Causes of Prejudice

Prejudice is an opinion that is not based on actual evidence or experience. In Causes of Prejudice, Vincent Parillo describes the psychological and sociological reasons of prejudice. Among these causes, thwarting is defined to produce a prejudicial attitude towards others. Parillo explains in his work that throughout history, minority groups have been apply as scapegoats to take the blame for certain events. He clarifies that scapegoating is the act of blaming others for an incident that is not their fault.This idea is also visible in the novel To belt down a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, in the art where a lawyer named Atticus tries to prove an African American innocent who has been falsely charged with raping a white woman. Therefore, both Parillos Causes of Prejudice and Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird comport that defeat is a cause of prejudice because of an increase in infringement towards a scapegoat. To begin with, frustration is caused by relative deprivation, which is t he lack of resources in an individuals environment when compared to others.This results in aggression towards a scapegoat in order to scavenge this tension. Frustrated people ay easily strike out against the perceived cause of their frustration. However, this reaction may not be possible because the true source of the frustration is often too nebulous to be identified or too powerful to act against (Parillo 583). His view is also seen in To Kill a Mockingbird, when Mayella Ewell claims gobbler Robinson has raped her. Atticus tries to prove to the Jury that tomcat Robinson in fact did not rape Mayella and that she, a white woman, kissed Tom, a black man.Mayella is an Ewell a actually poor family in the town of Maycomb and therefore she has to live through tough onditions which include living behind the garbage dump, barely having any money to support her dad and seven siblings, as well as being beaten by her own father. Most importantly, she is frustrated that she always find ou ts dissatisfied with her life since she was neer able to experience any happiness by being isolated from the rest of the world. Therefore, she tries to at least kiss a black man to feel some sense of happiness.When she realizes it is condemned by society, her frustration increases partly because society is not allowing her to have a small amount of happiness, and o she shows her aggression by blaming Tom Robinson for raping her. In addition, aggression resulted from frustration is pinpointed towards scapegoats because they share similar characteristics of being vulnerable to blame. The group must be (1) highly visible in physical look or observable customs and acations (2) not strong enough to strike back (3) situated within easy access of the dominant group .. (Parillo 584). To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in southern Alabama in the 1930s. This was the time period where prejudice against African Americans was present. Segregation was present because having white scrape up was een to be better than having black skin. This simple difference in skin food colour resulted in an unfair treatment of African Americans. Separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, churches, and schools resulted for African Americans and whites. Also, since whites felt that the blacks were inferior to them, they tended to assume all blacks were unintelligent.When Mayella copes with her frustration of being isolated from the rest of the world by blaming Tom Robinson, the court looks at his skin color instead of the evidence given tor this case. Even though Atticus provides plenty ot evidence that roves that it was impossible for Tom to commit the rape of Mayella, Tom is still be guilty because even if Mayella is part of the lower class of Maycomb, she is still a white woman, making her superior to Tom Robinson.It is evident that frustration plays an important part in determining prejudicial attitudes. Both the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Causes of Prejudice by Vinc ent Parillo, agree that frustration is caused by relative deprivation and when aggression forms, the blame is placed on scapegoats. These scapegoats share similar characteristics which allow them to be vulnerable to the blame that falls upon them.