Ethnic Intolerance Research Articles

Presenting Intolerance to Teach Tolerance

The role of formal education in the reduction of prejudice of, and intolerance toward, members of a different race, ethnicity or national origin, religion, gender, social status and sexual orientation has long been recognized by social and political psychologists. Higher education, i.e., college education, for example exposes students to diversity of political and religious beliefs and people of different national origin, race or ethnicity, which they often have not encountered in their life previously. The college campus then is an important training ground for one critical component of democratic citizenship – civic enlightenment. Tolerance – the willingness to extend civil liberties and equal opportunities to those you dislike because of their ideology, religion, ethnicity, etc. is at the very core of enlightenment. Looking at a diverse set of undergraduate students across majors enrolled in an introductory course to American Government, our research attempts to make a contribution to the study of civic education and tolerance. First, early in the semester, we assessed students‟ general understanding of tolerance and equality. Students then viewed an hour long documentary on the history of racial, ethnic and religious intolerance in the United States produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). In an assignment following the documentary students were asked to describe their emotional and cognitive reactions to the film; we also asked them about their previous knowledge of the described incidents of intolerance. Throughout the remainder of the semester students were asked to discuss in writing and in groups a variety of controversial political and social issues. During the last day of class we finally administered a questionnaire asking students to assess the impact of this introductory class on their tolerance toward people of different religion, race, etc. Our findings show that students – regardless of their race - have very little historic knowledge of intolerance or prejudice in the U.S., largely confined to the case of African Americans (but not Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Jews, etc.). A majority of students experiences strong negative emotional reactions to the video. Some white students report feelings of shame and guilt (about being white) after being confronted with the breadth of intolerance historically. We further find that while completion of the course did very little in changing students‟ self-reported political beliefs or values, a majority believes that they have become more tolerant, interestingly particularly regarding religious diversity. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the larger implications of our study.

Patterns of Ethnic Intolerance in Europe

This paper examines the patterns of ethnic intolerance in European societies based on data from the 1999/2000 wave of the European Values Survey. We analyze the differences in intolerance targeted toward Muslims, Jews, immigrants, Gypsies, and persons of different race, using modernisation theory and “competition for scarce resource” theories as our point of departure. Furthermore, we focus on the differences in the levels of intolerance in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Turkey. The present paper builds on previous empirical research, especially findings of recent multilevel analyses. Our larger and more extensive data material enables us to introduce two important improvements in this line of research. Theoretically, we are able to test if there are differences in the patterns of intolerance targeted toward specific minority groups. Methodologically, the number of countries in our data material is much larger, allowing us to apply multilevel models in a more statistically appropriate setting. Our results show that Gypsies stand out as an ethnic group particularly exposed to intolerance. The level of intolerance is lowest in Western Europe and highest in Turkey. In addition, the level of intolerance against Jews is particularly high in Turkey.

Low levels of ethnic intolerance do not create large ghettos a discussion about an interpretation of Schelling's model

Résumé Dans les années 1970, Thomas C. Schelling a proposé un modèle pour expliquer le lien entre ségrégation spatiale et préférences individuelles concernant cette ségrégation. Au moyen de simulations, il cherche à montrer qu’un haut niveau de ségrégation globale peut être le résultat collectif de décisions individuelles qui sont loin de viser une telle ségrégation. Cet article montre cependant que les contraintes structurelles du modèle expliquent intégralement les niveaux de ségrégation atteints. Une faible exigence individuelle pour s’entourer de voisins identiques conduit à une ségrégation collective faible et une exigence forte conduit à une ségrégation forte. Les niveaux de ségrégation correspondant à un seuil donné de satisfaction individuelle n’ont rien de surprenant en regard du hasard et de ce que chaque individu souhaite réellement. Le modèle de Schelling ne permet pas de conclure que, de manière générale, de larges ghettos naissent d’innocentes décisions.

