Abstract

The differences between the accounts of Gordon Allport (1954/1979) and W. E. B. DuBois (1903/1969) regarding the origins of prejudice and the impact of discrimination on the personality and social development of African Americans are examined. The authors contend that even though Allport's universalist approach to the causes and consequences of prejudice essentially has gone unchallenged in the mainstream social-psychological literature, DuBois's social-historical approach to personality psychology questions the assumptions that have guided theory and research on prejudice since the time of Allport. The authors argue that racism is not a universal feature of human psychology but a historically developed process. Racism begins with the exploitation of people or peoples and with the psychological consequences to which that exploitation leads. The differential implications of Allport's and DuBois's respective accounts for the future of race relations in the United States are discussed.