No More Learning

Another investigation, carried through parallel to our research and partly by the same staff members of the Institute of Social Research, i. e. , the study on anti-Semitism within labor (57B), concentrated on the question of anti- Semitism, but at the same time was concerned with sociopsychological issues akin to those presented in the present volume. While the bulk of the material to be discussed in this chapter is taken from the section on prejudice of the Berkeley interviews, an attempt was made to utilize, at least in a supplemen- tary form, some of the ideas of the Labor Study as hypotheses for further investigation. This was done as a part of the work carried out in Los Angeles. In collaboration with J. F. Brown and F. Pollock we drew up an additional section of the interview schedule devoted to specific questions about Jews. These questions were derived for the most part from the material gathered through the "screened interviews" of the Labor Study. The aim of this new section of the interview schedule was to see if it was possible to estab- lish certain differential patterns within the general structure of prejudice.
The list of questions follows. Not all of these questions were put to every subject, nor was the exact wording of the questions always the same, but most of the ground marked off by the questions was covered in each case.
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List of Questions Pertaining to Jews
Do you think there is a Jewish problem? If yes, in what sense? Do you care about it?
Have you had any experience with Jews? What kind? Do you remember names of persons involved and other specific data?
If not, on what is your opinion based?
Did you have any contrary experiences (or hear about such experiences)
with Jewish individuals?
If you had-would it change your opinion? If not, why not?
Can you tell a Jew from other people? How?
What do you know about the Jewish religion?
Are there Christians that are as bad as Jews? Is their percentage as high or
higher than the percentage of bad Jews?
How do Jews behave at work? What about the alleged Jewish industrious-
ness?
Is it true that the Jews have an undue influence in movies, radio, literature,
and universities?
If yes-what is panicularly bad about it? What should be done about it?
Is it true that the Jews have an undue influence in business, politics, labor,
etc. ?
If yes-what kind of an influence? Should something be done to curb it? What did the Nazis do to the German Jews? What do you think about it?
Is there such a problem here? What would you do to solve it?
What do you blame them most for? Are they: aggressive, bad-mannered; controlling the banks; black marketeers; cheating; Christ killers; clan- nish; Communists; corrupting; dirty; draft dodgers; exploiters; hiding their identity; too intellectual; Internationalists; overcrowding many jobs; lazy; controlling movies; money-minded; noisy; overassimilative; overbearing; oversexed; looking for privileges; quarrelsome; running the country; too smart; spoiling nice neighborhoods; owning too many stores; undisciplined; unethical against Gentiles; upstarts; shunning hard
manual labor; forming a world conspiracy?
Do you favor social discrimination or special legislation?
Shall a Jew be treated as an individual or as a member of a group? How do your suggestions go along with constitutional rights? Do you object to personal contacts with individual Jews?
Do you consider Jews more as a nuisance or more as a menace? Could you imagine yourself marrying a Jew?
Do you like to discuss the Jewish issue?
What would you do if you were a Jew?
Can a Jew ever become a real American?
The additional interview material taught us more about prevailing overt patterns of anti-Semitism than about its inner dynamics. It is probably fair to say that the detailed questions proved most helpful in understanding the phenomena of psychological conflict in prejudice-the problems character- ized in Chapter V as "pseudo-democratism. " Another significant observa- tion has to do with the reactions of our interviewees to the list of "bad Jewish traits" presented to them. Most answers to this list read "all-inclusive,"
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that is to say, very little differentiation takes place. The prejudiced subjects tend to subscribe to any reproach against the Jews, provided they do not have to produce these objections themselves but rather find them pre- established, as if they were commonly accepted. This observation could be interpreted in different ways. Either it may be indicative of the "inner con- sistency" of anti-Semitic ideology, or it may testify to the mental rigidity of our high scorers, and this apart from the fact that the method of multiple choice may itself make for automatic reactions. Although our questionnaire studies gave evidence of marked consistency within anti-Semitic ideology, it would hardly be enough to account for the all-inclusiveness of the present responses. It seems that one must think in terms of automatization, though it is impossible to say conclusively whether this is due to the "high" mentality or to the shortcomings of our procedure. In all probability, the presentation of extreme anti-Semitic statements. as if they were no longer disreputable but rather something which can be sensibly discussed, works as a kind of antidote for the superego and may stimulate imitation even in cases where the individual's "own" reactions would be less violent. This consideration may throw some light upon the phenomenon of the whole German people tolerating the most extreme anti-Semitic measures, although it is highly to be doubted that the individuals themselves were more anti-Semitic than our high-scoring subjects. A pragmatic inference to be drawn from this hypoth- esis would be that, in so far as possible, pseudorational discussions of anti- Semitism should be avoided. One might refute factual anti-Semitic state- ments or explain the dynamics responsible for anti-Semitism, but he should not enter the sphere of the "Jewish problem. " As things stand now, the acknowledgment of a "Jewish problem," after the European genocide, sug- gests, however subtly, that there might have been some justification for what the Nazis did.
