Had It in Holland Park

“Racism, research, and the human condition” says: to hold the belief that one’s own race is superior, one needs to believe
1. that there is something such as a race.
2. that most people of one race are very similar to others in that race, more than they share similarities with people of other races.
3. that our differences define us and not that our common humanity shapes us.
4. that there are objective criteria by which one can judge races
5. and that such judging is actually a legitimate activity.

Most human attitudes and behaviour have a genetic and an environmental component. This is also true for our fear of others who are different to us — xenophobia — and intolerance of their viewpoints — bigotry. Hardwired into the brain’s amygdala region is a fear reflex that is primed by encounters with the unfamiliar. 

 

In premodern times, the argument goes, it made sense to be fearful of other groups. They might be violent, steal our resources, or introduce new diseases we are not adapted to. Conversely, it was beneficial to trust those who look similar to us — they are more likely to be related. And when we help these kin, our own genes are more likely to be passed to future generations.  It makes a certain kind of sense.

 

On the other hand, hunter-gatherer societies (as close as we can get to pre-modern humans) do not generally behave with this kind of hostility towards other groups. They don’t tend to see other tribes in their vicinity as competitors for the same food sources and try to subjugate them or restrict their access to resources. Different groups interact with each other a lot, regularly visiting each other, making marriage alliances, and sometimes switching members.

An alternative view is that racism (or at least xenophobia) does not have a genetic or evolutionary basis, but is primarily a psychological trait — more specifically, a psychological defence mechanism generated by feelings of insecurity and anxiety. When people are given reminders of their own mortality, they respond to by becoming more prone to status-seeking, materialism, greed, prejudice, and aggression. 

 

It also satisfies a basic human need to have quick answers and stable knowledge that people rely on to make sense of the world. People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity. 

In short, racism is group-think:

1.    People may have a desire to affiliate themselves with a group in order to strengthen their sense of identity and find a sense of belonging. 

2.    To further strengthen their sense of identity, members of a group may develop hostile feelings toward other groups. This is a natural occurring human trait: Henri Tajfel (Cognitive Aspects of Prejudice) found that even people who were assigned to group at random (and knew that they were assigned at random), still exhibit favouritism towards their own group and prejudice toward the other.

3.    Members of a group can withdraw empathy from members of other groups, limiting their concern and compassion to their fellows. They may act benevolently towards members of their own group, but be cruel and heartless to anyone outside it. 

4.    Members of a group can homogenize individuals belonging to other groups, meaning that people are no longer perceived in terms of their individual personalities or behaviour, but in terms of generalized prejudices and assumptions about the group as a whole. 

5.    Members of a group may also project their own psychological flaws and their own personal failings onto another group, as a strategy of avoiding responsibility and blame. Other groups become scapegoats, and consequently are liable to punished and demonized.

Still, according to a study in Israel, it is something that comes at very young age. (Are we born racist? A new Israeli study has some surprising answers).  The roots of racism and discrimination toward those who are different from us is innate, and thus present in children and even infants, as early as 14 months/

 As a practical example, this is like Trump describing all demonstrators as “rioters” or Black Lives Matter describing the police as “racist”.  

It is also true of politicians and pundits who describe “liberals” or “conservatives” with all kinds of apocryphal feelings they have never even dreamed of having.

 Are We All Racists Deep Inside?” (Scientific American), the author took the Implicit Association Test and found that: “Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for White people over Black people and, he points out, most Black people got similar scores.“  His response: not to believe the results.

I’d like to see that test conducted with “Liberal” and “Conservative” as the topic.