Letters to the Editor
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Two statements and one question
1) The fundamental premise of this article, that every human being is predisposed to prejudice, is borne out by common experience. The idea that only white Americans are racist is as pernicious as it is incorrect; as pointed out upthread, many Asian societies are shockingly racist by our standards. I've heard things in Europe that are way out of bounds by polite American standards, and what can you call what is happening in Zimbabwe if not ethnic cleansing by an elite of governing black Africans? One could actually make a cogent argument that white Americans are the least racist people on Earth. But the argument that all people are innately biased agrees with common sense.
2) Having said that, the biases against other races are fundamentally irrational. I am much more likely to be injured by a member of my own race. All of my real threats, as opposed to imaginary or supposed threats, are likely to come from other white Americans. This would seem to be the case for just about any other person; black Zimbabweans are the principal victims of Mugabe's racist policies, for example.
3) On a totally separate note, an anonymous upthread wrote "my background is molecular genetics. if humans are 95% the same, gene for gene, as mice and 99% similar to chimpanzees (http://www.genome.gov/15515096), how similar do you think we are to each other? i'll tell you: VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL!!"
I've done some recent reading that indicates that DNA is not the sole determination of how genes are expressed in individuals. In other words, other factors (such as the various flavors of RNA) control more of the differences than the 99% match with a chimpanzee or the 95% match with a mouse would indicate. The analogy I've heard is that claiming a 99% match between humans and chimps is like saying Outlook is 99% the same as HALO because they both run on similar machines. I'd be very interested in hearing actual experts on this subject comment.
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That all races have racist members
We cannot conclude that because racism exists it is innate to the human species. Especially since race, under the skin, is a human construct.
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I'm wondering
about that doll study in the 50's--the one where all little girls, both black and white, preferred the white dolls. If we are naturally suspicious of OTHER, then why would the black girls prefer the white dolls? It seems that some kind of environmental influence was at play there.
Mostly I don't mind the notion that we are all walking around subconsciously thinking of ourselves as belonging to a particular group and seeing those outside the group as different and even untrustworthy until proven otherwise. This seems like a fundamental evolutionary concept. I agree that it would be nice if we could overcome it, somehow; I just don't find the notion wildly untenable.
I'm curious what my own responses to such a test would reveal. I consider myself thoroughly bias free, merely curious and observant. I suppose I, like most, would be surprised at my bias. I guess we can't all be like Stephen Colbert, who doesn't see skin color. :)
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Sure we all identify as members of a group
but that the group must be defined by race makes no sense. It certainly can be defined by race. But it doesn't have to be. There is a difference.
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AMAZING ARTICLE
our brains are more pit than peach.
First you tell these liberals that buying a Prius ain't that sweet. Now you tell them that we are naturally discriminitory beings. What's next? Buying carbon offsets isn't saving the world? The U.S. is actually doing a lot for AIDS in Africa? George Bush has a soul?
Amazing article.
(If Larry Summers wrote it, I imagine a different response)
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Let's Just Cut to the Chase
As Toaism and Zen Buddhism teach us, it's all about our ego--bias, discrimination, anger, fear, hatred--all products of our ego.
We may be born predisposed to bias and prejudice, but that's becaue we're born with raging egos. Get you ego under control, sublimate it, follow the instructions of the ancient Taoist and Zen masters--that is how to solve the problems of predjudice--and every other human problem as well.
Bottom line: It's the ego, stupid.
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Dawkins + Optimism
Burton has quoted Richard Dawkins in the midst of this interesting piece and I think I'll do the same, having just set down The Ancestor's Tale: "We are curiously eager to embrace racial classification, even when talking about individuals whose mixed parentage seems to make nonsense of it, and even where it is irrelevant to anything that matters." The most logical position on race (socially and scientifically) is that we are all of mixed ancestory, but that is the position our category seeking brains find least appealing. Instead we become Black, White, and Asian.
He (tentatively) offers a reason: because of the inordinate pressures that cultures and sometimes religions have brought to bear on sexual selection in favour of 'insiders' (tribe, religion, caste, etc.) our evolutionary history has created a "disproportionate amount of variation in those very genes that make it easy for us to notice variation." A greater emphasis on skin colour then, despite its superficiality.
There are reasons for optimism, however. Burton identifies one here: I recall reading summaries of these studies and the fact that the emotional response (be it fear or just uncertainty) decreases with increased contact is certainly a good thing. Familiarity breeds racial harmony. The other is a simple fact that we should never forget in these discussions: the human species is exceptionally uniform genetically. Despite our superficial heterogeneity we are a homogenous bunch. (The reason here is a story in-itself: a near extinction event that created a genetic bottleneck 70,000 years ago.) It is this sameness more than anything that proves the lie of racialism.
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Confusing two things
There is a difference between prejudice and racism. Just because people may be favorably biased toward their own group doesn't mean they must be racist against others. Racism tends to imply actions or a set of beliefs that go well beyond basic "bias" toward your own group or against other groups.
IOW, there is a big difference between a black person wearing "Say, It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" or an Irish person wearing a "Kiss Me I'm Irish" or a Polish person wearing "Polish Power" or a gay person wearing "Gay Pride" t-shirts and, for example, a black person wearing a "Honkies Suck" or a white person wearing a "Niggers Suck" or a straight person wearing "I hate Faggots" t-shirts. The latter go way beyond basic "bias" or prejudice toward your own group and against others.
Though I can imagine the "nature made me do it crowd" will add this to their litany of excuses for their personal failings like:
"See, I'm not racist, people are "naturally discrminatory" and, my current favorite; "Sorry Honey, but I could help but bang that woman because men are naturally predisposed to be attracted to hot young women with nice bodies."