F,!' r' I

HOW UNPREJUDICED ARE THE YOUNG?

Volker Meja Brandeis University

Prominent pedagogues, journalists, and poli­ Donald L. Noel and Alphonso Plkney- collected ticians in the United states, in Germany, and data from 1,430 white and 805 Negro students doubtlessly in most other countries subscribe to in four American cities, using a modified social an image of their youth which astomsbes us and distance scale as the basicmeasure ofprejudice suggests hope at the same time: they are said to in their study. The respondents were asked the be skeptical, realistic, tolerant and open-mind­ following questions: ed; they are said to look for their own standards and to be unprejudiced. The assertion that Do you think you would ever find it a little today's youth do not have any prejudices belongs distasteful: to journalists and to the indispensable inventory of many speeches on modern youth. "Our youth . 1. to eat at the same table with a white person is indeed largely free of prejudices, as well as (Negro)? the yRudolf Augstein, editor of the people are white (Negro)? German magazine, DER SPIEGEL, wrote in a 4. to have a white person (Negro) marry some­ similar fashion: "It seems as if prejudice can one in your family? 4 be found most frequently with the oldest people and least frequently with those born after 1940, So far as a significant difference between the and not at all among the students of this age age-groups is concerned, and this is the only group;"? Numerous additional examples couldbe aspect of the study of interest for us here, the cited, not only for West Germany, but for the authors swnmarize: United States and other countries. These opinions about the modern youth, dic­ When the respondents are categorized as tated by fancies and perhaps also by political young (18-34) , middle-aged (35-54) , and old considerations, turn out to be untenable when (55 and over), the overall relationship between observed scrupulously, Most relevent psycho­ age and prejudice is not significantamong either logical and sociological studies, executed in Negroes or Whites.'s ' recent years, have shown that negative opinions and discriminatory behavior toward out-groups Another American study, related to ourprob­ can be found among young people not less often lem, by William R. Catton, Jr., and Sung Chick than among other age-groups. Severalexamples Hong,6 includes 557 students at the Universtty of shall verify this statement. Washington. The authors employed several diff-

197 erent methods to test etlmocentrism among the 1. national groups, 2. religious-denominational students. Only one part of their study, however, groups, 3. regional and ethnic groups, and is of interest for us here: the students were pro­ 4~ complex groups (including Negroes and vided with a list of 18 minorities? and a social Jews) .11 The students were asked to select six distance scale to fill out. of the alphabetically listed groups which ap­ peared to them as especially pleasant or un­ This scale asked the following questions with pleasant; in addition they were asked to attach, regard to each of the eighteen minorities: with the help of an enclosed list, certain char­ 1. 'Would you like working beside a member of acteristics',to the selected groups. the following groups?' 2. 'Would you like to have The list of the positively chosen groups is led members of any of the following groups go to the by "Germans" with 66.1%, "Americans" with same public schools as teenage boys and girls 50.4%, and Swiss with 35.5%. The list of the of your own group?' 3.. 'Would you like to have negatively chosen groups is headed by "Russ­ members of any of the following groups live in ians" with 82.9%, followed by "Jews" with your neighborhood?' 4. 'Now think: of all these 40.2% and "Turks" with 38.5%. 12 groups as next-door neighbors. Is there anyyou Wolf emphasizes that the high and consistent would like to have as next-door neighbors?' rejection of "Russians," in which neither type 5. 'Is there any on the list that, in general, you of school nor size of town are_ Conspicuous, would like to invite .into your home for a social shows more thanmere childlike rejection or even evening?' 6. 'Is there any group in the list that, a political opinion. "Russians" are probably in general, you would like to have date teenage largely identified with the mythical notion of the boys and girls of your own group?' 7. 'Suppose "Communist" and, therefore, occupy the first you were thinking of getting mar-ried, Is there place in the prejudice scale of young Germans. any on the list that you would be willing to The least concrete characteristics were given marry?,8 for "Jews" and "Germans." Both the negative The mean of the resulting "Social Nearness" choice of the Jews and the positive chotce of the scores was computed for each of the eighteen own group couldnotbe substantiated; this clearly minorities. If we take the ratings for the own points to the irrationality of prejudice. group of the respondents as basis and measure Only those who label the youth with the col­ its social distance from the other groups we get lective title "unprejudiced" will be astonished the following picture: 9 about such results. He who is but a little fam­ iliar with research in prejudice could expect Own group 0.00 Catholic 0.88 these conclusions about prejudiced attitudes and Swedish 0.06 Jewish 1.56 corresponding behavior, they have, unfortunate­ German 0.10 Japanese '1.78 ly, to be taken as ·"normal." There is no Irish 0.14 Chinese 1.79 population class and no age group which is free French 0.15 Filipino 2.18 of prejudices. Therefore, prejudice cannot be Polish 0.48 American Indian 2.31 fully understood as a matter of irrational Russian 0.50 Mexican 2.63 individuals but as a phenomenon serving an Italian 0.68 Puerto Rican 2.69 objective function in our society. Greek 0.86 ' Negro 3.01 In the face of what in the immediate past has happened with the Jews in Germany, however, According to this study, then, Negroes, Puerto and in the face of what is still happening today­ Ricans and Mexicans are the ethnic groups most mainly in 'civilized' countries - with other min­ discriminated against, whereas there is little ority groups, race hatred raises special prob­ prejudice against Americans of Swedish, Germ­ lems one cannot ignore by a facile referral to an, Irish and French background. the "normality" of prejudiced behavior. A German study of the psychologistH, E. Wolf Some time ago an exhibition on the Warsaw is based upon researchwith 1300 elementary and Ghetto and its history was presented in Frank­ high school students in the age-group of 13 to furt, Germany. More than 70,000 people, mostly 15 years.10 The students were offered a listwith young people coming with theirteachers, vtstted 44 groups, recruited from 4 different circles: this exhibition. This gave a good chance to talk

