origins of racism

al must be similar to those who form the in-group. Without similarity, a group cant be strongly bonded together. People still may develop their own views and prejudices, but these are usually shown and shared in the group which an individual is a member. No individual would mirror his groups attitudes unless he had a personal need, or personal habit, that leads him to do so. The most frequent source of prejudice lies in the needs and habits that reflect influence of in-group members upon the development of individual personality (Allport 99). I think this may help explain why children of racist or prejudice parents tend to mirror their parents own beliefs. A child wouldnt be racist if he dont know what being racist was. Becoming socialized by parents sometimes includes the teaching of racism to children of racist parents. The same could go for groups of friends, who are in a predominantly white area. The group members feed each others need for security and identity.Allport indicated that we form groups for a sense of security. When the sense of security fades away, prejudices are created ignored to strengthen the bonds of membership and satisfy needs of security. Hostility towards out-groups helps strengthen our sense of belonging. Because of their basic importance to our own survival and self-esteem, we tend to develop a partisanship and ethnocentrism in respect to our in-groups (Allport 100). By doing this we create barriers between groups. This barrier makes others foreign. These boundaries bring about racism and the discrimination of one group from the other. People dont seem to like anything that is contradistinctive to their own ideals and characteristics. Thus, what is alien is regarded as somehow inferior, less good, but there is not necessarily hostility against it (Allport 100). Group members are able to protect the groups identity and strengthen itis may mean ...