24) RACISM

Every animal is born a racist, including humans.

This is due to the way the brain of every animal works, the 2-sides of the brain, one associative and the other logical.  Note that the actual placement of these 2 brains may not be exactly left and right.

The logical side is necessary in order to figure out how to eat, and the associative side is for not getting eaten.  Of course it is unusual for a human to be eaten, but the associative brain is still used for safety, and as such is very fast, much faster than logical thought. 

We will go back to the analogy of the elephant and the rider, the elephant being the associative brain.  Associative thinking means that one memory triggers another that is associated with it.  A smell could evoke the memory of a past meal and who made the food and where we were and who we were with when we ate it, etc.  All of these memories arising very quickly and with almost no energy expenditure.

Every time we get into a new situation, the elephant quickly analyzes it in order to determine whether we are in danger or not.  Many times not getting hurt depends on a quick reaction.

Safety is a matter of degree, from totally safe (100) to not safe at all (0).  We quickly come up with a safety number for each situation, usually somewhere in between on this spectrum.  

So imagine a situation walking down a sidewalk and a person is approaching from the other direction.  The elephant within quickly checks out the gender of the other, the size, the skin color, the clothes, the observable attitude, and any possible strange behavior, especially if threatening.  There isn’t any logic to this, just an almost instantaneous realization, the danger number.

This number is derived from all of our past experiences with each of the factors, our memories, plus all of the stories we have heard from or about other people.  We don’t have any control over it.  And if nothing untoward happens as we pass the person, well the associations change slightly and the next time we encounter a person with similar factors, we will get a better safety number.  On the other hand, if it is an unpleasant experience, the safety number will get worse the next time.

So we are all racists to start with, because different skin color is an obvious factor, it doesn’t matter whether it is white to black or black to white or any other color difference.

There have been many studies which examine elephant reactions.  The researchers measure body or brain responses of a person when shown assorted pictures of people.   Many people who don’t admit to being racist, it turns out are, and when shown their own results, they feel confused and upset with themselves.  Guilt can arise. 

Now let’s talk about the rider, the logic part of the brain which we employ to figure out whether or not the immediate safety number is reasonable or not.  In other words, what should we do about the situation, how will we react.

A paranoid person has a brain problem and sees excessive danger everywhere.  A Pollyanna will ignore any warning signs because they think they are immune---a lot of teenagers fall into this category, just inexperienced.  A normal person will look at the odds that the situation is dangerous, using past experience and past stories as well, but this is not instantaneous and does take logic and energy, attention.  Whatever conclusion is reached depends a lot on the upbringing by the parents, the culture we are in, our degree of learning, and recent traumas.

People who have college degrees tend to be less racist because they are better at reasoning things out, to removing parental or cultural bias.  But which came first, the college degree or the ability to use logic extensively?

For me then, a racist is someone who believes that skin color is a deciding factor in the treatment of another, whether or not that is an accurate assessment.  I guess it could be both negative and positive racism.

It’s like so many other attitudes, getting the rider to make the decisions regardless of what the elephant indicates.   Religion, class, hair style, clothes, money.  All could have unwarranted biases.  Agreed there are stereotypical categories, but it is important to remember (logic) that each individual should be treated without any preconceived notions, until we know them better.  And there is another mechanism at play here, constant correction by the rider will slowly change the elephant.

And don’t feel guilty about the elephant.  It is there for a reason, but it should not be allowed to dictate all of our responses.

Everyone is born with a racist elephant.  The studies prove that.  Even very liberal and intelligent parents raise racist children unless corrected.  I read recently that if parents are just silent about a racist attitude in front of their children, then it is allowed to perpetuate.

Surprisingly from our experiences on Caribbean islands, we found that the local black people evaluate each other based on their skin color, brown is better.

If a person is a racist even after the rider has evaluated the situation, then either they are just lazy, they use the skin-color difference to feel superior, or they have had or heard of a bad experience.  I think our meaning of racist is that we make a decision about another person based solely on skin-color.

The other important factor in our evaluation of another person is the need to feel morally superior---there is a portion of the brain which begins with the attitude that we ourselves are right and somehow better.  Righteousness.  Both liberals and conservatives can have righteousness, depending on whether we are capable of seeing the other person’s point of view.  This can be improved by a liberal arts college education or by traveling to other cultures, to name just a couple of ways.

What about other sources of righteousness, IQism or spiritualism---whether we are smarter or more spiritual than another?  These are not quite the same, because first of all they can’t be evaluated without seeing the other’s abilities and beliefs, and second, there may be some value to these.  We can either learn from a smarter or more spiritual person or if not that, at least respect them.  I would say that racism is the “judging a book by its cover”. 

I wonder if there is a test for an overt racist?  Of course these days, doing a study will get a less than honest response if a person is indeed a racist.  So what is the test?  A body or brain measurement isn’t going to tell.  Can a rider racist be outed?  Whatever the test is, it should be a factor in the hiring of a police person.

I just read an article “Battling Racial Discrimination in the D.C. Workplace” by Becky Strauss at the D.C. Policy Center from January 2019.  She says that laws won’t do it, that there must be commitments to fair hiring by a company.  The conclusion of the article is:

“D.C. businesses can commit now to ending discriminatory practices and building more diverse workforces with inclusive practices, race-conscious policies, transparent reporting, and diversity targets.  They can commit to proactive applicant recruitment outsider of their traditional networks.  They can commit to using race-blind interview processes.  The D.C. government can lead the charge, providing resources for small businesses, holding employers accountable for their commitments, and showering diversity champions with praise.”

In other words, not so simple, and certainly not automatic.