198 with young people, to record curious forms of a say, have rested on the "chosen people," thus new kind of antisemitism amongthis new genera­ explaining both its "good" and "bad" character­ tion and to observe a pretty general lack of istic features, the "high intelligence" as well as knowledge about how it could come to organized the "smartness" in business affairs: genocide in Germany. Although these interviews cannot be regarded as representative, certain Professor Guardini once said to my mother utterances do appear again and agatn.P Charac­ that the Jews are God's own people, and on this teristic is the following remark of a white collar people there was a blessing of God and God worker: added a curse to it (15 years, female, German high school student). What bothers me with this exhibition is simply that the Germans are presented as that cruel. In this way the Jewish people's tale of woe, The pictures are surely very sad; somehow one after all that has taken place, is encompassed is touched by it when one sees how people were with the glory of a higher reason: one may refer murdered in masses, It is reallytragtc,•. Imean, to it when failing to comprehend what has hap­ we feel perhaps guilt, but the others, they pened. A kindergarten teacher added: certainly must come to hate us. This will never pass by (17 years, female white collar worker). I have asked myself again and again: why exactly the Jews? I can explain it only from a Typical is the thinking in group categories. religious point of view. The Jewishpeople always As Nietzsche knew: "'I did thts;' says my had to suffer and still have to suffer today, that I memory.' 'I cannot have done this' says my (i.e., what happened to them in the Nazi period) i i! pride, remaining inexorable. Eventually, my was perhaps only another culmination in the memory yields.,,14 And when itcannotbe denied, sufferings of Israel (10 years, female, German). II,

I then the hatred or malicious joy of others has to II II serve as an excuse to forget it or to hide it The abnormal situation of those Jews still or .. behind euphemistic formulas like the "tragic." again living in Germany supplies prejudice with Equally dangerous, however, is the opposite additional nourishment, althoughthis situationis attitude. With a light trembling In her voice a only a consequence of the prevailing prejudice high school sophomore confessed: and its result. Jewish fellow citizens and class mates are mentioned, who undeservedlyproffted I am German and have to bearwhatmy people from this situation. Some would get restitution have done. I was born in this people and I am pay although nothing happened in their familtes, II responsible for the crimes my forefathers have For example, a Jewish class mate was sent to committed, this seems clear to me. The Jews the Gymnasium in defiance of bad grades. The had to atone for the fact they were born Jews, whole class was upset, butthe teacherexplained: and we have toatone, for we wereborn Germans. "We still have to make so many amends, this The only thing we can do.•• is to implore every must work!" Both teacher andstudent, reporting Jew on our bended knees to forgive us (15 years, this incident, are caught in the vicious circle of female). prejudice. It is unimportantwhether itis colored positively or negatively. With the student it A national collective guilt is assumed with becomes consolidated out of envy, because she which even childrenandgreat-grandchildrenare herself did not succeed to enterthe Gymnaatum, burdened. Who or what really was responsible Points at which she should blame herself or for the persecutions remains in the dark. Char­ certain social conditions a substitute object are acteristically, this girl believed that the Jews found and blamed. Resentment is criticism, di­ "are somehow completely different" but didnot verted from the true object. In the history of apply this to the abnormal situation they were Western civilization those in power have always forced to live in and in which they exactly live managed to make use of the Jews as a downward again in post war Germany. The difference of buffer. They were the victims by which the pop­ ;he Jews is seen as fate or, what is not rare, ulation could indemnify itself for plagues and .raced religiously. Curse and blessing, some famines, and even Hitler expropriated them as

