Some Racial Attitudes of Negro College and Grade School Students

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to reveal some of the specific attitudes possessed by Negro children, of the pre-adolescent, adolescent, and postadolescent periods of development, which are distinctly unfavorable to their own racial group. The origins of the attitudes can be traced to many sources; personal experiences in family discussions, in play groups, in reading newspapers and other printed matter, in contacts with other racial groups, and in the schools. These attitudes often become so fixed as to form definite stereotypes which in turn become an unconscious part of these individuals' thoughts and actions towards other members of their group. The removal of these attitudes is an as-yetunaccomplished task of Negro education. This task must have more definite results in order that one of the most important phases of Negro life, independence through a sound and strong business structure, may keep pace with the other phases of Negro life. One of the pioneers in measuring racial attitudes of students was Emory S. Bogardus.' Some others doing work along the same line are Reinhardt,2 Young,3 Rice,4 Thurstone,5 and Las-