How is the interactionist perspective useful in explaining racial tensions in contemporary American society?

The interactionist perspective of sociology views a society as the sum of all social interactions between individuals, and explains how individuals develop worldviews based on the meanings they assign to interactions and experiences. Followers of this theoretical tradition would understand contemporary American racial conflict as groups forming negative symbolic perceptions of each other through social forces such as the media. These perceptions manifest in conflictual interactions that, to the individual, support their negative interpretation of members of other groups. The sum of all negative individual understandings and conflictual interactions perpetuates the conflict between the groups.

According to the interactionist perspective, racial conflict can be ameliorated by individual members of different racial or ethnic groups interacting in positive contexts. If groups can develop positive symbols related to members of other groups, they can have less conflictual interactions. The sum of these more positive interpretations and interactions, according to interactionism, can manifest as more positive race relations between majority and minority groups.