199 substitutes for the true principal proprietors. their parents who somehow went along with it, It is striking that youngpeople considerthem­ they finally look for the reasons within the vic­ selves and their friends as largely unprejudiced, tims. Thus, we can hear: but at the same time give their opinions in a stereotyped manner or recall antisemitic re­ There musthave been somethingwith the Jews, marks among their friends. otherwise they would hardly have been perse-. cuted for more than 2000 years (21 years, male The modern youth, we have a far more com­ white collar worker). prehensive view, we want a united Europe, a united world, and so on. This first class man, Repression of guilt works in a similarfashion: as the German was supposed to be: with blond the young people are expected to confess the hair and blue eyes is anyhow balderdash, guilt of their own group - the German people ­ everybody knows that (17 years, female, appren­ with respect to the Jewish minority. This, tice). however, does not harmonize with the positive image one must have of his own group in order The desire for a united Europe, even for a to identify with it and to participate in the united world, did not prevent this girl from collective prestige. Guilt cannot be coped with; labeling the French as a people ' 'craving for therefore one asks: who is guilty for this guilt? power" and to interpret the discrimination of This, to be sure, mostly turns out to be the Italian workers in Germany as justifiedbecause victims themselves. Thus, in the most extreme of the "bad mentality" of the Italians. case, the Jews are even blamed for the con­ The hatred against Jews, some of them say, centration camps, because they disturb the peace is being revived for the reason that" they are or the youthful impartiality. A rapturous attitude, discoursed upon too frequently: on the other hand, dictated by bad conscience or admiring curiosity, the pride in a Jewish friend In our school we have very often lectures on which is common among many young philo­ it (i.e., on the history of the 'Third Reich,' anti­ semites, is only the other side of the same semitism and concentration camps) and theyalso prejudice. Typical for this philosemiticbias are show us films from time to time. Finally one the remarks of a seventeen-year-old girl: asks himself: Why so often? It's really enough when this happens every once in a while, two or They are wonderful people, wonderful people. three times a year, butwhy are we bothered with Exactly this high intelligence, and very oftenthis it thatoften? (18years, male highschool student). wonderful goodness in them, especially so far as we Germans are concerned (17 years, female A class mate assists: high school student).

The Jew, through the many events being A young Jew, after having lived in West organized, is always shown as a differe~tbeing,' Germany for more than 5 years, wrote, dis­ as a being who always calls a certain attention illusioned: upon him. But the concern people have fora Jew is not of a positive kind, it is always negative, Many things mayhave changed withthe German despite everything. It is talked too much, about youth- in one respect, however, nothing has it. Or, to put it quite simply: after a while you changed: in their relations to the Jews••. The get thoroughly sick of it (18 years, male high behavior of non-Jewish young people toward us school student), Jews continuously expresses a certain exculpa­ tion which they don't owe us and whichto demand These two high school students reflecta wide­ we have no right.15 spread sentiment among young Germans. They don't know what to do with documents about Guilt defense and guilt consciousness in the recent history, because they fail to understand face of a formerly persecuted minority both them. Because they don't understandJew-hatred become a conditioned reflex: one gives a. start' and mass murder, because theydon'tunderstand when suddenly realizing that the interlocutor is

200 l a Jew. And this only because one identifies with Personality have shown.I" is not so much his own group and identifies him with his. One dependent upon the nature of the object as upon t looks for characteristic differences and treats the subject's own psychological wants and needs: 1 i him accordingly. Neither the abnormal situation of the Jews, however, nor the collective guilt The relative ease by which prejudice can be complex can seriously be blamedfor antisemitic switched from one object to another, point in one attitudes among young Germans. Prejudice is direction: the hypothesis thatprejudice, accord­ like a hydra, new and fictitious arguments are ing to its intrinsic content, is but superficially, continuously formed anew. In psychology they if at all, related to the specific nature of its are called "rationalizations" and may assume object. 17 pathological forms when one, for example, main­ tains that the Jews are responsible for the Or, as Jean Paul Sartre has put it: defective traffic planning ofa city, because they owned all .comer-buildings and refused to sell. The Jew serves him (i.e. the antisemite) as a This, however, is an extreme example. Ration­ pretext; elsewhere his counterpartwillmake use alization presents itself more innocently with of the Negro or the man of yellow skin.18 young people who are not or only slightlypreju­ diced, but do not know very much about the It comes as no surprise, therefore, that what nature of prejudice and who, therefore, fall back has been said about prejudice among young upon the stereotypes offered by their parents: Germans is equally true for young Americans, young Britons, young French. Although there is The Jews were mostly in high positions, some anti-semitism in all of these countrtes, because they were clever, perhaps also cunning, the minority group mostobviouslydiscriminated and this most people did not like (20 years, against in some of them, is the Negroes. male college student).

