Desensitizing Herbert Blumer's work on race relations: Recent applicationsof his group position theory to the study of contemporary race prejudice

Recent applications of Herbert Blumer's group position model to the study o f contemporary race prejudice have misrepresented the ongoing process of de finition and accommodation that, according to Blumer, mediates race relatio ns. By conforming to the canons of research design and using standard sampl e surveys, public opinion polls, variables analysis, and statistical techni ques to study perceptions of group threat, group hostility, and prejudicial attitudes, Blumer's dynamic social imagery, as well as the socially ground ed methodology he sought to promote, are undermined. The result is a static depiction of race relations that has nothing to do with the variegated exp eriential complexities that Blumer claimed underlie all human group life.