Prejudice theory reduced structural racism to interpersonal attitudes measured by scales

Evidence

Prejudice theory served to eliminate the structural dimensions of both the psychic and the social by reducing both to their lowest common denominator in interpersonal process. Methodologically the theory attempted to operationalize its constructs by introducing attitudinal scales and behavioral indices as measures of personality and group traits that predisposed to prejudice. Within this perspective then, racism or xenophobia (and the two were again conflated) was simply one amongst many examples of unreasonable behavior governed by personal attitudes based on hostility and/or ignorance. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1318

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Resonates with the critique in Milgrom of reducing systemic trade problems to individual honest behavior — both show methodological individualism’s limits.

Related

• Prejudice theory flattened racism into individual attitudes, erasing structural dimensions (similarity 0.93)
• Prejudice is explained by societal characteristics, not only individual traits (similarity 0.84)
• Racism cannot be reduced to a scaled-up version of interpersonal prejudice (similarity 0.82)
• Discriminatory acts rest on shared mental representations even when unintentional (similarity 0.82)
• Adorno’s F-scale methodology reduced a complex theory of prejudice to individual psychopathology. (similarity 0.81)
• Structural racism operates beyond individual intentions and prejudice (similarity 0.81)
• Standard racism measures strip away prejudice’s rhetorical complexity (similarity 0.81)
• Prejudice is public harm to esteem, not merely private attitude (similarity 0.81)
• No single theory can fully explain racism and ethnocentrism. (similarity 0.80)
• Prejudice targets abstract racial categories more than concrete individuals in direct contact (similarity 0.80)
• Understanding prejudice requires locating attitudes in collective symbolic contexts (similarity 0.80)
• Prejudice theory’s normative rush made structural racial overdetermination unthinkable (similarity 0.79)
• Racial attitudes form several distinct dimensions rather than one unitary prejudice (similarity 0.79)
• Prejudice research cannot be reduced to individual psychology (similarity 0.79)
• Prejudice research still lacks validated measures of emotion and of ingroup-pressure discrimination (similarity 0.79)