Or, another: An American college student states:

Most of the Jews to this time were in business, My greatest dislike is against Negroes and I and almost everybody was atsome timedeceived .suppose this is because of what I have seen them a little bit by a Jew. This was spread, and in the do to neighborhoods in Kansas City .. Whenever course of the time there developed a certain they move into an area the property goes down resistance against Jews (19 years, male college in value. ~y grandparents were once forced to student). move because of this (19 years, female college student). Jewish '-'smartness" in business affairs, at the most, is derivedfrom theirmedieval circum­ In a similar fashion another girl said: scription to banking, this again from the Ghetto situation, and so forth. One rationalization pro­ We live in a low social economic district into duces another, and insight into societal con­ which Negro families have slowly begun to filter. nections remains blocked. Cause and effect are Each new family to move across the barrier of steadily confused, If sometimes the discrimina­ a mainstreetis regardednot so muchwith hatred ting majorityinsteadof the discriminatedminor­ on race grounds but because the families were ity comes into view then they see only ignorant lowering the valuation of the property (20years, people, misled by suggested opinions, orsimply female college student). human nature tending to xenophobia: These are again impressive examples that I think, it is a human weakness to have to cause and effect can sometimes be completely have prejudices (22 years, female college stu­ confused. ObViously the thought never came into dent, German). the mind of these two students that. after all, not so much the Negroes but the whites may be Prejudice, as the authors of the Authoritarian responsible for this situation.

201 But it is not only the connotation of an inferior college student) 41 class position that tends to reduce intimacy between white and colored students. How strong This feeling or this social climateis nottraced emotional opposition against intermarriage back to social norms and to an education, sometimes can be is clearly visible in the mediating prejudice, but is hypostatized to a following discussion of some female British natural fact: students: 19 This is simply native to man that he sticks to JUN.~ '(to Miss Webster): Niggers have awful people of his own race (19 years, male appren­ hands - it makes me shudder to think of one tice, German). touching me. If I had to meet one I should try I feel it is best for races to refrain from and avoid all physical contacts with him. I intermarrying or closely fraternizing (such as wouldn't dance with one, and I would try not to dating, belonging to the same church group etc.) shake hands. I think I've got a phobia. Not because conflicts result (19 years, male college Indians. Their features are different; their noses student, American). are thin, and they haven't those big, thick, flabby Or: mouths. I can't bear to think of a nigger kissing me - and his wide, flat nose. One is always more solidaric with the white BRENDA: Don't be silly. They're all the same man than with a black one (20 years, male in the dark. apprentice, German). JUNE: Oh no, they're not. You see, sex is a purely animal thing - justphysical- soit matters Or: a lot what the physical characteristics of the man are. White and Black are created differently, they SUE (who has also filled in a social distance are distinct from each other, and one should card): I'm not thinking of the children. I was just perhaps better respect this difference (19 years, considering the physical relationship too, and I female .nurse, German). couldn't fall in love with one ever. JUNE: I should like the children. Almost all young people conceived thathatred INTERVIEWER: Would you rather go to bed against Jews and hatred against Negroes are with an educated Negro in the University, or a related, despite their different historical devel­ white criminal from the London alums? opment. But practically all of them were unable JENNIE: Neither. I should commit suicide. to point to the nature of this relationship and to JUNE: The white man. I shouldn'tworry about answer the question how prejudices come about his intellect, because sex isn't a mental thing. and why a whole group of people is persecuted: You're making me feel quite sick when I think of lying beside a nigger and letting him touch me. I cannot say why people hadsomethingagainst the Jews and why today people have something A German student commented upon the dis­ against Negroes. I cannot explain how all this crimination of Negroes: could happen in the past, how this could happen at all. I must be blockheaded or too stupid to .When a man sees another man of a different explain that, but I simply can't explain it (17 color he is not exactly repelled; there i~ , years, male high school student, German). however, a certain feeling appearing with him This totally puzzles me (24 years, female (20 years, male college student). college student, German). I cannot understand at all why exactly the race Or, an American voice: of the Jews had to suffer such heavy blows; it could have been theSpaniards orthe Portuguese, I consider it ideal for each race to keep to but why exactly the Jews? Perhaps, because they . itself in thesemore intimate social relationships were chosen by God and therefore.•. Why in the because the resulting social climate is better world was there such a conspiracy against the for both racial groups involved (19 years, male Jews? (16 years, female apprentice, German).