The whole material on ideology has been taken from 63 Los Angeles in- terviews in addition to the pertinent sections of those gathered in Berkeley
(see Chapter IX).
It should be stressed that once again the subjective aspect is in the fore-
ground. The selection of our sample excluded an investigation into the role played by the "object"-that is to say, the Jews-in the formation of preju- dice. We do not deny that the object plays a role, but we devote our atten- tion to the forms of reaction directed towards the Jew, not to the basis of these reactions within the "object. " This is due to a hypothesis with which we started and which has been given strong support in Chapter III, namely, that anti-Semitic prejudice has little to do with the qualities of those against whom it is directed. Our interest is centered in the high-scoring subjects.
In organizing the present chapter, we start with the general assumption that the-largely unconscious-hostility resulting from frustration and re- pression and socially diverted from its true object, needs a substitute object
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through which it may obtain a realistic aspect and thus dodge, as it were, more radical manifestations of a blocking of the subject's relationship to reality, e. g. , psychosis. This "object" of unconscious destructiveness, far from being a superficial "scapegoat," must have certain characteristics in order to fulfill its role. It must be tangible enough; and yet not too tangible, lest it be exploded by its own realism. It must have a sufficient historical back- ing and appear as an indisputable element of tradition. It must be defined in rigid and well-known stereotypes. Finally, the object must possess features, or at least be capable of being perceived and interpreted in terms of features, which harmonize with the destructive tendencies of the prejudiced subject. Some of these features, such as "clannishness" aid rationalization; others, such as the expression of weakness or masochism, provide psychologically ade- quate stimuli for destructiveness. There can be hardly any doubt that all these requirements are fulfilled by the phenomenon of the Jew. This is not to say that Jews must draw hatred upon themselves, or that there is an abso- lute historical necessity which makes them, rather than others, the ideal target of social aggressiveness. Suffice it to say that they can perform this function in the psychological households of many people. The problem of the "uniqueness" of the Jewish phenomenon and hence of anti-Semitism could be approached only by recourse to a theory which is beyond the scope
of this study. Such a theory would neither enumerate a diversity of "factors" nor single out a specific one as "the" cause but rather develop a unified frame- work within which all the "elements" are linked together consistently. This would amount to nothing less than a theory of modern society as a whole.
We shall first give some evidence of the "functional" character of anti- Semitism, that is to say, its relative independence of the object. Then we shall point out the problem of cui bono: anti-Semitism as a device for effort- less "orientation" in a cold, alienated, and largely ununderstandable world. As a parallel to our analysis of political and economic ideologies, it will be shown that this "orientation" is . achieved by stereotypy. The gap between this stereotypy on the one hand and real experience and the still-accepted standards of democracy on the other, leads to a conflict situation, something which is clearly set forth in a number of our interviews. We then take up what appears to be the resolution of this conflict: the underlying anti- Semitism of our cultural climate, keyed to the prejudiced person's own un-
conscious or preconscious wishes, proves in the more extreme cases to be stronger than either conscience or official democratic values. This leads up to the evidence of the destructive character of anti-Semitic reactions. As remnants of the conflict, there remain traces of sympathy for, or rather "appreciation" of, certain Jewish traits which, however, when viewed more closely, also show negative implications.
Some more specific observations about the structure of anti-Jewish prej- udice will be added. Their focal point is the differentiation of anti-Semitism
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according to the subject's owri social identifications. This survey of anti- Semitic features and dynamics will then be supplemented by a few remarks on the attitudes of low-scoring subjects. Finally, we shall offer some evidence of the broader social significance of anti-Semitism: its intrinsic denial of the principles of American democracy.
