Rethinking the Paradigm of Prejudice

In this article I seek to provoke discussion about the general framework within which psychologists have addressed social inequality and discrimination — the so-called ‘prejudice problematic’. I shall suggest that, far from being rooted in faulty cognitions about an outgroup, prejudice is a practice relating to ingroup authority and ingroup power. As a consequence, we need to redirect our analytic gaze from perceptions of the outgroup to the contestation of ingroup definitions. We also need to redirect our practical attention from changing the views of dominant group members to sustaining the collective actions of subordinate group members.