C. P Ellis Causes Of Prejudice Analysis

C.P Ellis in his memoir, accounts his times as reputed member of Ku Klax Klan and through series of experiences, the change in his perception towards people of color. His prejudices against the black people came not inherently but from his childhood struggles that led to frustrations in his adult life and already present social biases against the blacks. Vincent N. Parrillo in his article “Causes of Prejudice” explains various theories of how one account for prejudices. He proposes that we can understand more about prejudice among individuals by focus¬ing on four areas of study: levels of prejudice, self-justification, personality, and frustration. In his level of prejudice, he describes 3 levels of prejudice: the cognitive level, the emotional level and the action-oriented.
He theorizes in cognitive level, the prejudice is encompassing a person's beliefs and perceptions of a group as threatening or nonthreatening, inferior or equal in character. The emotional level, however is when the individual personally feels connected to one of the spectrum of the classes through his/her personal involvement. This is more intense than the cognitive level. The most intense
The black citizens were raising their voices for their rights and getting out on the street and stepping in the whites only zone. The breeze of revolution, of social change was flowing throughout the country. Ellis and the KKK had to do something to silence these shouts for equality of race in their city and with the support of some top level authorities had succeed in some of their expedition. But some of his experience like, when one of the city council member with whom Ellis had talked over on the phone the previous night as well as had been invited over at his place a few time ignored while crossing through the street. These kind of experiences got him to think if everything the Klan was doing worth the