NCJ Number
115430
Date Published
1988
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article points out that the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations that promote racial prejudice attract those who are insecure, frustrated, and angry, and looking for scapegoats, and who feel they are not participants in the democratic process.
Abstract
According to the studies of Gordon W. Allport, children learn prejudice from their parents' language and attitudes. Between the ages of seven and eleven, they learn to reject those they've heard their parents speak disparagingly of. These children often grow into prejudiced adults who do not trust their fellow human beings, who feel threatened ad insecure, and who require a great deal of rigid authoritarian structure in their lives, which may lead them to hate organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. The rigid organization of the Klan, its ritual, and rhetoric exploit and feed these fears and insecurities.