RACIAL–ETHNIC INTOLERANCE AND SUPPORT FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: A CROSS‐NATIONAL COMPARISON*

This article tests cross‐nationally the minority group threat thesis that public sentiments toward repressive crime‐control policies reflect conflicted racial and ethnic relations. Using multiple data sets representing France, Belgium, the Netherlands, East and West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Denmark, Great Britain, Greece, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Canada, Ireland, and Portugal, we examine whether racial and ethnic intolerance—animus, resentments, or negative sentiments toward minorities—predicts greater support for the death penalty. Our results reveal that the respondents were significantly more likely to express support for capital punishment if they were racially or ethnically intolerant while controlling for other covariates of public opinion. These findings indicate that the link between support for capital punishment and racial and ethnic animus may occur universally in countries with conflicted racial and ethnic relations.

Nationalism in modern Kazakhstan's language policy

38 Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XXXIII, No. 4, Summer 2010 Nationalism in modern Kazakhstan’s language policy Gulnara Dadabaeva* Aigul Adibaeva* (I) In the modern world language policy engulfs relations between the state and society. The growth of interest among social scientists in these issues after the demise of the Soviet Union multiplied. The emerging of postSoviet republics enhanced the application of different theoretical approaches to this phenomenon. These approaches, appeal to Gellner’s idea of the homogenization of culture along with the state’s political borders,1 or construction of a nation-state under the guidance of the political elite, trying to reach civic unification of its ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse population2 (C. Geerz, 1973). Some scholars have connected the sensitivity of these problems to the possibility of the representatives of different groups to get and, control over the economic and political spheres of influence3 (Horowitz D., 1985). Major scholarship on Kazakhstan language policy could be roughly divided into two mainstreams. The first one is mainly focused on the state’s ability to conduct language policy in order to decrease inter- and intraethnic conflicts. For the purpose of accelerated nation building, Kazakhstan’s ruling elite, as Dave argues, was able to establish political control over other ethnic groups, mainly Slavs, who are identified with the imperial past. The government pressure on the process of legislation provided more opportunities to strengthen access to administration, education and important economic sectors of the newly emerging state for titular nation, yet securing better opportunities for itself. Relatively easy *Gulnara Dadabaeva and Aigul Adibaeva, Kimep, Senior Lecturers, Almaty, Kazakhstan 1 Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell. 2 Geerz, Clifford.1973.The Interpretation of Cultures: selected Essays, New York: Basic Books. 3 Horowitz, D. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press. 39 process of the Kazakh language application was primarily caused by the notion that a nation-state is represented by a state language defining certain territory, which is driven by “remedial of native population”, especially in such spheres as language, history, culture, etc.4 (Dave B., 2004, pp. 125126 ). These ideas are close to W. Fierman5 statement that sharp disputes over language issues are caused by different goals of the two main categories of the republic’s population who are identified as “civic-statists” versus “nation-statists”. Both groups succeeded in establishing their culture and language in a privileged position. Departing from A. Khazanov’s6 point that state provides less nationalism and thus opens more space for nationalist claims of Kazakh intelligentsia, one can say that the abovementioned scholars insist on political and social prerequisites for successful application of Kazakh as the only state language. Another group of scholars are mainly driven by the interest to language politics as a crucial factor in establishing tolerant ethnic relations; they stress those factors of ethnopolitics which diminish inter-ethnic conflicts, including language-political issues7 (Chaimun Lee). Modern Kazakhstan can thus successfully utilize ethnopolitics through lenient language requirements for ethnic non-Kazakhs that in turn leads to a decrease in ethnic intolerance. Ethnic cooperation among different groups is orchestrated by the state that elaborates strategies to create careful “‘divergent messages’, soft policy on language requirements and ethnic-language ties” (Chaimun Lee). The main problem arising from this situation is the 4 Dave, B. 2004. A Shrinking Reach of the State? Language Policy and Implementation in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, in “Transformation of Central Asia: State and Societies from Soviet Rule to Independence” ed. Pauline J. Luong, Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London, 2004, p. 125-26. 5 Fierman William. Language and Policy in Kazakhstan Formation in Policy Documents 1987-1997. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, vol. 31, #2, p. 177. 6 Khazanov A.M. The Ethnic Problems of Contemporary Kazakhstan. Central Asian Survey, 1995, 14 (2), p. 253. 7 Chaimun Lee. Languages and ethnic politics in Central Asia: The Case of Kazakhstan in Journal of International and Area Studies, Seoul, June 1004, vol. 11, Iss. 1; p.101. Here we could also mentioned scholars from Kazakhstan who’s research interests are concentrating on Russian population position in modern Kazakhstan. They also touched Kazakh and Russian languages status...

