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BOOK REVIEWS
Joy L. Hart, Editor
Janet Ruscher, PREJUDICED COMMUNICATION: A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE. New York: Guilford, 2001; pp. 236, $30.00 hardcover, ISBN: 1572306386.
The race problem is solved. Racism is dead. Now we just have the backlash problem: too many groups pushing too hard for special rights and special status. These, at least, are the beliefs of the "modern racist," according to Janet Ruscher.
In her new book, Prejudiced Communication: A Social Psychological Perspective, Ruscher sets out to demonstrate just the opposite-that racism and, indeed, prejudice in general are alive and kicking. The vibrancy of prejudice is, according to Ruscher, apparent in various forms of everyday communicative action. She succeeds nicely in demonstrating that claim. Examining prejudiced communication via countless examples and drawing upon a wide body of emerging scholarship, she shows that prejudiced communication is, in fact, as pervasive as it ever was, albeit more subtle at times.
Ruscher approaches her task from the perspective of a traditional social psychologist, within a decidedly cognitive-functionalist frame. She proceeds by examining, through a functionalist lens, the communicative evidence for cognitive schemata group members' hold toward outsiders. "Prejudiced communication is pervasive because it serves a variety of functions" (p. 5), writes Ruscher. Thus, racial epithets, stereotypes, "talking down," nonverbal signals, media images, and other cultural forces are examined with a mind toward uncovering the functions they serve within the groups employing them.
As Ruscher quickly notes, one of the prominent functions of prejudiced communication is in how it serves the development and...