Contact Theory and Racial Tolerance among High School Students

Abstract

An article of faith among supporters of desegregation has been that if blacks and whites interact with each other, firsthand experiences will undercut unreasoning prejudice. The hope is that as students of different races work and study together they will come to realize that intelligence and ignorance, kindness and rudeness, physical prowess and clumsiness, and the vast range of other human characteristics are distributed among members of both races. In time such realizations may prompt students to cease applying stereotypes to all members of the other race and to begin responding to individuals on the basis of personal characteristics. In essence, then, the argument holds that bringing whites and blacks together will lead to cross-racial contact which will lead to a better understanding of the other race which should promote greater racial tolerance. Gordon Allport (1958) tempered these expectations, noting that if contact is to have positive results, certain conditions must prevail. In the absence of equal status between the races, mutual interdependence, common goals, and support from law, custom, or authorities, interracial contact will simply accentuate the attitudes held by students prior to the biracial experiences. Thus, without the proper environment, biracial interaction will reconfirm the intolerance of the prejudiced and perhaps result in rising intolerance among those who had been unprejudiced. Scholars who study the consequences of desegregation often have not considered whether any of Allport's prerequisites for contact to lead to improved racial attitudes have been present. Consequently, it is not surprising that research focusing on the relationship between desegregation and racial attitudes has not produced a set of consistent