A Plea for Integration

There has often been reported an evil of conformi ty-wor ship amɔng the masses or the majority. Yet little has been said of the tyranny of the minorities. So let us view the position of our less secure ingroups in their proper social context.

There are many such groups that feel, and sometimes rightly so, the stigmata of difference and an alienation from society at large. Among these are not only certain ethnic groups but also the teenager, the "Bohemian" and the homosexual. Lacking the feeling of identification with greater society, they necessarily turn inward to their own kind for a means of psychological anchorage. No man can exist alone and no man's moods or thought s have any meaning except in the response of his fellow creatures. Once united, kind with kind, the sense of loneliness is vanquished and the ego reinforced by the multiple-patterned stereotype s around him.

The paradox arises however when a group designed to ease the se senses of insecurity actually rises to aggravate them. Stereotypization of the manners, ways and principles of the group arises because stereotyping is a way of simplifying, of categorizing thought. The more insecure the group feels, the more bizarre is ita symbolism. The zoot suit of the teen-ager, or the male garb of the Lesbian are but a pseudo-armor to protect the vulnerable feelings inside. So as a timid boy might feel an outburst of power when behind the wheels of a bulldozer, so too a frightened girl finds the rough blue jeans and jacket reassuring. They are a bulwark against the abhorred role of submission, and a means of identification with that sex of prestige and power. Yet how do these symbols affect the out group? Perhaps like the yellow caps of the Middle Ages, or the red flag in front of a bull!

Yet the worst damage lies, not in the group's exhibition of its difference in public but rather in the warping of the personality in the process. We humans all are born with a wide range of potentialities, a fine spectrum of human talents and diversities. They are found in all races, all classes, in the strange and normal alike. There are no "types" in nature, save by man's classifications and molds. So why must there be that segmentation of the personality, to create a "character" instead of an individual being. Truly, society at large suffers in part an intolerance of difference that needs to be remedied. Yet this

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