B. THE "FUNCTIONAL" CHARACTER OF ANTI-SEMITISM
The psychological dynamisms that "call for" the anti-Semitic outlet-most essentially, we believe, the ambivalence of authoritarian and rebellious trends -have been analyzed in detail in other sections of this book. Here we limit ourselves to some extreme but concrete evidence of the fact that anti- Semitism is not so much dependent upon the nature of the object as upon the subject's own psychological wants and needs.
There are a number of cases in which the "functional" character of prej- udice is obvious. Here we find subjects who are prejudiced per se, but with whom it is relatively accidental against what group their prejudice is directed. We content ourselves with two examples. 5051 is a generally high-scoring man, one of a few Boy Scout leaders. He has strong, though unconscious, fascist leanings. Although anti-Semitic, he tries to mitigate his bias by certain semirational qualifications. Here, the following statement occurs:
"Sometimes we hear that the average Jew is smarter in business than the average white man. I do not believe this. I would hate to believe it. What the Jews should learn is to educate their bad individuals to be more cooperative and agreeable. Actually there is more underhandedness amongst Armenians than there is amongst Jews, but the Armenians aren't nearly as conspicuous and noisy. Mind you, I have known some Jews whom I consider my equal in every way and I like very much. "
This is somewhat reminiscent of Poe's famous story about the double murder in the Rue Morgue where the savage cries of an orangutan are mistaken by bystanders as words of all kinds of different foreign languages, to wit, languages particularly strange to each of the listeners who happen to be foreigners themselves. The primary hostile reaction is directed against for- eigners per se, who are perceived as "uncanny. " This infantile fear of the strange is only subsequently "filled up" with the imagery of a specific group, stereotyped and handy for this purpose. The Jews are favorite stand-ins for the child's "bad man. " The transference of unconscious fear to the particular object, however, the latter being of a secondary nature only, always main- tains an aspect of accidentalness. Thus, as soon as other factors interfere, the aggression may be deflected, at least in part, from the Jews and to another group, preferably one of still greater social distance. Pseudodemocratic ideol- ogy and the professed desire to promote militantly what he conceives to be American ideals are marked in our Boy Scout leader, 5051, and he considers himself not conservative but "predominantly liberal"; hence he tempers his anti-Semitism and anti-Negroism by referring to a third group. He summons
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the Armenians in order to prove that he is not "prejudiced," but at the same time his formulation is such that the usual anti-Semitic stereotypes can easily be maintained. Even his exoneration of the Jews with regard to their sup- posed "smartness" is actually a device for the glorification of the ingroup: he hates to think that "we are less smart than they. " While anti-Semitism is functional with regard to the object choice on a more superficial level, its deeper determinants still seem to be much more rigid.
An extreme case of what might be called "mobile" prejudice is Mz225a, of the Maritime School group. Though his questionnaire scores are only medium, the interview shows strong traces of a "manipulative" anti-Semite. The beginning of the minorities section of his interview is as follows:
(What do you think of the race-minority problem? ) "I definitely think there is a problem. I'd probably be prejudiced there. Like the Negro situation. They could act more human. . . . It would be less of a problem. "
His aggression is absorbed by the Negroes, in the "idiosyncratic" manner that can otherwise be observed among extreme anti-Semites, all of whose aggression appears to be directed against Jews.
"I wouldn't sail on a ship if I had to sail with a Negro. To me, they have an offen- sive smell. Course, the Chinese say we smell like sheep. "
It may be mentioned that a subject of the Labor Study, a Negro woman, complained about the smell of the Jews. The present subject concentrates on the Negroes, exonerating the Jews, though in an equivocal way:
(What about the Jewish problem? ) "I don't believe there is much of a problem there. They're too smart to have a problem. Well, they are good business men. (Toomuchinfluence? ) Ibelievetheyhavealot ofinfluence. (Inwhatareas? ) Well, motion picture industry. (Do they abuse it? ) Well, the thing you hear an awful lot about is help the Jews, help the Jews. But you never hear anything about helping other races or nationalities. (Do they abuse their influence in the movies? ) If they do, they do it in such a way that it is not offensive. "
Here again, anti-Semitic sterotypy is maintained descriptively whereas the shift of actual hatred to the Negroes-which cannot be accounted for by the course of the interview-affects the superimposed value judgments. The twist with regard to the term "problem" should be noted. By denying the existence of a "Jewish problem," he consciously takes sides with the unbiased. By interpreting the word, however, as meaning "having difficulties," and empha- sizing that the Jews are "too smart to have a problem," he expresses unwit- tingly his own rejection. In accordance with his "smartness" theory, his pro- Jewish statements have a rationalistic ring clearly indicative of the subject's ambivalence: all race hatred is "envy" but he leaves little doubt that in his mind there is some reason for this envy, e. g. , his acceptance of the myth that the Jews controlled German industry.
