Psychology of the Bigot -- the Anti-Semite vs. The Racist

In "Anti-Semite and Jew," the existentialist philosopher John Paul Sartre, a gentile, analyzed the psychology of an anti-Semitic individual who hates Jews. He did so from the perspective of an outsider to the group he was examining over the course of his essay, as well as attempting to plumb the psychology of the 'insider' of this group. In "The Fire Next Time," James Baldwin examined the American racist's perspective from the point-of-view of the object of racial hatred and ostrication, namely his own perspective as a Black man in America. Both, however, attempted to relate the psychology of hatred to larger political concerns, in Sartre's case that of a biased and class-oriented French society, and in Baldwin's case that of the Cold War, which he suggested caused the fear of tragedy to intensify racial divisions in America.

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