Political interdependence between groups suppresses open hostility in inequality

Evidence

However, the racial inequality in the United States that has been the focal concern of prejudice scholars (as well as other long-term inequalities such as those based on class and gender) is structured by constraints that deter open expressions of hostility. Because dominant and subordinate groups are politically interdependent, both sides have no choice but to be attentive to the other as they pursue their mutually opposed, mutually contingent goals. … Most people’s attitudes are selected from a menu that has been forged by the organizational constraints of the intergroup relationship in which they live. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 669

There are some intergroup relations that approximate the conditions created by the Sherifs at Robbers’ Cave (e.g., some competing ethnicities in the former African colonies) and that thus contain incentives for the expression of hostility and conflict ( Jackman, 1994). However, the racial inequality in the United States that has been the focal concern of prejudice scholars (as well as other long-term inequalities such as those based on class and gender) is structured by constraints that deter open expressions of hostility. Because dominant and subordinate groups are politically interdependent, both sides have no choice but to be attentive to the other as they pursue their mutually opposed, mutually contingent goals. As a dynamic ideological exchange is set in motion, the specific organizational structure of the relationship presents constraints and opportunities that favor some strategies and subvert the efficacy of others. While some individual variation in experiences and attitudes is to be expected, people do not operate freelance. Most people’s attitudes are selected from a menu that has been forged by the organizational constraints of the intergroup relationship in which they live. Those constraints shape the historical and contemporaneous experiences of the groups to which people belong, and hence their behavior and attitudes ( Jackman, 1994). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 669

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the structural constraints that force dominants to disguise exploitation as benevolence — a framework for reading paternalistic racism/sexism across eras.
• XREF: Mirrors the observation that moral panics over dress are class/identity signaling — both show ideology constrained by social structure rather than freely chosen. — connects to: Growing inequality undermines the public sphere until the political system crumbles from within. — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 104; Inclusive clientelist patronage across ethnic elites can dampen inter-ethnic rivalry — Johan Brosché and Hanne Fjelde and Kristine Höglund, Electoral violence and the legacy of…, 75; Event coalitions can achieve political goals while modulating internal difference and inequality — Michelle I. Gawerc, Coalition-building and the forging of…, 323
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 669; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 669