This interview points to a way in which our picture of ethnocentrism may
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be differentiated. Although the correlation between anti-Semitism and anti- Negroism is undoubtedly high, a fact which stands out in our interviews as well as in our questionnaire studies (cf. Chapter IV), this is not to say that prejudice is a single compact mass. Readiness to accept statements hostile to minority groups may well be conceived as a more or less unitary trait, but when, in the interview situation, subjects are allowed to express themselves spontaneously it is not uncommon for one minority more than the others to appear, for the moment at least, as an object of special hatred. ? This phenom- enon may be elucidated by reference to persecution mania which, as has been pointed out frequently, has many structural features in common with anti- Semitism. While the paranoid is beset by an over-all hatred, he nevertheless tends to "pick" his enemy, to molest certain individuals who draw his atten- tion upon themselves: he falls, as it were, negatively in love. Something similar may hold good for the potentially fascist character. As soon as he has achieved a specific and concrete countercathexis, which is indispensable to his fabrication of a social pseudoreality, he may "canalize" his otherwise free-floating aggressiveness and then leave alone other potential objects of persecution. Naturally, these processes come to the fore in the dialectics of the interview rather than in the scales, which hardly allow the subject freely to "express" himself.
It may be added that subjects in our sample find numerous other substi- tutes for the Jew, such as the Mexicans and the Greeks. The latter, like the Armenians, are liberally endowed with traits otherwise associated with the imagery of the Jew.
One more aspect of the "functional" character of anti-Semitism should be mentioned. We encountered quite frequently members of other minority groups, with strong "conformist" tendencies, who were outspokenly anti- Semitic. Hardly any traces of solidarity among the different outgroups could be found. The pattern is rather one of "shifting the onus," of defamation of other groups in order to put one's own social status in a better light. An example is 5023, a "psychoneurotic with anxiety state," Mexican by birth:
Being an American of Mexican ancestry, he identifies with the white race and feels "we are superior people. " He particularly dislikes the Negroes and completely dislikes Jews. He feels that they are all alike and wants as little as possible to do with them. Full of contradiction as this subject is, it is not surprising to find that he would marry a Jewess if he really loved her. On the other hand he would control both Negroes and Jews and "keep them in their place. "
so68 is regarded by the interviewer as representing a "pattern probably quite frequent in second-generation Americans who describe themselves as Italian-Americans. " His prejudice is of the politico-fascist brand, distinctly colored by paranoid fantasies:
He is of pure Italian extraction and naturalized here at the time of the first World
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War. He is very proud of this extraction and for a long time in the early days of Mussolini was active in Italian-American organizations. He still feels that the war against Italy was very unfortunate. Concerning the other minorities he is quite prej- udiced. The Mexicans he feels are enough like the Italians so that if they were edu- cated enough it would be all right. At the present time, however, he feels that they need much education. He believes that the California Japanese were more than correctly handled and that those about whom there is no question should be grad- ually allowed back. He described the Negro situation as a tough one. He believes there should be definite laws particularly with regard to racial intermarriage and that the color liile should also be drawn "regarding where people can live. " "Despite what they say, the Southern Negroes are really the happiest ones.
" "The trouble with Jews is that they are all Communists and for this reason dangerous. " His own rela- tions with them have only been fair. In his business relations he says they are "chiselers" and "stick together. " Concerning a solution to this problem, he says, "The Jews should actually educate their own. The way the Jews stick together shows that they actually have more prejudice against the Gentiles than the Gentiles have against them. " He illustrates this with a long story which I was not able to get in detail about some acquaintance of his who married into a Jewish family and was not allowed to eat off the same dishes with them.
We may mention, furthermore, 5052, an anti-Semitic man of Spanish- Negro descent, with strong homosexual tendencies. He is a nightclub enter- tainer, and the interviewer summarizes his impression in the statement that this man wants to say, "I am not a Negro, I am an entertainer. " Here the element of social identification in an outcast is clearly responsible for his prejudice.
