I dunno... while racism has very thick and sensitive roots that run deep across the American tapestry, it is ultimately only a common manifestation of
behavior of a much broader subject. I think evolutionary and tribal psychology is on the right path when it suggests that, as an extension of our
cognitive tendency to conceptualize numbers and objects into groups and sub-groups by similarities for predictive purposes - our ancestors were
particularly prone to gauging new individuals based on similarities. Those who share the greatest number of similarities to you and your tribe (both
physically and culturally), are more likely to be closely related or extended family. It was a useful predictive tool for gauging social interaction -
whether you should fight, flee, or engage in interaction. Those most different from you and your tribe were more likely to be aggressive or disposed
to raid your group.
This is the environment we spent the largest portion of human history in, and those tribal behaviors were reinforced. Civilizations are a rather new
and alien concept to humans still. We have trouble conceptualizing more than about 150 or so unique and individual personalities. As a shortcut, our
minds tend to group other people outside of our immediate tribes by their most commonly expressed traits, behaviors, and cultural markers. It creates
stereotypes.
Stereotypes are not necessarily bad or something we should avoid, but the inherent fact that you are reducing individuals down to collections of
characteristics is fundamentally dehumanizing. It would be an error to rely on prejudices to gauge an individual based upon the stereotype of the
group they belong to, because despite the relative frequency of traits shared by that group - the individual is not defined by that group. Further,
our minds don't weed out actual common traits from perceived or projected traits. Culturally generated exaggerations and demonizations out of a
perceived threat from that group can influence perception and attribute with false trends to your stereotype. For example, anti-semetic charactatures
often portray Jewish people with large hooked noses - an exaggeration of a commonly shared trait. However, they're often also portrayed with horns or
fangs - attributes that Jewish people do NOT possess - but are projected by those who view Jewish people as a threat to their tribe. It distances
tribal groups from one another by further expressing differences and heightening the sense of danger they represent. It further dehumanizes a group.
And dehumanization is where the greatest danger lies. It turns men into monsters to be slain - pests to be eradicated. Even closely related (both
racially and culturally) ethnic groups such as the Hutu and Tutsi can display an inconceivably vile capability to inflict suffering on their fellow
man, when they are convinced each other are not humans to understand... but cockroaches to be exterminated. Soulless monsters to be slain with
impunity. It can even be a righteous and pure act.
Conversely, dehumanization can also be applied to yourself and your tribe. When used to "step outside of your humanity" so that you can engage in
acts which would break a man's soul by becoming yourself the monster, and then step back into your humanity as easily as a pair of slippers when you
wipe off the face paint.
Philip Zimbardo: The Stanford Prison Experiment - Abu Ghraib Tier 1-A abuses - The Lucifer Effect.
The line between good and evil, runs directly through the human heart. And it is far more arbitrary and porous than we would like to think.
We see varying levels of expression of the same irrational behaviors in any situations where "In-Group"/"Out-Group" lines are drawn, promoted, and
defended against threats of subversion or against the introduction of "impurities". Prejudice, discrimination, hatred, killings, tortures,
genocides, enslavement, etc, - stemming from the various diverse tribes we form, such as Religion, Political Affiliations, Ideological disputes,
"Clash of Cultures" (both regional and international), social/economic classes, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Sports Team allegiances, Mafia/Gang
organizations, Nationalism... even long lasting family feuds, such as the Hatfields & the McCoys.
Racism is not an innate human behavior, because the identification of skin color and heritage as a tribal differentiation is as arbitrary a
distinction as religion or ideology. However, it is a very common - almost universal - emergent expression of our tribal nature due to our vision and
hearing being our most depended upon senses for interacting with the world. Skin color, language accents, and cultural expressions in mannerism and
clothing offer seductively pronounced ques between peoples between which which we can draw tribal lines.
We are all racist to some degree, because we all form stereotypes and prejudices based on those stereotypes. This is nothing to ashamed of, or berate
humanity over. It's certainly nothing to promote or take pride in either. It's just a part of who we are, and I'll leave it to the discretion of
religion to promote the abject apology and proselytizing for being born human. But it is something we should all be aware of, and work to mitigate.
Not just in matters of skin color, but between all the arbitrary tribal distinctions we draw.
[edit on 6-11-2009 by Lasheic]
