Vincent Parillo's Cause Of Prejudice

Prejudice has always appeared to involve the human fellowship. Being a controversial event, many people have struggled to explain and demonstrate the reason behind this form of human behavior. These attempted explanations give people an understanding of the effects surrounding racial discrimination. Through the essay “Cause of Prejudice”, Vincent Parrillo attempts to explain the reasons behind racism and discrimination in the United States. Lastly, some of the experiences that C.P. Ellis experiences as he transforms into a peaceful man shows some of the concepts described by Parillo in his essay. Parillo has four theories that Elli’s experiences. These theories include competition, socialization, social norms and frustration for reasons for

In the case of Ellis, we can tell that the he lives in a racist town where some of the natural processes of the Ku Klux Clan are supported by some authorities (C.P. Ellis 225). In his article, Parillo established that relationships normally exist between racism and people’s tendency to cling to the expectations of society. Parillo also maintains that prejudice is capable of increasing or decreasing depending on the social norms of the given town or neighborhood (Causes of Prejudice 221-222). From the Ellis story, we are able to learn Ellis gains a new opinion once he goes into the entire neighborhood that was majority occupied with back people. He sees that all black people undergo similar challenges to those of his social class (C. P, Ellis

According to this theory, we end up adopting certain behavior from those who besiege us and as a result adopt their ways of behaviors and patterns without any judgment whether they are right or wrong (Causes of Prejudice 220). In the same, the story of Ellis relates to this theory by Parillo. Ellis’ father acted as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. We can in this case, assume that Ellis was subconsciously persuaded by the views of his father as to how he viewed people from other races. In his own words, Ellis states, “ The natural person for me to hate would be black people, because my father before me was a member of the Klan.” (C. P. Ellis