Overcoming Prejudice and Building Trust: The Power of Intergroup Contact

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In Europe, the practice of randomly allocating roommates or choosing those who are different is rare. Nowadays, students often find roommates they like through social media or local meetups, resulting in similarities. Elite universities even have racially separate dorms for African Americans and sometimes Hispanics, further limiting diverse communication. This discourages interaction and instead fosters a mentality of potential enemies, where any microaggression is hyper-attuned to. Some universities even have anonymous tip lines to report microaggressions, contradicting the recommended approach for facilitating meaningful exchanges. The text emphasizes the role of elites in perpetuating this situation.

Sam Harris speaks with Yascha Mounk about identity politics. They discuss Yascha’s concept of the “identity synthesis,” skepticism about “cancel culture,” racial segregation in schools, the ideological change on college campuses, Michel Foucault and postmodernism, the rejection of universalism, Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, the “permanence of racism,” the indoctrination of children, intersectionality, white privilege, institutional racism, equity vs equality, racial preferences during the Covid pandemic, the asymmetric advantage of authoritarianism, class and elitism, affirmative action, media coverage of crime and violence, social media and the business model of mainstream journalism, and other topics.

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