Ethnic Intolerance, Voting Preferences, and Political Change in Croatia

Ethnic Intolerance, Voting Preferences, and Political Change in Croatia

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Democracy and Nationalism

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Democracy and Nationalism

The “Antidemocratic Personality” Revisited: A Cross‐National Investigation of Working‐Class Authoritarianism

More than 60 years ago, psychologists identified a potential threat to democracy from within, namely the “antidemocratic personality” arising from the “authoritarian syndrome.” It was soon discovered that the problem of authoritarianism was especially acute among those who were low in education and income, and that it was associated with intolerance toward others. However, several important questions were left unresolved. We revisit fundamental theoretical and empirical questions concerning the existence and nature of “working‐class authoritarianism,” focusing especially on four psychological aspects of authoritarianism, namely, conventionalism, moral absolutism, obedience to authority, and cynicism. In a cross‐national investigation involving respondents from 19 democratic countries, we find that all four aspects of authoritarianism are indeed related to moral and ethnic intolerance. However, only obedience to authority and cynicism are especially prevalent among those who are low in socioeconomic status. Conventionalism and moral absolutism were significant predictors of economic conservatism, whereas obedience to authority and cynicism were not. We find no support for Lipset's (1960) claim that working‐class authoritarianism would be associated with economic liberalism. Instead, we find that authoritarianism is linked to right‐wing orientation in general and that intolerance mediates this relationship. Implications for electoral politics and political psychology are discussed.

Chimeras of Terror: Disciplining Roma Identity in Lithuania

The article explores the proliferation of discourses on (anti)terror and the production of discursive “peripheries” that provide a rationale for social exclusion, ethnic intolerance, and governmental disciplining after 9/11. Preconditions and functionality of the vocabulary of terror in the construction of the identity of the Roma ethnic minority in Lithuania are presented in the case study. The case study focuses on the conflict in late 2004 between state authorities and the Roma community settled in the Kirtimai district of the capital city.

Peacebuilding in Ethnically Divided Societies

Peacebuilding is commonly understood as a process of achieving durable peace by addressing the root causes of conflict. In the context of ethnic wars, ethnic hostilities, and ethnic intolerance can...

Ethnic intolerance and ethnic conflict in the dissolution of Yugoslavia

The causal link between ethnic intolerance and ethnic conflict is tested using four highly comparable data sets from Croatia that span the time before and after the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia: 1984–5, 1989–90, 1996 and 2003. Though most approaches to ethnic conflict posit a social-psychological dimension critical to violent encounters, our analysis provides an unprecedented empirical examination that dispels the commonly held view that ethnic hatred, hostility, and intolerance are the cause of ethnic conflict. After explaining the events and the shifting social, political and economic landscape that precipitated the war, we examine demographic, social structural and attitudinal changes between 1985 and 2003 that are associated with variation in ethnic intolerance, giving special attention to the connection between religiosity and intolerance. Prior to the war people were slow to translate public tensions into personal animosities. We find strong support for concluding that the events of the war itself and especially elite manipulation of public images of these events, are strongly implicated in rising intolerance during the war, and that the war's residual effect has been slow to dissipate.

Education and politics in Afghanistan: the importance of an education system in peacebuilding and reconstruction

Afghanistan has a long history of social unrest and ethnic conflict, and the manipulation of the education system by internal and external powers for political purposes has been one of the major contributors to these divisions. As Afghanistan attempts to build peace and maintain co‐existence after more than 20 years of violence, there continues to be limited attention given to one of the main contributors to the social divisions. More than four million children returned to school in the first two years of ‘peace’ in Afghanistan. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by the United Nations and other international donors on ensuring the physical provision of schools for children. However in 2005, three years into ‘the new era for Afghanistan’, teachers continue to teach ethnic hatred and intolerance. The textbooks continue to be highly politicised, promoting social divisions and violence, seemingly unnoticed by the International Community, whose expensive investments fuel rather than restrain this problem. A new curriculum for Afghanistan together with upgraded teacher capacities are the most pertinent factors to ensure that peace is established and maintained in the country. This will ensure that the new generation of Afghans learns a sense of social responsibility and national pride, incorporating ideas of unity in diversity and not an intolerance of perceived ‘difference’ based on militant ideologies.

