Within the mind and heart of a bigot exists a hidden world of hatred, failure and low self-esteem combined with a powerful need to feel good at another's expense. Roy Masters (a Jewish immigrant from England who has experienced firsthand the cruelty of anti-Semitism) looks beyond the surface politics of discrimination and explores the intriguing psychology of this dangerous and divisive prejudice.
Today we are witnessing the renewal of a hate-based ideology, one based on identifying and persecuting scapegoats for personal and national problems. After the promise of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, people of good will the world over had hoped widespread racism would be a thing of the past and although it has mushroomed in the last decade, this attitude of contempt for one group by another has unfortunately always been present not only in this country but throughout the world.
What exactly is this insidious need some people have to feel superior to other races? The answer to the riddle of racism becomes self-evident for anyone willing to probe just beneath the surface of this most inhuman of human characteristics. There are several important dynamics involved but one of the most important is this simple but unpleasant truth: Those who have been subjected to humiliation and degradation in their own lives come under a powerful compulsion to "take it out" on someone else. Losers can feel like winners only when they look down their noses at others and make others feel the same humiliation they have experienced.
This process is readily observed between siblings. The older brother cruelly humiliates his young brother who then turns around and picks fight with his younger sister. By upsetting and degrading her, the middle child experience what feels like a restoration of the power he lost to his older brother. Each participant in this process is unaware that his identity has been altered, each has inadvertently joined human pecking order.
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