How Do You View People of Another Race?

“Skinheads of America, like the dynamic skinheads in Europe, are working-class Aryan youth. We oppose the capitalist and communist scum that are destroying our Aryan race. . . . The parasitic Jewish race is at the heart of our problem.”

SO STATES a leaflet from a Chicago-based gang of skinheads. These are young people who shave their heads, wear distinctive tough-guy garb embroidered with swastikas, extol violence, listen to ‘white power’ music, and despise Jews, blacks, and other minorities.

The leader of a gang called Romantic Violence told an assembly of white racist leaders that his group “stands for war,” and he added: “I am a violent person. I love the white race, and if you love something you’re the most vicious person on earth.”

As movements go, skinheads are few in number. Their views are extreme. Relatively few people today are so openly bigoted and aggressive in their outlook. And yet, many secretly harbor animosity toward people of another race and distrust them. Throughout the world, people are judged according to the slant of their eyes or the shade of their skin. Is there any basis for this? Are there inborn mental or temperamental differences between races? To answer these questions, we should first examine how various views on race have developed over the centuries.