202 Or, two American voices, concerning their inate against people who are non-Jewish and attitudes toward Mexicans: their moral code is in many cases at odds with my own (23 years, male college student, Amer­ I do seem to have an aversion againstMexicans ican). but I can't explain why (19 years, female college I have been disgusted with the preoccupation student). many Jews have with material things.•• AJewish Mexicans do bother me, however the reason is rabbi once cheated me out of $1.23 by moving not in my conscious mind. I associate them with from my paper route without paying me or greasiness, cunning, cruelty and scheming na­ responding to a bill I sent to his new address ture (20 years, male college student). (19 years, male American college student). What 'reappears with practically all young people is the helpless question for the reasons Or: of persecution and hatred of minorities. They cannot explain it, they are "blockheaded" and I really know many Jews, I have talked with "puzzled." Therefore, we can draw the con­ many of them; but nobody can believe how they clusion that the attempts to enlighten them about make fun of us Germans today (17years, female prejudice and discrimination have not beenvery apprentice, German). successful. Because these efforts did not say very much about the workings of prejudice but Or, without negative varnish: only documented its effects, trying to cause a moral reaction, the humanitarian response of I personally knowa greatmanyJews and I have saying that" we are all human beings" or even realized that there is something in them which "brothers" remains both abstract and vague, if differs widely from us ••.• There is somehow not supported by the insight into the, social something curious about them one can't explain mechanisms that stand in the way of humanity (lQ years, male high school student, German). and brotherhood. By exhortation or preaching tolerance not much can be accomplished. These . In Germany, social studies, docwnentary sermons don't cost very much and are even films, exhibitions and books ,on the persecution being rewarded today. However, even young of the Jews hardly ever answer the questton, people believe that prejudice can be most .urgently asked by young peoples Why? Horror­ effectively battled with calling upon tolerance: stricken pictures and facts of the German past are, through periodical repetition, broughthome I think the only thing one cando is to teach the to the students. There they remain unconnected youth tolerance, nothing else (1~ years, male and without further explanation until they are apprentice). made relative, rationalized or repressed. The results are, at best, of a general moral nature: Tolerance was extensively taughtby the Chris­ a vague idea that" this mustneverhappen again." tian churches and the liberal ideology of the last When pedagogical efforts can accomplish century without, however, preventingthe spread­ something at all, then they should educate about ing of antisemitism and race-hatred. prejudice in such a way that the present scien­ Another illusion lies in the asswnption that tific knowledge is incorporated. Most of the group prejudice can be dissolvedby mere human social and psychological mechanisms, leading contact and travel. Personal contact certainly to prejudice, have already been studied. It is gives lmowledge about other people and does amazing, therefore, that the results of these away with wrong conceptions. Prejudice, how­ studies have hardly obtained access to school ever, is exactly defined by the fact thatit cannot instruction and - via the mass media - into the be corrected by experience. Personal contact consciousness of the generalpublic. Anexcellent does not preclude prejudice. Sometimes it even example of how, instead, even scientists myth­ serves as an alibi for it: ologize prejudice is offered in the introduction to "Hitler's Table Talks" by the historian I have reservations concerning Jews because Percy E. Schramm. Professor Schramm wrttes personal contacts have shown thattheydiscrim- there:

