight children to Louis, his mother, a homemaker
and Earl little, a preacher who was a member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association
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(UNIA). Because of Malcolms father being involved with the UNIA, the family faced a deal of
harassment from white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and one of its spliner
factions, the Black Legion (Malcolm X Biography). We can observe the environment that little
Malcolm-X was born into a time of when whites were prejudiced against people of different
colors and ethnicities. Little Malcolm was naturally programmed by his environment that the
race of white people were enemies. When Malcolms mother was pregnant with him, a party of
hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to her home, brandishing their shotguns and rifles,
they shouted for his father to come out (Malcolm X Biography). This harassment continued
with the bashing of windows, setting fires, writing hate graffiti on the walls and other activities
that deem highly inappropriate. Earl, Malcolms father, soon moved the family to Lansing,
Michigan.
After moving there, two years later the situation has got a lot worse. Malcolms father
was found dead on the municipal street car tracks, very likely murdered by white supremacists
but the police officially ruled his death was a suicide and rendering his large life insurance policy
invalid. (Malcolm X Biography). We see and observe the early lives of these notable figures and
observe some internal struggle that had got them to do an counter active action against the
offending party.
Malcolm X was always belittled of his abilities by his environment, and by his
environment, is defined as the people within the social media and the actions committed by
them. When he attended West Junior High School, he was the only black student. He did great
in school, excelled academically, and was quite the charismatic student. However, one day,
he felt that his classmates treated him more like the class pet (Malcolm X Biography) and
this is entirely because he was the only black kid at his school. His English teacher had asked
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him in what he wanted to do when he grew up and he had answered that he wanted to be a
lawyer. The teacher responded to him in such an ungrateful manner, telling him that he needs to
be more realistic and think of something he can plan on being such as a carpenter. Since then,
he found that there was no point in attending school so he dropped out of school the following
year at the age of 15 (Malcolm X Biography). After dropping out of the school he went to
Boston to live with his sister where he ended up in the streets of Boston, hanging out with the
crowd, selling drugs and participating in crimes. He soon ended up in jail and was sentenced to
ten years in jail where he found the Islam Religion. Once he was free he worked with the leader
of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad to help expand the movements following among
black Americans nationwide. Malcolm-X wanted to end the oppression between whites and
blacks by any means, and retaliating against the white supremacists through violence. On
February 21, 1965, Malcolm-X was assassinated while preparing to deliver a speech in the
Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, New York.
We observe that the culprit event that occurred in Malcolms life that changed his entire
outlook on life was his teacher. A child or a student rather, looks up to their teachers for
knowledge and advice. His teacher was a white person, and the students were mostly white as
well. It is through media and politics which instigate a group, such as the student and the teacher
into committing prejudice acts since media and politics portray blacks negatively.
Prejudice between whites and blacks in the United States trace back to slave trades
between Africa and the United States. This has caused an internal conflict between blacks and
whites since the Africans were stripped of their clothes, captured, whipped, put into isolation for
shipment, away from home, and away from their tribes, family and children. It is then that the
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white man was not deemed friendly in the eyes of the Native African. As history progressed
through the future this negative attitude towards each other existed ever since.
Malcolm-X, unlike Adolf Hitler being a scapegoat, is an Authoritarian described in one
of the Four Theories of Prejudice (Schaefer). An emphasis is built on how Malcolm was not
indeed born with prejudice, but it grew on him as a defense mechanism. He did not approve, nor
like how the whites behaved towards the blacks. Because of that, he pursued into becoming a
human rights activist leader, representing the rest of the African Americans who were dealing
with the inappropriate living conditions, unfairness, poor wages, violence, hate crimes and other
mischief. His mechanism for dealing with the matter of subject however, was through the act of
violence and militant combat. The magnitude of violence administered towards white parties by
Malcolms regime was equivalent to the opposing side such that it brought control, where whites
would not conflict with blacks and blacks would not conflict with whites. If African Americans
did not fight back, there would be a potential Extermination in the SIR spectrum, if civil rights
activists did not step in. On the contrary, as situations tend to be tense, is where African
American Civil Rights Leader, Dr. Martin Luther King comes in for added societal-stability. We
may conclude that Malcolm-X would fall into Pluralism or multi-culturalism of the SIR.
Since he was part of the Black Power Movement he was an Authoritarian type of figure
(Schaefer, p 193).
Again we make the point that Prejudice is something we are not born with, but a
symptom that is contracted through social interactions between parents, events, traumas and
other people. The harshness of those interactions determines where they fit into the SIR
spectrum, and the mode of the events that occur would determine where they fall in one of those
four theories of prejudice mentioned. We may conclude within the scope of this expository
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research that Authoritarian leaders like Malcolm-X may be pluralistic and Scapegoat leaders like
Hitler were towards the Extermination side of the SIR.
















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References
1. Adolf Hitler Biography. (n.d.). Bio.com. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from
http://www.biography.com/people/adolf-hitler-
9340144#synopsis&awesm=~oC0B1tCKaFrdSZ
2. How Do We Learn Prejudice?. (n.d.). How We Learn Prejudice. Retrieved April
20, 2014, from http://www.dianemaluso.org/prejudice/prej-howlearn.html
3. Malcolm X Biography. (n.d.). Bio.com. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from
http://www.biography.com/people/malcolm-x-9396195#early-
life&awesm=~oC1iad4kb2DGGe
4. Schaefer, R. T. (2012). Racial and ethnic groups. 13th ed. New Jersey: Pearson.
5. X, M., & Haley, A. (1999). The autobiography of Malcolm X. New York:
Ballantine Books.