Finally, reference should be made to a curiosity, the interview of a Turk, otherwise not evaluated because of his somewhat subnormal intelligence. He indulged in violent anti-Semitic diatribes until it came out near the end of the interview that he was Jewish himself. The whole complex of anti- Semitism among minority groups, and among Jews themselves, offers serious problems and deserves a study of its own. Even the casual observations pro- vided by our sample suffice to corroborate the suspicion that those who suffer from social pressure may frequently tend to transfer this pressure onto others rather than to join hands with their fellow victims.
C. THE IMAGINARY FOE
Our examples of the "functional" character of anti-Semitism, and of the relative ease by which prejudice can be switched from one object to another, point in one direction: the hypothesis that prejudice, according to its intrinsic content, is but superficially, if at all, related to the specific nature of its object. W e shall now give more direct support for this hypothesis, the rela- tion of which to clinical categories such as stereotypy, incapacity to have "experience," projectivity, and power fantasies is not far to seek. This sup- port is supplied by statements which are either plainly self-contradictory or incompatible with facts and of a manifestly imaginary character. Since the
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usual "self-contradictions" of the anti-Semite can, however, frequently be explained on the basis that they involve different layers of reality and different psychological urges which are still reconcilable in the over-all "Weltanschauung" of the anti-Semite, we concern ourselves here mainly with evidence of imaginary constructs. The fantasies with which we shall deal are so well known from everyday life that their significance for the structure of anti-Semitism can be taken for granted. They are merely high- lighted by our research. One might say that these fantasies occur whenever stereotypes "run wild," that is to say, make themselves completely independ- ent from interaction with reality. When these "emancipated" stereotypes are forcibly brought back into relation with reality, blatant distortions appear. The content of the examples of stereotyped fantasy which we col- lected has to do predominantly with ideas of excessive power attributed to the chosen foe. The disproportion between the relative social weakness of the object and its supposed sinister omnipotence is by itself evidence that the projective mechanism is at work.
W e shall first give some examples of omnipotence fantasies projected upon a whole outgroup abstractly, as it were, and then show how the application of such ideas to factual experience comes close to paranoid delusion.
5054, a middle-aged woman with fairly high scores on all the scales, who is greatly concerned with herself and characterized by a "domineering" manner, claims that she has always tried "to see the other side" and even to "fight prejudice on every side. " She derives her feelings of tolerance from the contrast with her husband whom she characterized as extremely anti- Jewish (he hates all Jews and makes no exceptions) whereas she is willing to make exceptions. Her actual attitude is described as follows:
She would not subscribe to a "racist theory," but does not think that the Jews will change much, but rather that they will tend to become "more aggressive. " She also believes that "they will eventually run the country, whether we like it or not. "
The usual stereotype of undue Jewish influence in politics and economy is inflated to the assertion of threatening over-all domination. It is easy to guess that the countermeasures which such subjects have in mind are no less totali- tarian than their persecution ideas, even if they do not dare to say so in so many words.
Similar is case 506za, chosen as a mixed case (she is high-middle onE, but low on F and PEC), but actually, as proved by the interview, markedly ethno- centric. In her statement, the vividness of the fantasies about the almighty Jew seems to be equalled by the intensity of her vindictiveness.
"My relations with the Jews have been anything but pleasant. " When asked to be . more specific it was impossible for her to name individual incidents. She de- scnbed them, however, as "pushing everybody about, aggressive, clannish, money-
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minded. . . . The Jews are practically taking over the country. They are getting into everything. It is not that they are smarter, but they work so hard to get control. They are all alike. " When asked if she did not feel that there were variations in the Jewish temperament as in any other, she said, "No, I don't think so. I think there is something that makes them all stick together and try to hold on to everything. I have Jewish friends and I have tried not to treat them antagonistically, but sooner or later they have also turned out to be aggressive and obnoxious. . . . I think the percentage of very bad Jews is very much greater than the percentage of bad Gentiles. . . . My husband feels exactly the same way on this whole problem. As a matter of fact, I don't go as far as he does. He didn't like many things about Hitler, but he did feel that Hitler did a good job on the Jews. He feels that we will come in this country to a place where we have to do something about it. "
Sometimes the projective aspect of the fantasies of Jewish domination comes into the open. Those whose half-conscious wishes culminate in the idea of the abolition of democracy and the rule of the strong, call those antidemocratic whose only hope lies in the maintenance of democratic rights. 5018 is a p-year-old ex-marine gunnery sergeant who scores high on all the scales. He is suspected by the interviewer of being "somewhat paranoid. " He knows "one cannot consider Jews a race, but they are all alike. They have too much power but I guess it's really our fault. " This is followed up by the statement:
He would handle the Jews by outlawing them from business domination. He thinks that all others who feel the same could get into business and compete with them and perhaps overcome them, but adds, "it would be better to ship them to Palestine and let them gyp one another. I have had some experiences with them and a few were good soldiers but not very many. " The respondent went on to imply that lax democratic methods cannot solve the problem because "they won't co- operate in a democracy. "
The implicitly antidemocratic feelings of this subject are evidenced by his speaking derogatorily about lax democratic methods: his blaming the Jews for lack of democratic cooperation is manifestly a rationalization.
