Vincent Parillo, who is the author for Causes of Prejudice, has a belief that prejudice levels are usually based on six main theories. These theories are self-justification, authoritarian personality, frustration, socialization, economic competition as well as social norms. These prejudice levels are outstanding in explaining how C.P.Ellis a former Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was, prepared to become a racist. According to Parillo, causes of prejudice are classified as psychological and sociological, he describes three variant psychological levels of prejudice, cognitive, action, and emotional oriented. He further explained that prejudiced individuals use self-justification as well as frustration as cornerstone for their racist beliefs and actions. He further identifies three main components of sociological prejudice, which are Socialization, social norms, as well as economic competition. While C.P.Ellis undergoes the complex psychological and sociological elements of prejudice as per Parillo’s description, he understands a different cause for his frustration that transforms his thoughts and identity after some time.
One of the main elements that defined the fate of Ellis on poverty was poverty. Ellis was brought up in an extremely poor family where earning a living was almost impossible for the family. Ellis never enjoyed life like any other child in his neighborhood. Although, his father had been employed, he could not afford high quality life for his family. While Ellis was in eighth grade his father died, with the cause of the death being thought to be the extensive exposure to cotton dust. According to Studs on his article “C. P. Ellis, “Why I Quit the Klan””, as the only man left in the family Ellis was forced to drop out of school so that he could support his mother as well his small sister. This was indeed a painful moment for Ellis as he did not understand how he could raise a living for the family as his level of education limited his employment opportunity. It is at this point that one of the theories of Parillo becomes evident. According to Vincent on the article ‘causes of prejudice’, the theory of frustration had begun showing into Ellis’ livelihood that he was not the same as everyone else in the community. Life was against him and all the shame was as a result of his race. Therefore, this made him develop an extensively bitter attitude with any individual who was not of his color.
Frustration is farther evident in his life on the bases of the jobs that he got. According to Studs on his article “C. P. Ellis, “Why I Quit the Klan””, Ellis was assigned the smallest jobs in town where he worked so much but was underpaid. This became more painful to him when he discovered that he could not feed his wife and one child. This enhanced the bitterness that Ellis had developed over the rest of the society.
While hanging out with members of the local KKK down at a gas station which he had opened on a loan a discussion came up on why the poor white guy could never get a break as well as how Jews, African Americans, Catholics, as well as communists were to be blamed of all ill activities that went on in the United states. After following the discussion for a long time he became completed hooked into the club. According to Vincent on the article ‘causes of prejudice’, these issues bring up the theory of socialization by Parillo. On his article “C. P. Ellis, “Why I Quit the Klan””, Studs, Ellis may not have understood that there was massive difference between him and some people in the American community. The extensive discussions in the KKK club tuned him to understanding that he had a lot of challenges in life and they were massively attributed to by the small races in the American community. Since he could not express the pain and frustration he had in life to his father, Ellis expressed his wrath to the small races in America like the blacks. He thought that these small races were the main causes of the problems that he was going through.
The theory of Self-justification by Parillo is evident in Ellis life. After gaining so much pain on small races in the country as the main cause of the problems that he went through in life, Ellis still finds it hard to deal with the prejudice. However, after some time he realized that he was not the main cause of the thoughts and beliefs that he had for these people. He had been extremely influenced by various forces that had made him understand that the small tribes were his greatest enemies. He argued that he had been exposed to all chances of hating small races especially blacks. As he grew up, his father who was extremely poor had passionately hated blacks as he also thought that they were main causes of poverty in America. Also, the exposure that Ellis obtained at KKK was strong enough to challenge his trust for the small tribe of blacks. According to Vincent on the article ‘causes of prejudice’, self-justification is enhanced by low self-esteem.
However, with time and after several experiences with individuals who were in deep understanding of the situation, Ellis learnt that there was not role that was played by blacks in determining his fate in life. He also realized that he was responsible of his life and neither his father nor the society would have made a choice for his better living. Therefore, he changed his attitude towards the challenges he went through in early life.
Parillo’s analysis of prejudice on the basis of various theories that determine how people perceive different situations defines Ellis fate on the racism character that he had developed. Theories of frustration, socialization and self-justification are evident in Ellis’ case. However, after extensive exposure to life Ellis learns that he was not justified to be a racist and he reconcile for a comfortable living with everyone in the community.
Work Cited
Studs Terkel. “C.P. Ellis.” Rereading America (2004): 591-601
Vincent N. Parillo. “Causes of Prejudices.” Rereading America (2004): 577-590
