British colonialism in the West Indies bequeathed a number of racial problems to the local societies as they attained independence. The colonial policy of administration in a ‘multi-racial’ social system did little to eliminate ethnic barriers dividing the various groups. A comparison of recent political change in Trinidad and Guyana suggests that the relative size of the various ethnic groups, combined with ecological and ideological differences, have all played an important role in determining the differential degree of conflict these two nations have recently experienced. Political leaders, citizenry and social scientists alike have held diverging views over the nature and future of these 'plural' societies. Some analysts have tended to emphasize the cultural and social cleavages while others have been struck by the apparent capacity of disparate cultural traditions to merge into a unique amalgam.

This paper attempts to analyse some of the local social structural factors accounting for racial attitudes towards coloured settlers, and will concentrate particularly on the way in which the coloured settlement zones, often known loosely as ghettos, promote the formation of racial attitudes and relationships in Britain.

The aim of this paper was to stress the importance of the adaptive cognitive functioning of man in the causation of prejudice. It was felt that this approach has the merits of economy, credibility and testability of explanation which are not always shared by views seeking the psychological causes of intergroup tensions in the evolutionary past of the species or in unconscious motivation. Three cognitive processes were considered from the point of view of their relevance to the genesis of prejudice in an individual: categorization, assimilation, and search for conceptual coherence.

Though the paper was not concerned either with discussing ways to reduce prejudice or with outlining in any detail designs for future research, it is my belief that the general approach adopted here has implications, both for social action and for research, which have not been as yet consistently and fully taken into account.

The first three sessions of this Symposium would, I think, lead one to say that if one tried to arrange man on the basis of biological characteristics one would get a continuum; the papers given in this fourth session have shown the ineradicable, or so far ineradicable, tendency of mankind to split themselves up into discontinuous groups.

I personally believe the study of race relations should always be directed to a practical result, that is to enable one to get over this simple human tendency, and to enable us to live together.