Reducing prejudice requires qualitative social change, not individual fixes alone

Evidence

It follows from a cultural, systemic approach to the study of stereotyping that substantive change in the contents of intergroup attitudes – if it is to come at all – requires qualitative social change. Prejudice may be, among other things, a problem of the individual, but it is also a problem that is “stitched into the fabric of social living” (Allport, 1954/1979, p. 506). Any effective attempt to ameliorate prejudice must take into account its unmistakably societal origins and lead ultimately to an unraveling of the familiar justifications, both petty and grand, that provide cover for any cultural system that relies, either directly or indirectly, on inequality and exploitation. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1418

It follows from a cultural, systemic approach to the study of stereotyping that substantive change in the contents of intergroup attitudes – if it is to come at all – requires qualitative social change. Prejudice may be, among other things, a problem of the individual, but it is also a problem that is “stitched into the fabric of social living” (Allport, 1954/1979, p. 506). Any effective attempt to ameliorate prejudice must take into account its unmistakably societal origins and lead ultimately to an unraveling of the familiar justifications, both petty and grand, that provide cover for any cultural system that relies, either directly or indirectly, on inequality and exploitation. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1418

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the systemic/structural view of racism in the reader’s other material on institutions; parallels the argument that inequality is built into social fabric rather than individual minds. — connects to: Few prejudice reduction experiments show strong evidence of widespread success. — Rachel Hartman et al., Interventions to Reduce Partisan…, 71; Emotion reduction that enables reconciliation must follow actual structural change, not precede it. — Johanna Ray Vollhardt and Michelle Sinayobye Twali, Emotion-Based Reconciliation Requires…, 32
• DEEPTHINKING: A dense claim that individual-level prejudice treatments are futile absent structural change — a paradigm-positioning statement worth sitting with.
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1418; John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1418