Racial and ethnic tolerance
Racial and ethnic tolerance refers to the ability to accept and respect individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds, involving empathy, open-mindedness, and the ability to view issues from multiple perspectives. This concept is influenced by various factors, including family, religious beliefs, and community values. Generally, individuals with extreme political or religious ideologies—whether ultraconservative or very liberal—may exhibit lower levels of tolerance toward differing cultural perspectives. The development of tolerance can be understood through stages of ethnic identity, where individuals progress from negative self-perceptions to a global competency that allows for effective cross-cultural communication. Theories surrounding acculturation further explain tolerance, contrasting assimilation—which suggests a blending into a dominant culture—with cultural pluralism, which promotes coexistence of multiple cultures without losing one's own identity. Education plays a significant role in fostering racial and ethnic tolerance, while the opposite attitudes are characterized by xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism, which can lead to prejudice and discrimination. Understanding these dynamics is essential for promoting a more inclusive and harmonious society.
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Racial and ethnic tolerance
Tolerance, as defined from both a psychological and a sociological perspective, is the ability to look at issues from multiple perspectives, show empathy for other persons’ points of view, and be open-minded toward and accepting of cultural and other forms of diversity. An individual’s level of tolerance is influenced by family, religious, and community values. People with ultraconservative political and religious viewpoints usually show low levels of tolerance toward cultural diversity. Very liberal individuals also tend to be intolerant of opposing ideas. Thus, tolerance tends to be associated with political and religious ideological extremes.
Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) first identified stages of cognitive development, and Lawrence Kohlberg wrote about stages of moral development. After researching human development, James Banks (b. 1941) advanced the theory that as individuals develop and socialize, they go through stages of ethnicity. These stages are ethnic and psychological captivity (negative beliefs about one’s identity and low self-esteem), ethnic encapsulation (ethnic isolation and voluntary separatism), ethnic identity clarification (acceptance of ethnic self-identity, a prerequisite for beginning to understand other cultures), bi-ethnicity (a healthy sense of self-identity and an ability to function in two cultures), multiethnicity (the ability to function within several ethnic environments), and finally, the highest stage, globalism and global competency. Individuals who have reached the highest stage are tolerant; they become comfortably reflective in relationships with those who are culturally different. They have the knowledge and skills for effective and meaningful cross-cultural communication. Banks documented his work in racial and ethnic tolerance research in his works Diversity, Transformative Knowledge, and Civic Education: Selected Essays (2020) and Race, Culture, and Education: The Selected Works of James A. Banks (2006).
Social theories of acculturation also have ramifications for tolerance. Acculturation, or adaptation to a culture, can take the form of assimilation or cultural pluralism. Assimilation theories, such as the melting-pot theory and Anglo-conformity, assume that individuals will gradually become like the dominant group of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP). Under cultural pluralism, which is described using a salad bowl metaphor, individuals still identify with their primary culture and language but function and communicate effectively within the society as a whole. Typically, cultural pluralism promotes biculturalism and bilingualism and functional multiculturalism and interculturalism. Therefore, cultural pluralism tends to promote tolerance, whereas assimilation views diversity as something that will gradually be eliminated. In general, research indicates that education is a significant factor in predicting an individual's likelihood of exhibiting racial and ethnic tolerance.
Other concepts related to tolerance include xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. Xenophobics display ignorance and fear toward those who are culturally different and adopt separatist and segregationist attitudes rather than attitudes of tolerance. Ethnocentrics believe that their own culture is superior and preferred over any other culture. They use their own cultural lenses to judge other groups; extreme ethnocentric views lead to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination.
Bibliography
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