Page 361 - The Social Animal

Prejudice 343

integration should be delayed until people could be reeducated to be-
come less prejudiced. My analysis suggests that the best way to pro-
duce eventual interracial harmony would be to start with behavioral
change. Moreover, and most important, the sooner the individuals
realize integration is inevitable, the sooner their prejudiced attitudes
will begin to change. On the other hand, this process can be (and has
been) sabotaged by public officials who foster the belief that integra-
tion can be circumvented or delayed. This serves to create the illu-
sion that the event is not inevitable. In such circumstances, there will
be no attitude change; the result will be an increase in turmoil and
disharmony. Let’s go back to our previous example: If the father of
the fair-haired daughter is encouraged to believe (by the statements
and tactics of a governor, a mayor, a school-board chairman, or a local
sheriff) that there’s a way out of integration, he will feel no need to
reexamine his negative beliefs about blacks. The result is apt to be
steadfast opposition to integration.
Consistent with this reasoning is the fact that, as desegregation
has spread, favorable attitudes toward desegregation have increased.
In 1942, only 30 percent of the whites in this country favored deseg-
regated schools; by 1956, the figure rose to 49 percent; in 1970, to 75
percent. Finally, in 1980, as it became increasingly clear that school
desegregation was inevitable, the figure approached 90 percent. 86
The change in the South (taken by itself ) is even more dramatic. In
1942, only 2 percent of the whites in the South favored integrated
schools; in 1956, while most southerners still believed the ruling
could be circumvented, only 14 percent favored desegregation; but by
1970, as desegregation continued, just under 50 percent favored de-
segregation—and the figures continued to climb in the 1980s. Of
course, such statistical data do not constitute absolute proof that the
reason people are changing their attitudes toward school desegrega-
tion is that they are coming to terms with what is inevitable—but the
data are highly suggestive.
In a careful analysis of the process and effects of school desegre-
gation, Thomas Pettigrew raised the question of why, in the early
years of desegregation, violence occurred in some communities, such
as Little Rock, Arkansas, and not in others, such as Norfolk, Vir-
ginia, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His conclusion, which
lends further support to my reasoning, was that “violence has gener-
ally resulted in localities where at least some of the authorities give