Can - Or Should - America Be Color-Blind?

Intergroup Cooperation: A Powerful Mechanism for Change

Desegregation differs from integration. Desegregation occurs when an institution becomes racially mixed. Integration can occur when desegregation is conducted under special conditions likely to improve relations between members of different groups.

Psychological research indicates introducing people to working together in groups, especially in the schoolroom and workplace, helps overcome racial and cultural bias. Desegregation alone is rarely sufficent.

At Stanford University, psychololgy professor Claude Steele has studied how stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. He holds that, in a school setting, self-esteem equates in part with scholastic achievement. For scholastic achievment to become a goal, students must perceive that they have the interests,skills, and resources to succeed in the working world, and that they belong in that world.

But for some African Americans, job oppurtunities are limited. With job prospects illusory, striving for a better education becomes less important. And when school achievement falls, so does self-esteem, setting up a vicious circle. In such a situation. it is difficult for either self-esteem or scholastic prowess to thrive.

Women, too, often face such obstacles. To continue in math, for example, a woman may 'have to buck' the low expectations around her, along with the anticipation of spending her professional life in a male dominated world.

Decades of research have shown that intergroup cooperation can increase acceptance among people of different ethnic, cultural, and other group identities, according to Dr. Ann W. Battencourt, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Missouri, who also testified at the congressional hearings. In general, this research shows that:

1. People generally experience positive feelings toward each other when working cooperatively toward a shared goal;
   
   
2. Under certain circumstances, people can establish a group identity without relinquishing their own prior identity;
   
   
3. As people work cooperatively and learn about each other, they are able to share the perspectives of others with whom they are working; and
   
   
4. The affinity among those who share the new group identity can be generalized to other persons and other situations.

Research shows that cooperative learning in grade school has the potential to increase student achievement and social skills. College professors are adopting group problem-solving and cooperative discussion groups, in part to increase student learning potential. American industry embraces a similar concept: namely, that cooperative work teams increase productivity, job accountability, and worker satisfaction.

These situations provide everyday opportunities for increasing intergroup acceptance through cooperative interaction. But intervention is not as simple as it sounds, according to Dr. Battencourt. A relatively complex set of conditions can influence whether or not cooperative settings can have optimal effects. Among the conditions that improve acceptance are:

1. Equal status in the setting. Women and minority group members must share the same status positions as other group members. Otherwise, even in a cooperative work setting, intergroup acceptance and understanding may not occur.
   
   
2. Sanction from those in authority. People in authority and other 'opinion leaders' must advocate for and agree that intergroup cooperation is a key goal, beneficial to the organization's goals. They must also communicate this attitude to others in the organization.
   
   
3. Interpersonal intimacy. Cooperative effort has to allow people to get to know each other. Individuals from diverse groups must share perspectives and learn to view the world through different lenses. This perspective-sharing leads to empathy and understanding of diverse viewpoints.
   

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