I was reading a section on Behavioural Ecology in my Biology book and it was talking about altruism. It said that animals are naturally altruistic for their genetic relatives, and that they may even give up their life for them. As the relation gets weaker, the altruism gets weaker. Or something like that. I'll find it and read it better some other time. Basically we want people who share some of our genes to survive. Those of the same ethnicity more evidently share the same genes, so other people of the same ethnicity are more likely to be altruistic to these people. Of course, humans can't be entirely explained by this... What I'm wondering is if people are biologically programmed to be racist, and if it would be latent in all of us then? If that is true, is there any way to truly get rid of racism without having every different ethnicity interbreed? And would that affect our subconscious or even conscious thoughts on people? When I ask you if you're racist, can you be sure that you don't prefer your own ethnicity, deep down? Based on what different races have done to each other over history, I think there's a good chance that we are born a little racist. It makes sense that people would prefer their extended family over different colored, foreign people. Of course, I'm not justifying racism with this. It is just a biological thing that we have to overcome slowly and painfully, through our social laws, ect. Just like a lot of human traits that we are trying to control. Heh, it seems like this would just be common knowledge in psychology and science. Probably is...
The question is how it all works. What cues to people use to alert them that someone is family or not? Using incest as a guide, people avoid incest with people they grew up with in close proximity. However, they would be attracted to those they did not grow up with, even if the person was related. This shows that it is very well possible that the cues we use for altruism are not identical to anything like skin color. In fact, some evolutionary psychologists (in particular, Leda Cosmides), has argued that different human races would not have encountered each other enough in the past to evolve a disdain for another race. Here is a more solid idea- Women are attracted to men with MHC that is different from thier own. They seek diversity in many instances. Shouldn't women be inherantly non-racist as a result?
Genetic Determinism Basically what you are saying is that we inherit racism. We have to be careful when we read studies done with animials and then apply them to humans. The power of the human brain gives us the ability of choice far beyond those of animals. One of those abilities is being proactive. When we take responsibility for our actions based on values, rather than be a product of conditions based on feeling...then we are proactive. Animals simply cannot do this. Instinct reigns supreme with animals. Humans have imagination, self-awareness, concience and independent will. When we take responsibility (respond-ability) for how we reacte and treat others, we know that racism is wrong. It is our choice on how we will reacte to any stimulus...those that allow Genetic, Psychic or Environmental Determinism to control their thoughts and actions are not living in reality, they have become dependent instead of independent and interdependent...it is true interdependence that overcomes racism. I recommend to everyone to read a book called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey. He explains what I've known all my life to be true. I can speak from experience as I am part of a visible minority and know what it is like to be treated badly because people make excuses of being a product of their environment and not taking responsibility for their own actions.
On Evolutionary Psychology and determinism First, let me say just how much I thnk the above post is wishful thinking. It is an attempt to put humans into the magical realm of high and mighty above everything. This, I feel, is utterly wrong. We are subject to the same laws as every other animal on this planet. The only difference is that of a different evolutionary path. Despite the few differences we find between humans and animals, the vast majority of human behavior has direct correlates in other animals. Those that don't are often easily modeled by other animals. That said, let me address the concern of determinism and instincts. The fact that behavior (and human behavior in particular) is so flexible is because we have MORE instincts, not less! A worm has very few instincts, and it can do very little. The reason we are different is because we have many, many instincts. Evolutionary explinations of these instincts are necessary if we want to know about ourselves and the world we inhabit. It is certainly possible to inherit tendancies (like racism). Freedom is the ability to understand our own inherit shortcomings so that we can figure out what is necessary to overcome the problems they pose. Ignoring the fact of human nature has caused many problems in the past (and even now). The above poster would have you continue this horrifying trend. To this I say nay!
Racist? no. but close. there are a couple of pychological things that everyone does that leads to racism, well, almost making sense considering how people think. in vs out groups: the us vs them thing. people tend to see the groups they are not a part of as borg like masses. they attribute the actions of those people to the nature of the group and not the nature of that individual person. there are plenty of social pychology studies where they make artificial groups and within a short amount of time each group is making up stereotypes of the other group. viewing people not as individuals but as just an instance of a group makes it pretty easy to become racist. it works with almost any other thing. where you're from, your religion, gender. so it's not race per se. but race is a good example.
according to selfish genetics humans are design to group together and defend people of similar genetics to them selves. So is racism genetic well… more like banding together but ya I would say it is roughly.
I don't think people are so much racist as they are naturally wary of strangers. This reaction goes way back into our past and I think it is there always. It would be very easy to convert this wariness of strangers to racism though. What is different is what you fear.
and you all you gotta do is step out on to the st to see this! females are different. me > vive le difference !
Ethnocentric maybe, more than racist. I think it is more about differences in cultures than in races. Religions, languages, the arts, etc., all help shape ethnocentricity. One person's culture is better to that person because of familiarity, while another person's culture is alien and strange, and therefore can't be as good.
true. there are ethnic wars in africa. they're all black and they don't get along. different cultures i guess. whatever happened to our people's unity? ::he says as sarcasm detector overloads::
quite true...an easy example would be a mixed family. If some members still don't like other members of this family group based on skin color then we have a clear example of racism. if someone grew up in a unicultural society and is 'afraid' of other cultures and express this, they might be just wary of strangers. Although they still could be racist. My father never liked my sisters girlfriend. He was 'black', but more importantly he behaved not according to my fathers norm. Is he a racist? I don't know...he sometimes says racist things. Then my sister had children with this guy. My father loved the children, despite them being obviously not 'white'. He didn't act very racist towards them. Why? because he could understand them since they were raised to similar cultural standards as his. We sometimes forget that most people are very wary of the unknown. Maybe we sometimes confuse this with racism, since it can be difficult to express the stressful feeling of wariness.
Just To Clarify I was not presenting man as the ultimate mental powerhouse that can overcome all evil. What I was saying is that man has the power to think and act accordingly. I have seen too many things used as an excuse in the name of "human nature" or "human instinct". I don't think it is wishful thinking to say that we (mankind) can overcome problems by using our intelligence, thought and reason instead of reacting to every feeling we have. Should we not think before we act? I believe in the pro-active approach...the responsibility or respond-ability. We have the ability to respond. How we respond is predicated on two things...one...to simply give in and reacte to our feelings and instincts...which in the case of racism are wrong...or we can use our power of thought and reason to allow us to make the right decision. If we want to be like the animals, why do we have a constitution, freedom of rights etc. I am not slagging nature...it is a wonderful thing...my people viewed the animals as brothers and learned from their instincts...as a first nations person I know about the power of nature. However, what nature has also taught me is that it is not high and mighty to say that we have the power to chose, to make the right choices. Is it?
