Julie’s Blog 30: TA, Prejudice and Anti-Discriminatory Practice - Part 2

​I ended my Part 1 blog on this topic with the comment that the internal ego state model can be a useful way to understand what is happening when people are displaying prejudiced behaviour.

​Here is a repeat of that diagram, about which I wrote as follows in my 1993 article.
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Internal Ego States

Prejudice
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This ego state model can be used to explain prejudice.  More importantly, it can also be helpful in identifying actions for eliminating such prejudice.

To illustrate this, I will take as an example a situation in which an afro-caribbean professional complained of prejudice in his caucasian colleagues because they did not greet him on his arrival in the office each day.  The caucasian colleagues were insistent that they behaved towards their colleague in the same way as they dealt with each other.  In this case, that was the problem – it transpired that the afro-caribbean professional came from a culture in which it was customary for those already in a room to speak first to anyone entering later.  The caucasian professionals, on the other hand, expected to initiate conversation as they entered a room.

This apparently insignificant difference in customary courtesies had been having a major impact on the relationship between non-caucasian and caucasian.

If we consider the internal ego states, we realise that the non-caucasian person had:

• an Internal Parent containing copies of his parents, teachers and others who had taught him ‘good manners’, all saying that failure to speak as one entered a room was unacceptably rude
• an Internal Child who had recordings of unpleasant feelings associated with those times he had ‘forgotten his manners’ when he was young

and the caucasian people had:

• an Internal Parent with copies of parents, teachers and others teaching that it was polite to speak to others as you entered a room (or possibly that it didn’t really matter)
• an Internal Child who felt uncomfortable when this rule was not followed

​Recognition of these different Parent and Child recordings needed all parties to use their Internal Adults.  In this way, they were able to discuss the cultural differences and agree how they might alter their behaviour patterns in future.

A further refinement concerned the realisation that there were wider issues involved here.  Adopting a ‘when in Rome’ attitude and expecting the non-caucasian person to change would be a subtle but powerful way of imposing caucasian cultural norms.  Encouraging the non-caucasian person to stay with his cultural pattern was likely to lead to future friction when he came into contact with other caucasian people who would not be aware of the cultural differences.

Having brought the issue into open discussion, the non-caucasian person ceased to see it as a deliberate attempt to be unfriendly and decided to start initiating the conversations himself.  At the same time, now his caucasian colleagues realised the significance of their behaviour they made a point of changing their own behaviour sometimes as well.

This situation was, fortunately, resolved before things got too bad.  However, the same dynamic applies to far more serious instances of prejudice.
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Someone bought up in an atmosphere of bigotry will have some very powerful, and frightening, copies of grown-ups demonstrating racist behaviour.  Linked inextricably to these recordings will be equally strong memories of pain and scare in Internal Child that were created when the rules of the grown-ups were inadvertently transgressed.

A normal child, brought into contact with someone of a different race, is likely to be naturally curious and friendly.  If this openness results in anger and punishment, they will acquire a significant knot in the rings of their Internal Child.  They are then likely to ‘rubberband’ to this when they meet people of different races in the future.  At the same time, this old recording is likely to trigger a replay of the recording of the person who punished them, who has been copied into Internal Parent.

This dynamic may be established for a caucasian child with parents who believe in caucasian supremacy or are frightened that immigration will result in job losses.  It may also occur for a non-caucasian child whose parents believe that caucasian moral values are non-existent, or who are afraid that socialising will lead to loss of cultural identity.  The same process applies equally when Protestants condemn Catholics of the same race, or Muslims denigrate Sikhs.

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Extract from: Hay, Julie (1993) TA and ADP – What can Transactional Analysis contribute to Anti-Discriminatory Practice?  INTAD Newsletter 2:1 4-8

​In Part 1 of this blog I set the scene in my article and now in Part 2 I have reproduced for you what I wrote about prejudice and internal ego states. In Part 3 I will look at behavioural ego states and channels of communication, and finally in Part 4 I give some ideas about the game of PC –  Politically Correct’.
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References

Hay, Julie (1993) TA and ADP – What can Transactional Analysis contribute to Anti-Discriminatory Practice?  INTAD Newsletter 2:1 4-8

In 1993 there was not so much attention being paid to referencing. Additional references that apply for this blog are:

Internal ego states - Hay, Julie (1992) Transactional Analysis for Trainers Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill (currently published as 2nd edition, 2009, Hertford: Sherwood Publishing
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Rubberband – Kupfer, David & Haimowitz, Morris (1971) Therapeutic Interventions Part 1 Rubberbands Now. Transactional Analysis Journal 1:1 10-16
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© 2018 Julie Hay​
 
​Julie is a fan of open access publishing so feel free to reproduce any of these blogs as long as you still attribute it to her.
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If you’re interested in learning more TA, Julie runs regular workshops and webinars –  we currently have an offer of a free place on one of our webinars. You can use these toward your CPD and as credit hours in pursuing professional TA qualification