An American "myth of Innocence" and Contemporary Pauline Studies

AbstractRichard Hughes discusses the "Myths America Lives By," including myths of national innocence and national destiny. Hughes' discussion is particularly relevant to the American context of Pauline studies after the Shoah, where "American" values of inclusiveness and "universalism" are opposed to ethnic intolerance. Ironically, in some versions of the so-called "new perspective on Paul," the latter is usually identified with the "Jewish exclusivism" that Paul opposed.Increasing criticisms have been raised against this construal of Paul's theology. Efforts to rehabilitate Paul by opposing him to Jewish ethnocentrism rely on caricature and stigmatize fundamental Jewish identity and observance. In contrast, an explicitly political reading, attending to aspects of counter-imperial dissent in Paul's letters, however uncongenial to the mythology of American innocence and destiny, may provide deeper insight into the contours of Paul's interaction with alternative Jewish discourses under Roman rule.

Association between Educational Attainment and Ethnic Distance in Young Adults

Time and again, studies have shown that higher educated individuals are less inclined to avoid social contact with ethnic minorities than are lower educated individuals. This has been interpreted as the liberalizing effect of education: the school is considered to be the most important socializing agent transmitting liberal values that reduce ethnic intolerance and ethnic prejudice. However, parents too are considered to be important socializing agents. We set out to compare the effects of educational attainment with various kinds of parental influence. We analysed data on 201 young adults and their parents from a Dutch panel study. The results show that the relative influence of parents is fairly small compared to the effect of education. Moreover, controlling for parental influences hardly reduces young adults' educational effect on ethnic distance: education is (still) the most important determinant for young adults' ethnic distance.

A Cross‐National Comparison of Nationalism in Austria, the Czech and Slovac Republics, Hungary, and Poland

The transition to democracy in Eastern Europe after the breakdown of communist regimes was challenged by ethnic and national tensions. Nationalist sentiments and traditional patterns of ethnic intolerance were almost immediately revitalized. The analysis presented here concerns nationalist orientation in several of these countries in the context of ideology and social origin, which form links among nationalist identification, ethnic intolerance, democratic and economic orientation, and social class position. In 1996, representative national surveys were carried out in Hungary, the Czech and Slovak republics, and Poland. The study was then extended to Austria, where, like in other Western democracies, nationalistic, xenophobic, and rightist‐radical attitudes have emerged. Analyses of the attitude structures (structural equation models) showed that different types of nationalism have developed. In post‐communist countries—with the exception of the Czech Republic—anticapitalist feelings are strongly correlated with nationalism and ethnic intolerance. Such attitudes are held by the lower classes, yet this form of antiliberalism is not directed against democracy. In Austria, a classical “underclass authoritarianism” exists but remains independent of economic ideology. This is typical of the “new right” in Europe: a “modernized” brand of fascism in which neoliberal ideology, instead of anticapitalist resentments, is combined with traditional value patterns.

Complexity of change in ethnic tolerance following use of a Complex Instruction unit on the Holocaust in Latvia

Implementation of the first Complex Instruction (CI) based unit developed especially for Latvia focused on the Holocaust. It has provided an opportunity to examine issues of ethnic tolerance among Latvian high school students and teachers. Two independent studies were conducted by the first author to measure the impact of the unit. The first study compared the level of ethnic intolerance among students before and after participation in the CI-based unit activities. Results showed reduced prejudice among this group, but also a decrease within the control group. Analysis of these results pointed to the influence of the history teacher. This teacher taught both groups of students. During interviews, teachers indicated that they had changed as a result of participation in CI seminars and through the use of the CI unit. The teachers stated that they felt an increase in self-esteem, empathy and ethnic tolerance. The aim of the second study was to measure attitude change among a larger group of teachers before and after participation in CI training seminars. Results showed an increase in civic responsibility attitudes. Further analysis indicates that the degree of change is influenced by the amount of exposure to and experience with the new teaching methods.