203 '""I

We have to be content with the fact that, when ness, of his liberty, of his instincts, of his analyzing Hitler's antisemitism which exceeded I1 responsibilities, of solitariness, of change, of I 'all usual proportions, there will remain a mys­ society, and of the world- of everything except 1 terious residue, not open to a rational explana­ the Jews. He is a coward who does not want to j tion.2o admit his cowardice to himself; a murderer who represses and censures his tendency to murder Yet, Hitler himself in Mein Kampf gave this without being able to hold it back, yetwho dares explanation: one needs an anti-type on whom all to kill only in effigy orprotectedby the anonym­ the evil of this world can be levied, thus pre­ ity of the mob; a malcontent who dares not senting his own herd in a more favorable light. revolt from fear of the consequences of his Hitler, who admitted his demagogic tricks with rebellion.2 3 remarkable candor, once stated that it would have been necessary to invent "the Jew" if he The really fanatic race-hater, be his hatred had not already been there, presenting himself directed against Jews, Negroes or whatever as a victim. group, who would like to bring every murdered The latent antisemitism of a great part of the Jew or Negro to life again in order to murder German population was a necessary supposition him anew, tries to kill his own characteristics of the murder of the Jews, as every collective with the pretended ones of the Negro_or the Jew. hatred may finally find its culmination in mass This shows how irrelevant it is which minority murder. If it is really true that .antisemitisIl) is is blamed for all the evil in the world. This was declining in Germany, then this, as frequently and is, because of peculiar historical reasons, believed, is certainly not due to the. fact that often the Jews, but itmaybe the Negroes as well there are today hardly any Jews in Germany as any other ethnic, religious or socio-economic left. Antisemitism has little to do with the Jews group, Nobody would win anything, however, when themselves; the sociolgist Theodore W. Adorno the prejudice against Negroes or Jews shouldbe once called it the "rumour about the Jews.,,21 done away with by stigmatizinganotherminority In a talk with Hermann Rauschning Hitler as the scapegoat. voiced a psychological realization when saying: With the scapegoat theory, based upon the "The Jew is always in us. But it is easier to displacement of aggression, we have a second fight him in bodily form than as invisible important concept for the explanation of preju­ demon.,,22 This mechanism, obviously very dice. In the course of the process of socializa­ familiar to Hitler, is called "projection" in tion certain disappointments are unavoidable social psychology. The weakness, cowardice and with children. These "frustrations," as they are fear one does not dare to admit to oneself is called in the language of psychology, produce projected. That is why people who are timid aggressions in the child which are not necess­ themselves tend very often to point out the arily harmful. When it is not possible for the cowardice of others. People who demand severe child, as is the rule, to directthese aggressions persecutions of criminal conduct of others fre­ against the original source of the frustrations quently tend themselves to suchconduct. Into the or to guide them into a harmless channel, then Jews and the Negroes exactly those character­ these aggressions are displaced and directed istics are "projected" which one recognizes in against objects or people who have nothing to do oneself but has, to battle by' reason of existing with the original frustrations, that is, against a social rules and taboos. The stronger these scapegoat. This, then, is one location of prejudice wishful and instinctual impulses are and the which appears later with the adult in frightening more difficult it becomes to bridle them, the violence and may lead to the consequences we .more furious do the attacks against those know. Prejudices are a defect of a personality, become who are accused of doing exactly what unable to gain new experiences; at the same oneself desires to do. Characterizing the anti­ time, however. they are profoundly dangerous Semite, Jean Paul Sartre wrote: for minorities chosen as the object of discrim­ ination. He is a man who is afraid. Not of the Jew, to Whether aggressions are innate or develop in be sure, but of himself, of his own conscious- the course of the socialization process - that is,

