The Significance of Affirmative Action for the Souls of White Folk: Further Implications of a Helping Model

Racist propaganda. Another environmental factor that promotes hatred is racial propaganda: subtle and not so subtle messages that the White race is superior to the darker races. For example, Senechal (1990) observed that The Clansman (a play that depicted Blacks as dangerous animals) was performed several times in Springfield in the year and a half before the 1908 riot. Lee and Humphrey (1943) note that race riots often break out when fanned by the flames of demagogues. Such propaganda as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," Christian Identity's theology, which separates superior Whites from mud people and the children of Cain (Jews), and stories of the Black man's sexual attack of White women all serve to reinforce the notion of White supremacy (Blee, 1991; Barkun, 1997). Green et al. (1998) argue that racial propaganda is important for translating frustration into acts of hate.

Autocratic relationships. Another major predictor of blatant racism is what has been termed the authoritarian personality: the perception that social relationships should be structured in a hierarchical fashion. Recently, Altemeyer (1998) has found impressive evidence that two forms of authoritarianism together can account for roughly 50% of the variance in racism. Specifically, Altemeyer administered his right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) scale (Altemeyer, 1988) and Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, and Malle's (1994) scale of social dominance orientation (SDO) along with measures of blatant prejudice and ethnocentrism to student and parent samples. Altemeyer found that (a) the RWA and the SDO were not highly correlated and (b) that both together were highly successful in predicting racism. He interpreted these results as showing that the RWA is a measure of submissive authoritarianism (looking to others to lead in a hierarchy) whereas the SDO is a measure of dominant authoritarianism (seeking to dominate others in a hierarchy). These results are consistent with findings that parental domination (harsh punishment as a child), which teaches that relationships should be structured autocratically as opposed to democratically, is related to prejudice (Pettigrew, 1981). The tendency to seek hierarchical relations provides a solution to self-threats: White should be the dominant race.

Lack of coping skills. Shortly after the publication of the original frustration-aggression model, Miller (1941) suggested one factor that would determine when aggression would result from frustration: whether the individual had developed other ways of coping and reacting to frustration. In other words, there are many other ways to respond to a self-threat (via self-affirmation, personal development, avoidance, etc.) as opposed to aggression. However, without these skills, aggression is more likely.

The Psychological Consequences of Using Race as an Excuse

What happens to the souls of White folk when they accept the myth of White supremacy and use race as an excuse for their problems? In a nutshell, the identity of such White folks becomes transformed, so that all psychological energy must be directed at maintaining the excuse for one's shortcomings and for preserving the myth of racial superiority. If the excuse fails, all is lost. The myth of White supremacy can result in some short-term positive feelings: a sense of power and strength along with immediate satisfaction that one is superior. However, maintaining the myth is not without its psychological costs.