Analysis Of Blumer's Four Key Factors To Racial Prejudice

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According to Blumer (1958) there are numerous key factors that contribute to racial prejudice. First, when Blumer is explaining racial prejudice it is tremendously important to note that when defining racial prejudice he is not looking at an individual‘s feelings in particular, he is analyzing racial prejudice within a group. He states that there is an important relationship that needs to occur between various racial groups in order to have prejudice. The individuals within these racial groups need to identify themselves within a particular group, as well as understand where they stand with another racial group. Blumer (1958) states that there are four basic types of feelings that is occurring together when racial prejudice is happening. These cannot just happen separately, there needs to be all four to exhibit the racial prejudice. First, there is ones sense of superiority, this is explained as members of the dominant group feeling as if they are simply better that members of other racial groups. Second, there is a feeling of members of the dominant group that the subordinate racial group is significantly different. The way Blumer explains this feeling is by …show more content…

We saw the Thirteenth Amendment occur to abolish slavery. We also saw the Civil Rights Acts which gave full citizenship, as well as the prohibiting the denial of due process, etc. Having the civil rights laws enabled African Americans to new freedoms which they did not used to have. There was positive change occurring in the lives of African Americans. However, there was still a fight to suppress African Americans and maintain the racial hierarchy by poll taxes and lengthy and expensive court proceedings. Sadly, this is when Jim Crow laws appeared. During this time African Americans were losing their stride, there was an increase in prison populations and convict labor, and the convicts were

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