George Eaton Simpson

The Ras Tafari Movement in Jamaica: A Study of Race and Class Conflict

it attempts to operationally delineate the concept of awareness of group hostility. Second, it suggests a technique for the measurement of awareness. Third, the technique can be applied to the measurement of awareness of other social problems. Fourth, in a given community the relative positions of awareness to different social problems could be ascertained. Finally, the items of an awareness instrument should be tested for the scalability of these items.

The Integration of Americans of Indian Descent

The place of Indians in American society may be seen as one aspect of the question of the integration of minority groups into the social system. Only by maintenance of freedom for cultural variation can a heterogeneous so ciety keep conflict at a minimum; individual freedom is a widely shared cultural value. Integration means a unity that permits differences and opposes only dif ferences that lead to discipline conflicts. It implies full equality in health serv ices and in educational, political, and economic opportunity among all groups. In asking what shall be the place of Indians in American society, the authors give an analysis of the conditions that favor or hamper integration.—Ed.

The Consequences of Prejudice and Discrimination

Having discussed the roots of discrimination and prejudice, we turn now to the fruit—to their consequences. Fruits can produce seeds that help to start new roots. That is, we are dealing to some degree with self-reenforcing systems.

Minority-Majority Relations and Religion

Whether a society is religiously homogeneous or has adherents of several different faiths, its religious patterns are a sensitive index of the majority-minority situation. The religious beliefs and institutional structures of a group not only show intrinsic religious aspects but also indicate secular positions and secular problems as well.

The Meaning of Race

The term race has many levels of meaning, scientific, administrative, and popular. The meanings are so diverse, even contradictory, that some authors believe the word ought not to be used. While sharing their discomfort over the confusions and distortions, we believe the word is unlikely to disappear from general usage and that therefore it is better to examine it carefully than to disregard it.

Racial and Cultural Minorities and the American Political and Legal Processes

The study of the place of racial and cultural minorities in the social structure must give careful attention to the ways in which these groups influence and are influenced by political decisions and legal processes. In this chapter, our concern will be to compare the status of racial and cultural minorities with that of the majority population in voting, office-holding, and political influence in American life.

The Cultural Factor in Prejudice and Discrimination

The previous two chapters have shown how discrimination reflects, in part, economic and political conflict and competition as well as the psychic economy of individuals—their efforts to deal with a baffling world, hostility, and anxiety. Prejudice represents these forces in symbolic form; it is a readiness to act—whether or not set in motion — in service of those individual and group needs.

The Consequences of Prejudice and Discrimination for Prejudiced Persons and Dominant Groups

So happily is the world designed, Adam Smith wrote in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) that each person working diligently in his own interests will best serve the nation as a whole. No economic thesis has so powerfully influenced the Western world, particularly the United States, as Smith’s, even down to the late twentieth century. This partial truth has often dominated public policy. Only slowly are we learning the relevance of a nearly opposite statement: So perversely is the world designed that each person working diligently in his own interests often injures not only himself but the community, the nation and, in these interdependent times, the world as a whole.

Types of Response to Prejudice and Discrimination

Probably no two persons respond in exactly the same way to the problems they face as members of a minority group. It is possible, however, to classify the patterns of adjustment into broad types for purposes of analysis and to point out the kinds of persons and groups most likely to adopt each type as the primary mode of response to prejudice and discrimination. Response to the dominant world is not simply a matter of individual trial and error, for the culture of a minority group contains traditional adjustment techniques that are passed on, intentionally and unintentionally, to the oncoming generation. These techniques will vary from group to group; there will be many variations, moreover, within each group. To speak simply of “Americans of Mexican descent,” for example, is to miss sharp contrasts among them. Both the nature of their problems and the modes of response are quite different for immigrant farm laborers, second-generation urban dwellers, and those families of Mexican ancestry who have roots in the Southwest going back in some instances 400 years. As Charles S. Johnson pointed out (1943, p. 231) with respect to Blacks, the response to prejudice varies with the regional and cultural setting, social status, the specific situational factors, and the basic personality type of the individuals, among other factors.

Minorities and the American Political and Legal Processes (Continued)

Political rights, such as the right to vote, may be distinguished from civil liberties (freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, religious freedom, the right to bear arms, the right to security against unreasonable searches and seizures, security against double jeopardy and excessive bail, the right to trial by jury, security against self-incrimination, and other rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights), and from civil rights. The term civil rights refers to rights to employment and to accommodations in hotels, restaurants, common carriers, and other places of public accommodation and resort.