Given Gordon Allport's (1954) description of the necessary preconditions for contact to reduce prejudice and conflict, why did desegregation efforts as originally enacted fail?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: When groups have a history of conflict, contact alone is not enough; simply bringing different groups together in a classroom would not reduce prejudice or hostility, given a history of poor race relations in the United States. Groups need to be interdependent, and the traditional classroom fosters competition for teacher attention, not interdependence. The groups should have equal status; historically, minority students were under-prepared, so they did not have equal academic status with majority children. Contact should occur in an informal setting where in-group and out-group members can interact; in the traditional classroom, this is called "talking to your neighbor," and is discouraged. Contact must occur with multiple members of the out-group. In classrooms in which there were one or a few minority children, this couldn't happen. Finally, norms must promote equality; classroom norms and individual grades do not promote equality, nor do teachers who themselves might be prejudiced.