One more aspect of unrealistic imagery of the Jew should at least be mentioned. It is the contention that the Jews "are everywhere. " Omnipres- ence sometimes displaces o~nipotence, perhaps because no actual "Jewish rule" can be pretended to exist, so that the image-ridden subject has to seek a different outlet for his power fantasy in ideas of dangerous, mysterious ubiquity. This is fused with another psychological element. To the highly prejudiced subject the idea of the total right of the ingroup, and of its tol- erating nothing which does not strictly "belong," is all-pervasive. This is projected upon the Jews. Whereas the high scorer apparently cannot stand any "intruder"-ultimately nothing that is not strictly like himself-he sees this totality of presence in those whom he hates and whom he feels justified in exterminating because one otherwise "could not get rid of them. " The
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following example shows the idea of Jewish omnipresence applied to per- sonal experience, thus revealing its proximity to delusion.
6070, a 4o-year-old woman, is high-middle on the E scale and particularly vehement about the Jews:
"I don't like Jews. The Jew is always crying. They are taking our country over from us. They are aggressive. They suffer from every lust. Last summer I met the famous musician X, and before I really knew him he wanted me to sign an affidavit to help bring his family into this country. Finally I had to flatly refuse and told him I want no more Jews here. Roosevelt started bringing the Jews into the government, and that is the chief cause of our difficulties today. The Jews arranged it so they were discriminated for in the draft. I favor a legislative discrimination against the Jews along American, not Hitler lines. Everybody knows that the Jews are back of the Communists. This X person almost drove me nuts. I had made the mistake of inviting him to be my guest at my beach club. He arrived with ten other Jews who were uninvited. They always cause trouble. If one gets in a place, he brings two more and those two bring two more. "
This quotation is remarkable for more reasons than that it exemplifies the "Jews are everywhere" complex. It is the expression of Jewish weakness- that they are "always crying"-which is perverted into ubiquity. The refugee, forced to leave his country, appears as he who wants to intrude and to expand over the whole earth, and it is hardly too far-fetched to assume that this imagery is at least partly derived from the fact of persecution itself. More- over, the quotation gives evidence of a certain ambivalence of the extreme anti-Semite which points in the direction of "negatively falling in love. " This woman had invited the celebrity to her club, doubtless attracted by his fame, but used the contact, once it had been established, merely in order to personalize her aggressiveness.
Another example of the merging of semipsychotic idiosyncrasies and wild anti-Jewish imagery is the 26-year-old woman, 5004. She scores high on the F scale and high-middle on E and PEC. Asked about Jewish religion, she produces an answer which partakes of the age-old image of "uncannyness. " "I know very little, but I would be afraid to go into a synagogue. " This has to be evaluated in relation to her statement about Nazi atrocities:
"I am not particularly sorry because of what the Germans did to the Jews. I feel Jews would do the same type of thing to me. "
The persecution fantasy of what the Jews might do to her, is used, in au- thentic paranoid style, as a justification of the genocide committed by the Nazis.
Our last two examples refer to the distortions that occur when experience is viewed through the lens of congealed stereotypy. M732c of the Veterans Group, who scores generally high on the scales, shows this pattern of dis- torted experience with regard to both Negroes and Jews. As to the former:
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"You never see a Negro driving (an ordinary car of which subject mentions a number of examples) but only a Cadillac or a Packard. . . . They always dress gaudy. They have that tendency to show off. . . . Since the Negro has that feeling that he isn't up to par, he's always trying to show off. . . . Even though he can't afford it, he will buy an expensive car just to make a show. . . . "Subject mentions that the brightest girl in a class at subject's school happens to be a Negro and he explains her outstandingness in the class in terms of Negro overcompensation for what he seems to be implying is her inherent inferiority.
