Everyone is racist, yes OP, even you. You may not realize it, but you are and there's not really a lot you can do about it other than try to ignore it. We're a social species and as a social species we have a tribal mentality that is hardwired into our brains from 3MA of evolution.
Humans are social organism. That means we live in societies and interact with other organisms of the same species. ALL social organisms have in-groups and out-groups. Taking an ant as example, its in-group would be all the other ants that live in the same ant mound. Its out-group would be all the other ants in adjacent ant mounds.
In modern evolutionary theory there is a closely related concept called the GREEN BEARD EFFECT [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green-beard_effect]. The idea is that suppose you possessed an unusual characteristic (a green beard). If you happen to cross paths with another person possessing the same unusual characteristic, then recognizing that you share at least that trait in common you may be inclined to act more favorably toward that person. Doing so would improve your reproductive fitness with respect to that trait even if the person is not closely related to you genetically.
When it comes to survival, humans as an omnivorous species will require a territory, similar to wolves today. This territory will need to be fairly large, often much larger than required to ensure a steady supply of prey and edible vegetation. Other predators would've been hunted the same as herbivores that we hunted so the most obvious threat would be that of another tribe trying to take over our territory or attempt to take resources from it. This is something that warrants aggression.
Racism is, unfortunately, just part of who we are. It's genetic and, therefore, cannot be altered. You cannot change who you trust any more than what smells you like. Today it takes on a far more complex form and can often be very subtle in how it displays itself. For instance, you may be more favorable to someone of the same fashion group as you (Green Beard Effect) or you may act slightly less favorably to someone who triggers something in you that you have learned to distrust over time (for example, I don't like people who wear suits to work), this is basic conditioning which goes into a much deeper reasoning for why racism persists today.
Racism now is less about survival and more about various psychological triggers from conditioning throughout our lives. Various authoritarian figures in our lives, like our parents or other adult family members during our childhood all the way up to the various people we interact with throughout our lives have conditioned us (whether intentionally or not) to think a certain way about a group of people. This is far easier for a child as making these judgments are more about gut instinct than any association with experience, but those early signs of bigotry can be very pervasive and may continue for some time, especially when they are ritualized.
Basically, as far as I can make out, racism is pretty much the same as any other distrust of a social group. It's a snap judgment based on various factors and doesn't simply refer to ones dislike of someone's skin colour but also their culture and their language for whatever reason.
Racism seems (in my opinion) to be no different than disliking people who listen to Justin Bieber, or all the Windows users disliking Mac users (and vice versa). It's not something we can control, really, some people just rub you the wrong way even though the only reason you dislike them is because they're associated with a group that you don't have much fondness for, for whatever reason.
Also, I should point out that even though racism does have an evolutionary origin it doesn't make it right. Thanks. I hope I made some kind of sense here.
Humans are social organism. That means we live in societies and interact with other organisms of the same species. ALL social organisms have in-groups and out-groups. Taking an ant as example, its in-group would be all the other ants that live in the same ant mound. Its out-group would be all the other ants in adjacent ant mounds.
In modern evolutionary theory there is a closely related concept called the GREEN BEARD EFFECT [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green-beard_effect]. The idea is that suppose you possessed an unusual characteristic (a green beard). If you happen to cross paths with another person possessing the same unusual characteristic, then recognizing that you share at least that trait in common you may be inclined to act more favorably toward that person. Doing so would improve your reproductive fitness with respect to that trait even if the person is not closely related to you genetically.
When it comes to survival, humans as an omnivorous species will require a territory, similar to wolves today. This territory will need to be fairly large, often much larger than required to ensure a steady supply of prey and edible vegetation. Other predators would've been hunted the same as herbivores that we hunted so the most obvious threat would be that of another tribe trying to take over our territory or attempt to take resources from it. This is something that warrants aggression.
Racism is, unfortunately, just part of who we are. It's genetic and, therefore, cannot be altered. You cannot change who you trust any more than what smells you like. Today it takes on a far more complex form and can often be very subtle in how it displays itself. For instance, you may be more favorable to someone of the same fashion group as you (Green Beard Effect) or you may act slightly less favorably to someone who triggers something in you that you have learned to distrust over time (for example, I don't like people who wear suits to work), this is basic conditioning which goes into a much deeper reasoning for why racism persists today.
Racism now is less about survival and more about various psychological triggers from conditioning throughout our lives. Various authoritarian figures in our lives, like our parents or other adult family members during our childhood all the way up to the various people we interact with throughout our lives have conditioned us (whether intentionally or not) to think a certain way about a group of people. This is far easier for a child as making these judgments are more about gut instinct than any association with experience, but those early signs of bigotry can be very pervasive and may continue for some time, especially when they are ritualized.
Basically, as far as I can make out, racism is pretty much the same as any other distrust of a social group. It's a snap judgment based on various factors and doesn't simply refer to ones dislike of someone's skin colour but also their culture and their language for whatever reason.
Racism seems (in my opinion) to be no different than disliking people who listen to Justin Bieber, or all the Windows users disliking Mac users (and vice versa). It's not something we can control, really, some people just rub you the wrong way even though the only reason you dislike them is because they're associated with a group that you don't have much fondness for, for whatever reason.
Also, I should point out that even though racism does have an evolutionary origin it doesn't make it right. Thanks. I hope I made some kind of sense here.