A Report from the “Rededication to Justice: Vincent Chin 20th Year Remembrance,” Detroit

Twenty years ago, the Vincent Chin case was a bookmark of a time of recession, and in Detroit of a campaign against Japanese imported cars. Solidarity House had a sign that read, 300,000 auto workers do not like your import. That atmosphere had a spillover effect into misguided anti-Asian violence and sentiment. Have things changed twenty years later? Reflecting about the present, the Rededication to Justice: Vincent Chin 20th Year Remembrance focused on the fact that the fight of racial justice continues today, again in a time of recession and a time of racial and ethnic intolerance.

Hledá školní mládež pozitivní hodnoty?

Every society faces a vital task of building positive values and attitudes within inter-human, including inter-ethnic, contacts. For the current Czech society the creation of a non-conflict atmosphere is a complex task. Before 1989 Czech society was more or less ethnically homogenous and now it is facing difficulties when coping with the current state in which a number of Czech cities are becoming a multicultural and multiethnic space. A look into future provides a hope. The present-day 13 to 14-year-old schoolchildren could consider the life in multicultural and multiethnic society as normal and natural in ten to fifteen years. Now the question is: do the present-day 13 to 14-year-old schoolchildren have the will to look for positive values also among other, foreign, different, distinctive people as a precondition of future coexistence without any problems? Now let us look for the answer in the replies of children from elementary schools from various regions of the Czech Republic in which the following question was asked (within a broader survey conducted for the needs of the Ministry of Education and Youth): "For what do you admire the Vietnamese?" The total number of respondents was 3,438, while almost one-third of them did not answer the question at all. The remaining two-thirds did answer the question, but a significant part replied with only one word: "nothing" or „don't know. ''The rest of the respondents or more than 54% of those who wrote some answer ranged in a wide spectrum from admiration to intolerance, from ethnic tolerance to ethnic intolerance. The following findings resulted from an analysis of the answers given or not given by the children to the question "For what do you admire the Vietnamese?": (1) Although the question was designed to prompt a search for positive and appreciating characteristics, a number of children preferred criticising answers, which sometimes included xenophobic background. (2) A dependence on the frequency of individual types of answers in relation to the sex of the respondents as well as education and social position of fathers only appeared with a significant intensity in a few types of answers. Apart for a few exceptions, as regards the size of individual towns there were no substantial differences. (3) ln the attitudes of 13 to 14-year-old schoolchildren there was a prevalence of those who tried to look for positive and obliging characteristics in the relationship with the Vietnamese. However, some respondents also voiced negative attitudes. The youth from the sample under observation makes part of that population in which established life attitudes and stereotypes to other, different, foreign and distinctive people are only in the making. These schoolchildren are therefore still open to both positive and negative influences. Hence the relative ease with which to push them to this or that position. This is particularly true of that part which did not voice any opinion about the asked question in the sample under consideration. It is very important whether this so far indifferent part of the youth will in the future form such a positive relationship to other (foreign, different, distinctive) people that along with current tolerant and obliging schoolchildren it will make a majority share in the population of adult people in a modern, open, multicultural and multiethnic society of the Czech Republic within the framework of a future, unified Europe of the third millennium. To conclude, let it be noted that the present-day schoolchildren are searching and have found in many real cases positive values in relation to other (foreign, different, distinctive) people.

Conflict, Religious Identity, and Ethnic Intolerance in Croatia

The purpose of this article is to answer the question, Does religiosity cause ethnic intolerance? We define ethnic intolerance as the unwillingness to extend economic, political, and social rights to other ethnic groups. According to the resurgence religious revivals associated with frequent church attendance and intense religious beliefs arepartly responsiblefor intolerant attitudes toward minorities. The on the other hand, suggests that ethnic intolerance and religiosity arejointly determined by in-group/out-group polarization resultingfrom competition and conflictfor scarce resources. Under the salience hypothesis, religiosity is hypothesized to be merely a carier of group identity and is not expected to affect intolerance. We evaluate these hypotheses with survey data from Croatia collected in 1996. Results support the salience hypothesis: the effect of religiosity on ethnic intolerance is largely spurious, caused by the joint determination of religiosity and ethnic intolerance by in-group/out-group polarization. These findings call into question popular views that posit resurgent religiosity as a significant motivator of intolerance in situations of ethnic conflict.

Conflict, Religious Identity, and Ethnic Intolerance in Croatia

Conflict, Religious Identity, and Ethnic Intolerance in Croatia