204 produced by society - is a controversial prob­ mitted a crime; immediately all members of his lem.24 But even if we assume an innate aggres­ group discover that they are outlaws. A press siveness this could be directed into harmless item may illustrate this: channels. One might, for example, teachchildren to" give full play to their aggresstons without At the weekend hardly an Italian couldbe found 1 i causing damage. They could be given worthless in the restaurants and on the streets of Sind­ I objects to break or destroy; at the same time lingen and Zeilsheim. The few Southerners one ! ! they could be taught not to destroy valuable could see hurried through the streets. They °1 objects. One must not show childrenthatcertain seemed to be deeply worried and alarmed. aggressions are bad without showingatthe same Therefore they seemingly tried hard not to I time the possibility fora harmless outlet; attract any attention. Even in their homes they I otherwise the child would look for some channel talked only in a low voice. Many Italians fore­ of his own choice. When combatting prejudice went going out on the weekend. When they could we have to be especially careful that no dis­ not'bear it any longer in their scantyhomes they placement of the defense mechanism takes place, mostly went to the city where they believedthey where prejudice only changes its object. were free of reproachful glances.25 A third mechanism of prejudice can be characterized as the phenomenon of the "we­ Here a whole group is made liable' for what group'': all otherpeople aremeasuredaccording was caused by an individual. In a similar way, to the standards of the group one identifies with. the Jews have been attached the mark of Cain The supposed characteristics of one's own group for more than 2000 years. 2000 years of perse­ are taken as the positive ones; other groups are cution and pogroms are still today - even among believed not to have the same positive .oharac­ young people -justified with reference to the teristics, or at least not to the same degree. In Jews as having crucified the Savtor, Aseventeen this way,' collective judgements about whole year old German high school student said: groups of people come into existence. I find it ridiculous that no, minister is any The Danish are more parsimonious than the longer allowed to say that the Jews have cruci­ Italians••. All Letts steal. All Bulgarians smell. fied Christ. It's written in the Bible, isn't it? The Rumanians are braver than the French. Isn't it written in the Bible that the Jews have Russians embezzle money. All this is not true ­ crucified Christ? We do believe in the Bible, but it will be heard in the next war. don't we? Not an individualpersonis reproached because of this; people only say: the Jews. Jews Each of us could supplement these remarks is a concept, it has existed, this people existed, of Kurt Tucholsky. For instance: Inthe EastBloc always. Jews are Jews, this peoplehas remained there live monsters; the "free world" is peace­ the same, we cannot simply rename them. And able; Americans are lacking in real culture; it is written in the Bible, isn't it? (17 years, Negroes are immoral; this is a Jew; every female). German is a Nazi, and. so on, Such absurd assertions cannot only be heard ina war, we can Stereotyped opmions about whole groups of hear them everywhere even today. Judgements people become prejudices which can hardlyever like this, when shared widely, may finally lead be corrected with adults. Prejudice, however, to genocide. The murder of a Jew does not start produces unimaginable discriminations against with the construction of the first combustion minority group members: Negroes, Jews, Mex­ furnace for a concentration camp; it starts no icans, " Communists," etc. Even a national

later than the moment when somebody says: the feeling which values people J irrespective of their Jews are the ferment of decomposition. individuality, according to whether they were For prejudiced personalities it is notimport­ born within certain boundary lines and whether ant what one says and how he behaves; they judge they share the same language, prepares the way people according to the collectives they belong for aggressive prejudices. to. How common these proceedings are can be That even critical intellectuals and "v~lue­ seen when a foreigner in a country has com- free" scientists cannot escape the coercion of

205 ...•..z:••:;;;;;c·": " ..·l' .. I identification with their own group, maybe shown, was printed next to that; the following page was f I I by two examples: The German psychologist, divided between the calisthenics of factory J Professor Peter R. Hofstatter, states the fact workers during a rest period and the writing I 1 that no group, no people, no nation can live technique of a South American Indian tribe by i without an autostereotype whichfavorably stands means of knotted strings; on the opposite page, out against other groups. He writes: Senator So-and... so was depicted in his summer retreat. The specific German problem results from "This," I said, "is how modern man grasps the demand of a constant continuance of the the things of the world outside himself. Modern "We." In the face of our recent history it is man drags all things toward himself chaotically difficult for us to absorb the documented offences and without cohesion; this proves that his own into the wreath of the happy attitudes of the inner life is a chaos lacking cohesion. Modern "We.,,26 man no longer confronts the things of the wcrld Instead of criticizing this bad "We"-feeling, as solidly existing, nor do things register in his however, Hofstatter advocates anddemands gen­ mind individually; neither does he approach a eral amnesty for all "war criminals." particular thing by a particularact: modernman The German writer Hans Magnus Enzens­ with his chaotic inner life has a eor'respondingly berger bemoans that there is ~o longer such a chaotic outer world whirling toward.him, What "we"-feeling among the Germans; nobody can is coming is no longer scrutinized; it suffices escape, he claims, the question of his owniden­ that anything at all should be coming along. To tity. One has to identify collectively, this is this disjointed tumult anything or anybody could self-evident- and "mysterious": admix- Adolf Hitler, too: he gets inside a man without his noticing how he got there; from that Why there actually are peoples andnotsimply point on, it no longer depends upon the victim people, I don't know. But what appears on every but upon the skill of Adolf Hitler, whetherhe will bureaucratic form as "citizenship" is olderand merely pass through that man's mind or take more stubborn than any bureaucracy, older even . hold of it," 28 and more stubborn than every state. This I knowe27

