Interdependent interracial work produces more positive racial attitudes and lowers objections

Evidence

After desegregation of the Merchant Marine in 1948, interdependency developed on ships and in the maritime union. The more voyages the white seamen took with blacks under these conditions, the more positive their racial attitudes became (Brophy 1946). Similarly, white police in Philadelphia who had worked with black colleagues had fewer objections to black police joining their districts, teaming with a black partner, and taking orders from qualified black officers (Kephart 1957). — Thomas F. Pettigrew, Intergroup Contact Theory, 17

Categorization

• XREF: Maritime-union and police-department cases connect to labor-history reading on integration of workplaces.