It Takes a Village to Raise a Racist

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



SPLC Intelligence Report / By Sonia Scherr

It Takes a Village to Raise a Racist
Researches have found that kids don't necessarily get their prejudice from their parents -- it is the community that fosters tolerance or prejudice.

February 9, 2010 |


Shortly after white supremacist James von Brunn's fatal shooting attack this spring at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., his 32-year-old son issued a statement to ABC News in which he denounced his father's ideology and described the devastating impact it had had on his family.

"My father's beliefs have been a constant source of verbal and mental abuse my family has had to suffer with for many years," he said. "His views consumed him, and in doing so, not only destroyed his life, but destroyed our family and ruined our lives as well."

Erik von Brunn's repudiation of his father's bigotry runs counter to the conventional wisdom that virulent racists will produce children like themselves. Indeed, the movement has its share of parent-child notables, including neo-Nazi leaders Tom and John Metzger, white supremacists Don and Derek Black, and Klan/skinhead organizers Ron and Steven Edwards. But the younger von Brunn is hardly alone in rejecting a parent's beliefs — and experts say that's no surprise.

"Overall, there's not a lot of evidence that, at least in the long term, kids get their prejudice from their parents," said Charles Stangor, who runs the Laboratory for the Study of Social Stereotyping and Prejudice at the University of Maryland. "I would call it more of a community effect than a parental effect. The community fosters tolerance or prejudice." ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/media/145596/it_takes_a_village_to_raise_a_racist

[Captain Hilts]

1. VERY interesting! Thanks!

[Doctor_J]

2. So it really does take a village

not surprising.

Edit: too bad alternet is the only place to read such information

[montanto]

3. The "it's either the parents or the community"

argument is a little limiting. I mean, it's nice to see this guy repudiate his father's ideology, but it's not unusual. And as for community effect: I am the child of racist parents, AND I grew up in a racist town, yet I did not follow. Many of the white people that I know have turned away from racist parents and intolerant communities too, and did not follow. So much for all that "conventional wisdom." I'd rather hear that racism comes from an incapacity for critical thought.

[Liberal Gramma]

4. There's got to be something to it, though to account for the geographical preponderance of racism

Why is the incidence of racism so widespread in the south? Good point about an incapacity for critical thought, though. Ignorance breeds hate of all sorts.

[Demeter]

5. Fear of Retribution

The locals see how they are abusing their neighbors, and fear that the worm will turn and do unto them as they and their parents did unto the minority.

[winyanstaz]

6. It's sad to see America torn apart by bigots and racism and hate...

While we fight among ourselves, our Nation is dying.