The assertion about the Negro's Cadillac speaks for itself. As to the story about the student, it indicates in personalized terms the aspect of inescapabil- ity inherent in hostile stereotypy. To the prejudiced, the Negro is "dull"; if he meets, however, one of outstanding achievement, it is supposed to be mere overcompensation, the exception that proves the rule. No matter what the Negro is or does, he is condemned.
As to the "Jewish problem":
"As far as being good and shrewd businessmen, that's about all I have to say about them. They're white people, that's one thing. . . . Of course, they have the Jewish instinct, whatever that is. . . . I've heard they have a business nose. . . . I imagine the Jewish people are more obsequious. . . ? . For example, somehow a Jewish bar- ber will entice you to come to his chair. " Subject elaborates here a definite fantasy of some mysterious influence by Jews. . . . "They're mighty shrewd businessmen, and you don't have much chance" (competing with Jews).
The story about the barber seems to be a retrogression towards early infantile, magical patterns of thinking.
F359, a 48-year-old accountant in a government department, is, accord- ing to the interviewer, a cultured and educated woman. This, however, does not keep her from paranoid story-telling as soon as the critical area of race relations, which serves as a kind of free-for-all, is entered. (She is in the high quartile onE, though low on both F and PEC. ) Her distortions refer both to Negroes and to Jews:
Subject considers this a very serious problem and she thinks that it-is going to get worse. The Negroes are going to get worse. She experienced a riot in Washington; there was shoo~ing; street-car windows were broken, and when a white would get into the Negro section of the car, the shooting would start. The white man would have to lie on the floor. She did not dare to go out at night. One day the Negroes were having a procession and some of them started pushing her off the sidewalk. When she asked them not to push, they looked so insolent that she thought they would start a riot, and her companion said, "Let's get out of here or we will start a riot. " A friend of hers told her that she had asked her maid to work on a Thursday, but the maid had refused because she said it was "push and shove" day-the day they shoved the whites off the sidewalk. Another friend of hers in Los Angeles told her not to let her maid use her vacuum cleaner because they tamper with it in such a way as to cause it to tear your rugs. One day she caught the maid using a file on her vacuum cleaner and asked her what she was doing. The maid replied, "Oh, I'm just trying to fix this thing. " They just want to get revenge on whites. One cannot give them equal rights yet, they are not ready for it; we will have to
? PREJUDIC~ IN INTERVIEW MA TERIAL
educate them first. Subject would not want to sit next to a Negro in a theatre or restaurant. She cited the case of a drugstore man who addressed a Negro janitor, a cleaner, as "Mr. " You just can't do that to them or they will say, "Ah'm as good as white folks. " (Outcome? ) "I think there will be trouble. " She expects riots and bloodshed.
(Jews? ) "Well, they are to blame too, I think. They just cannot do business straight, they have to be underhanded-truth has no meaning for them in business. " (What has been your personal experience? ) She cited the case of a friend who is interested in photography and bought some second-hand cameras from pawn shops. One day when he was in one, a woman came in with a set of false teeth. She was told that they were not worth anything (there was some gold in them). Finally, the Jew gave her a few dollars for them. As Soon as she had gone out, he mrned to the man and said, "She didn't know it, but see that platinum under here? " In other words the teeth were worth many times what he gave for them. Subject's friend did not get gypped because he knew them and called their bluff.
It is often advocated as the best means of improving intercultural relations that as many personal contacts as possible be established between the dif- ferent groups. While the value of such contacts in some cases of anti-Semitism is to be acknowledged, the material presented in this section argues for cer- tain qualifications, at least in the case of the more extreme patterns of prej- udice. There is no simple gap between experience and stereotypy. Stereotypy is a device for looking at things comfortably; since, however, it feeds on deep-lying unconscious sources, the distortions which occur are not to be corrected merely by taking a real look. Rather, experience itself is prede- termined by stereotypy. The persons whose interviews on minority issues have just been discussed share one decisive trait. Even if brought together with minority group members as different from the stereotype as possible, they will perceive them through the glasses of stereotypy, and will hold against them whatever they are and do. Since this tendency is by no means confined to people who are actually "cranky" (rather, the whole complex of the Jew is a kind of recognized red-light district of legitimatized psychotic distortions), this inaccessibility to experience may not be limited to people of the kind discussed here, but may well operate in much milder cases. This should be taken into account by any well-planned policy of defense.