Is racism natural?

Question

The natural result of two common types of thinking:
| pack mentality
|| the devil you know

Does it take rationality to overcome racism?
If it demands active thinking, can it ever be truly equal treatment?

Answer 1

Racism had to come from somewhere, in the beginning, which means it has to be somewhat natural. We categorize things in our brains all the time to make it easier to store and remember information. That's natural. It stands to reason that eventually you'll start to categorize behaviors with physical features that you observe in your life. As soon as you vocalize this categorization, it starts to take on a life of its own. Next thing ya know, we've got racism.

Answer 2

I think racism is natural. It's a survival technique. Racism psychologically works about the same as a high school pep rally. The intent is to mentally pump up your social group in order to have an advantage against the other group during some competition. Most people mistake racism as being learned when it is actually the ethical boundaries that one learns. Face it, every one has a favorite team and thinks theirs is the best. There is no getting around a feeling of superiority, it's human nature. It's how far you take it that matters.

I do not what anyone to use my answer to perpetuate their own racist beliefs because in an ethical and socially conscience society like ours, racism is still a horrible attitude and can get you shot. My answer was only to enlighten readers on human nature.

Answer 3

When you look into the animal kingdom you see racism even more than in humans. An example is different specices of bats will not commune together even if they are regionaly close to each other. Im not talking bout lions eating gazelles that is the food chain im talking about interspecies relations. Animal predudice is even more blind than ours as there is no social presense or anyone them that it's wrong and It's worse the more scarce the resources are in the area the animals are living. which would explain why different breeds of domesticated animal do not display predudice because they live in good conditions. This links into humans because we are basically just animals like any other and dispaly the same characteristics. the reason it is not so prominent in some places is because of the social influence that exists. Also in the southern states where the standards of living are not as high as the north there is more racism, proving my theory. Rasism is the worst in LEDC's(less economically developed countries)though most dont know this and believe it is worse in their countries due to media attention, I can prove this because of the genocide in africa and seria leone. this is because of the low standard of living and the fight for food and rescources. In the west we really are less rasicst but it seems hard to believe.

Look at To Kill a Mockingbird for some good examples.

Answer 4

Of course it is. Xenophobia and ethnocentrism.

When two people that are very different, meet for the first time, it can be disastrous. How many American Indians died in the first 20 years after europeans arrived en masse to the Americas? Have this questioned ever been posted?

Within a global village it might fade away, but if we humans acquire the ability to isolate ourselves for extremely long periods of time through, lets say, interstellar travel, then racism will rear its natural head again.

We can even take it one step further. Imagine what it would have been like if Amerindians had been isolated for a much longer period of time, that by the time the Europeans arrived they had evolved into a different species of humans.

Answer 5

Yes, it is natural, but perhaps "racism" is the wrong term. Call it "prejudice" or even a "superiority complex."

People are always being subjugated or discriminated against for various reasons, not always racial. There are religious, social, economical, and even gender aspects behind it.

It's natural because it happens in all species. No one ever easily accepts something that is different - whether it be a person's skin color or an animal's scent. That's just the way the world works.

Answer 6

No. Racism is a by-product of ignorance. It is the belief that one race is superior. The reality is that there's only ONE race: Human. Is it "natural"? No.

Does it take rationality to overcome it? No. Why? Because racism is irrational. To assume that rationality would be an antidote is to assume that an irrational mind would accept rationality. It has become addicted to its own irrationality.

What is needed is love. Only love can cut through the thick veil of ignorance. But first, before love, one must be courageous. Only by being courageous can one find the love to transform the ignorant.

I wish you Peace.

Answer 7

Racism is taught and also developed from ignorance. It takes a conscious willingness to think differently, and a willingness to learn more about different races, to overcome racism.

If you had a group of newborn babies, all of different races, and taught them from the beginning of life, that differences in physical features are just a part of the variety of life, and present it as matter-of-factly that you would present the difference between a penis and a vagina, racist thinking would not be like it is today.

Again using children as an example, when children don't have all the facts about something they have seen, they tend to come of with wild stories about what they imagine must be true. Because of ignorance between races, unknowns are filled in by wild misconceptions.

Equality is a myth. Nothing is ever truly equal between man or woman or between races.

Answer 8

Racism is not natural. Racism is an individual belief or maybe a characteristic. I think people tend to criticize other race to feel superior than the other. But what they do not know is that they also depend on that particular race or the country of its race indirectly by the country's resources. Racism is definitely not natural!

Answer 9

Ethnocentrism is natural.
Racism is learned, as a product of the two above criteria you mention or just plain bigotry.
If you're asking if all races will ever be considered equally and given equal treatement, the best hope at that solution lies in the education of ethnocentrism. That, and the fact that there is more genetic diversity within a race than lies between races- And all of this is contingent upon the fact you actually acknowledge the construct of "race."

Answer 10

To our hominid ancestors and near relatives, racism may have helped with survival: “If you don’t look like me, you must be competing for my food.”

Since just before the advent of the industrial age even the poor (for the most part) have food. The US alone now produces enough food to feed three times more people than are alive today, so any pre bronze age need for racism is anywhere from 5000 to 200 years out of date.

Only time, education and exposure to others will SLOWLY erode racism.