Enzensberger mystifies as if it were not I It is necessary to discover andunderstandthe possible to exactly determine the psychological mechanisms on which prejudice is based, as it mechanisms pushing to collective identification: is also important to understand to what degree the weakness of the ihdividual ego and its lack of society makes its appearance. Children reflect orientation. the surrounding culture as transmitted to them Max Picard, in his book Hitler in Our Selves, through their parents, teachers, and friends. showed convincingly how this general ego weak­ Prejudice can only have an effectbecause society ness comes about and to what results It may provides people having certain ethnic, racial, or lead: socia-economic characteristics to those who perhaps through even a defective education, are During a trip to Germany in 1932, the head of predisposed for prejudice, and who are allowed an influential party called upon me to ask. how by society to make use of the minorities offered it was possible that Hitler had become so much to them as a target for their aggressions. of a figure and had gained so many followers. I Race hatred has its basis in objective societal pointed to a magazine which was lying on the conditions as well as in the consciousness and table and told him to look at it. Page one was unconsotousness of individuals. Butithas always filled by a half-naked dancer; on page two, been actualized as an instrwnent of politics; as soldiers were drilling with a machine gun, and one of integration of Incompatible groups inter­ farther down a scientist was shown inhis labor­ ests; as the shortest and, for the prejudiced, atory; page three featured the evolution of the easiest way to avert themselves from their bicycle from the middle of the nineteenth problems which could be removed in a different century to the present day, and a Chinese poem way.

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' ;.' '.'.'." ' .'!.-, .

J. familiensoziologisch~s i 1 Erich Mende, "Ein Problem," Kansas. Although these interviews centered around in Tribune, 7/63, p. 708, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Negroes, Mexicans and Jews are frequently mentioned. I For the purpose of comparison a lengthy quotation was .2 Rudolf Augstein, ItAntisemitismus unter uns?," in Der Spiegel, 31/63, p. 32, Hamburg, Germany. taken from Michael Banton, White and Colored, who in­ i,\, ~ terviewed Oxford and Cambridge students about their attitudes concerning intermarriage. t 3 Donald L. Noel and Alphonso Pikney, "Correlates of Prejudice: Some Racial Differences and Similarities, " 14 Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Chicago, in AJOO, December 1963, pp. 609-622. 1955, p. 73. .

4 Ibid., p. 609. 15 Abraham Melzer, "Funf Jahre in Deutschland," in 5 tua., p. 613. Germania ]udaica, No.5; issue: "Juden in Deutschland heute," pp. 12 ff. 6William R. Catton, Jr., and Sung Chick Hong, "The Relation of Apparent Minority Ethnocentrism to Majority 16 T. W. Adorno et. el., The Authoritarian Personality, Antipathy," in American Sociological Review, vol. 27, New York, 1950. No.2 (1962), pp. 178-191. Here quoted after the reprint 17 lbid., p. 612. in Raymond W. Mack, Race, Class, and Power, New York, 1963, pp. 342-357. 18 Jean Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew, New York, 1962. 7 These 18 groups were: American Indians, Americans of Chinese, Catholic, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, 19 Quoted from Michael Banton, White and Colored, New Japanese, Jewish, Mexican, Negro, Filipino, Polish, Brunswick, New Jersey, 1960, pp. 140 ff. Puerto Rican, Russian, Swedish background, and "Your 20 Quoted after Der Spiegel, 5/64, p. 61. own group"; lbid., p. 345 ff. 21 Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, Frankfurt, 1951, 8 lbid., p. 346. p.200.

9 Ibid., p. 348. This is a slightly modified (differently 22 Hermann Rauschning, Gesprache mit Hitler, Zurich­ arranged) version of the "Social Nearness" scores as New Y.ork, 1940, p. 223. calculated by the authors. 23 J. P. Sartre, lbid., p. 53. 10 H. E. Wolf, "Vorurteile bei Jugendlichen," in Ubet­ 24 See Herbert Marcuse, Eros a~d Civilization, New York', windung von Vorurteilen, Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, Bonn, Vintage 800}

12 lbid., p. 23. 25 "ltalienische Landsleute aind bedruckt;" in Frank- . iurter Allgemeine Zeituns, January 20, 1964, p. 11. 13 The data and quotations presented below come from three sources: The quotations of young Germans, 15 to 26 P. R. Hofstatter, "Wir Deutschen - wer sind wir?" in 24 years old, were recorded by the author when inter­ Die Zeit, 34/63, p. 9. viewing more than 30 students, white- and blue collar 27 H. M. Enzensberger, uGaspenstisch, aberwirklich," workers. Although Negroes as a minority group are re­ in Die Zeit, 63/63, p, 8. ferred) to, the interviews concentrated on antisemitism. The quotations of American students were taken from 3'0 28 Max Picard, Hitler in Our Selves, Hinsdale, 111.,1947, questionnaires, returned by students of the University of PP~:'27 ff.

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