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<\/a><\/p>\nPsychologist Gordon Allport isn\u2019t much known these days\u2014he died in 1967\u2014but when it comes to the study of good \u2018ol human tribalism, we parrot his work constantly. <\/p>\n
Allport set out to examine how our attitudes and prejudices are constantly evolving. <\/p>\n
It would at first appear that getting to know people of other races and cultures is a no-brainer in terms of reducing prejudices. But it turns out this is not as simple as it seems. <\/p>\n
For example, in the Southern United States, whites and blacks are in much closer proximity than in the northern US, yet racial prejudice is much more pronounced in the South. <\/p>\n
Another example: in terms of social class, everyone experiences people from other social classes every day, but the prejudices do not go away. <\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the odd fact that males and females have been living together for . . . uh . . . a very long time . . . but . . . Well.<\/p>\n
Clearly, proximity alone doesn\u2019t do the trick. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not about getting to know you. It\u2019s about how I go about getting to know you . . .<\/p>\n
Allport\u2019s Prejudice Scale traces how prejudice operates, from the low end of making jokes and assumptions about others, to the high end\u2014or perhaps the lowest\u2014of actual extermination of the other. <\/p>\n
Allport contended that we have to go into an interaction with those unlike ourselves with an open mind<\/p>\n
The Unitarian Universalist Association has an anti-prejudice program for congregations called \u201cBeyond Categorical Thinking.\u201d The term \u201ccategorical thinking\u201d comes directly from the work of Allport, who in 1954 said, \u201cThe human mind must think with the aid of categories.\u201d Allport went on to say, \u201cOnce formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgment. We cannot possibly avoid this process. Orderly living depends upon it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So. How do we go beyond categorical thinking? How do we get outside of our tribal thinking? Allport\u2019s Contact Hypothesis says that not only must we have contact with those not in our tribe but that the contact must be on equal terms and with common goals. <\/p>\n
Equal terms. Common goals. <\/p>\n
This explains why race relations in the South don\u2019t improve, despite proximity. It explains why maids and their employers don\u2019t see each other. Equal terms and common goals. It explains why females and males can have children together without ever really seeing each other. <\/p>\n
Why are only eight percent of US congregations integrated, despite years and years of trying?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been going about it all wrong. Congregations wait, in smug certitude that their preexisting terms and goals are, of course and obviously, the true and correct ones.<\/p>\n
Equal terms. Common goals. These two things require respect across the divides, be they racial, economic, or religious. <\/p>\n
Equal terms. Common goals. Were we to achieve these, those aliens might write in their star log a hundred thousand years hence, \u201cMistaken about homo sapiens. Tribalism vanished. Humanity flourishes.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STAR LOG Had space aliens stopped by planet Earth a hundred thousand years ago, as homo sapiens first began to migrate north out of Africa, I suspect they would have noted in their star log that these evolving creatures had a very serious challenge before them: tribalism. Yes, the aliens would have noted, homo sapiens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1440,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,619,14,15,180,16,255,290,796,776,10,187,115,441,240],"tags":[636],"class_list":["post-3659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class","category-conflict","category-diversity","category-faith-development","category-healing","category-hospitality","category-peace-2","category-politics-2","category-power-2","category-racism-2","category-religion","category-social-justice","category-unitarian","category-universalist-2","category-values-2","tag-humanism"],"yoast_head":"\n
Hate and Homo Sapiens<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"STAR LOG Had space aliens stopped by planet Earth a hundred thousand years ago, as homo sapiens first began to migrate north out of Africa, I suspect they\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/2015\/05\/hate-and-homo-sapiens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hate and Homo Sapiens\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"STAR LOG Had space aliens stopped by planet Earth a hundred thousand years ago, as homo sapiens first began to migrate north out of Africa, I suspect they\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/2015\/05\/hate-and-homo-sapiens\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UU Collective\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-07T12:13:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-07T18:55:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/files\/2015\/05\/flying-saucer-150x150.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Breeden\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Breeden\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/2015\/05\/hate-and-homo-sapiens\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/2015\/05\/hate-and-homo-sapiens\/\",\"name\":\"Hate and Homo Sapiens\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-07T12:13:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-07T18:55:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/#\/schema\/person\/b300adc411d9be68fce36f08dde96008\"},\"description\":\"STAR LOG Had space aliens stopped by planet Earth a hundred thousand years ago, as homo sapiens first began to migrate north out of Africa, I suspect they\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/2015\/05\/hate-and-homo-sapiens\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/2015\/05\/hate-and-homo-sapiens\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/2015\/05\/hate-and-homo-sapiens\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Hate and Homo Sapiens\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/\",\"name\":\"UU Collective\",\"description\":\"Quest for meaning\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/#\/schema\/person\/b300adc411d9be68fce36f08dde96008\",\"name\":\"David Breeden\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/uucollective\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f3c7770bbe5a6dbfa229ef59c1ff2cab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f3c7770bbe5a6dbfa229ef59c1ff2cab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Breeden\"},\"description\":\"The Rev. 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<\/a><\/p>\n