Poll: Racism: Nature or Nurture?

[Thaliur]

Racism actually just describes the habit of acknowledging the existence of races, so every single person on earth is quite likely a racist (unless they are blind or something similar).
People who belong to a different kind of people (also known as a race) look different, smell different, and (although this is mostly upbringing) often have different views on certain topics.

As soon as you say "Hey, that guy looks Asian/African/European/Klatchian/Arabian", you are referring to a race, a group of people who share certain characteristics.

Categorizing people by race has always be done, is currently being done, and will be done until all mankind is completely homogenized into one single race. By that point, we will probably switch from race to species to categorize.


That kind of racism is not bad, no problem as all, and serves just as an additional way to describe people, among hair or eye colour.

It only gets bad when people say certain races are superior.
I used to live on a dorm area with several Chinese, Arabian and Indian (from the country India, not Native Americans) students and everybody got along well, unless cleaning or cooking was involved. Lots of Arabian or Indian students (the male ones) just didn't seem to be used to performing household duties, as they were brought up with the idea that this is women's work.
The Chinese students were brought up with Chinese hygienic standard (which, as they themselves admitted after a few days, were pretty low, especially concerning dishes), and of course prepared the food they were used to, which was actual Chinese food. For us Europeans, seeing pigs' ears or chicken claws swimming around in a pot of water is... quite unusual to say the least, as was the smell of some spices. One of the female Chinese students was used to wiping the stove with cooking oil before and after cleaning it, which led to a horrible smell of burnt oil, not to mention fire hazard.

Of course, people complained about such things, but no one hated them for it. Most of them got used to the European way of life, and adapted quite well. Those that didn't... well, they were still tolerated by their housemates.

So, since even infants are able to tell that a black person looks different than a white person, I say racism is natural, unless it turns into unreasonable hate against certain races.

 

[Chickenfeed]

I don't know. but did anyone else laugh at the randomness of it?

:S

 

[Worgen]

Im gonna go with mostly nurture but there is a small amount of nature just in the basics of group inclusion but alot of that can be over come with nurture

like if you just live in a single skin color house and dont see many people of a different skin color then you will naturally associate them with outsiders to the group unless someone works with you to be able to include them. Which is one reason that making sure schools are integrated as hell is a good idea.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

i've known him my whole life, and he's one of the best, most loving people i've ever met. trust me, he's no racist. i know a lot of people would say that, but seriously... no.

Even among friends, people put on the face they want you to see.

The human brain is a dark thing, and even the most outgoing of people harbor secrets.

 

[Kenko]

I'd say that its both. By nature you are suspicious by that wich is different due to survival reasons from back in the days when we were banging rocks together. But the biggest factor is the nurturing of it. Friends, family and so on may have their opinions about certain races rub off on other close to them. That combined with actual bad experiences with other races can lead to it being nurtured by the person themself.

 

[Danny Ocean]

It is natural to categorize and act on ignorance. That doesn't mean it's good, however.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

I'd say it originally came from nature, fearing these new people who looked rather different from what we were used to. However, nowadays we're a far more accepting culture and you see people of all kinds of ethnicities about the place. It's because of this that they're no longer unknown or even an unusual sight, which rather ruins the whole "fearing that which is different" idea.

So, to summarise, I think it's nurture.

Edit: Oooh! We have new Posting Guidelines!

 

[Biffin Bridge]

Racism stems from a group mentality based on a fear of the unknown. In todays culture it is generally something learned during childhood from a care giver.

We will most likely end racism completely, though it will take a few more generations.

I do think it is very important to remember that no-one is born racist. Virually all behaviour is learned and predjudice is pretty much allways passed down from parents.

 

[Sandernista]

Both, but mostly nurture.

Will expand upon this later.

 

[zehydra]

It is natural to be first afraid of people who are different than you. However, people should be taught to overcome this at an early age.

 

[Eisenfaust]

partly fear of the unknown - nature
nurture - partly controls what the unknown is

aka: both

obviously more in depth than that, but that's all i could be bothered writing

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

As a former psychology major and current sociology major, I've seen this discussed many times. While most people want to be politically correct nowadays and say it's all learned, I'm not quite buying into that.

I don't think "racism" is inherent, mind you. I do, however, think that, as you said, we have a natural tendency to see like and dislike. A circle is like an oval, but not like a square, for example.

I seem to recall something I learned in my psychology class, I can't recall if it was gen psych or personality psych, but kids don't usually register color until around 4 or maybe a little later.

That's part of the reason you won't generally see kids give descriptions of, "He was a big, black/white/etc man." You'll normally see, "He was a big man." and maybe some distinguishing features.

I'd say that your friend's kid may have just had a bad experience around a black kid around his age, or he's buying into the stereotypes of black people and doesn't like that. I know when I was about 8 or so, a black kid tried to rough me up and kept calling me "Whitey." and "Cracker." and stuff like that. I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a sore spot about for a little bit, but some of my best friends growing up were black, so I'm not sure what to say.

I'm not going to say it's purely nurture, but I'd say that nurture holds the vast majority of the influence. Remember, just because someone might be predisposed to it psychologically, doesn't mean that they will do it.

 

[JokerCrowe]

My mother's cousin put it quite brilliantly: people happy with their situation economically and/or socially, aren't in general racists. But when you're not perfectly happy with you finacial situation or your social situation it's very easy to blame another group of people.
We were talking about immigration to Sweden right then, so I guess it was mostly racism against immigrants, but I think he made a valid point.
Personally I think it's the situation entierly that makes you racist or not. So if you father tells you that a certain group of people are evil thieving scumbags who are you to argue? For all you know it's true. I don't think that some people just have "Our race is better that anyone elses" in their head when they're born. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that all discrimination is "nurtured".

EDIT: Damnit! I had this nice post lined up and then I read the OP... I have to remember to do it in the correct order! Anyway, I don't think it's impossible he heard it from somewhere and just repeated it like a parrot, without without knowing what any of it actually meant. My little sister did the same thing when she was his age.

 

[Wintermoot]

maybe he got it from kids at his school or he is just a idiot

 

[Lonan]

I remember asking my mom what people with brown skin look like when they are cut, but that was about the extent of my racism.
However, it has been shown that infants prefer people of their own "race."

 

[MikeOfThunder]

Your working under he assumption that the four year old understands what he means when saying i hate black people. Most likely he just picked that phrase up from somewhere and used it without truely knowning what he was saying.

That kid won't be racist because he's far to young to understand what racism is. He may see someone of a different colour and he will most likely question it, but on his own i doubt he would have come to the assumption that he 'hates black people'.

Racism is taught.

Although it can be inspired by bad things happening to you by a certain set group repeatedly.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

maybe he got it from kids at his school or he is just a idiot

as i mentioned, he's only 4. he has a couple little friends he *might* have learned it from, but it's unlikely.

 

[Grand_Arcana]

A bit of both. Humans, like most animals, are instinctually afraid of things that are new and difficult to understand. A person that had lived a sheltered life may simply be afraid or cautious of another race on instinct. For example, mentally challenged or deformed individuals creep me out (not something I'm proud of). I was never institutionalized into disliking them, they just weird me out because of their differences. Nurture can further reenforce nature though. Tigers, for instance, are naturally inclined to hunting, but they need a Tigress mother teach them to hone their instincts. Without nature there'd be no inclination to nurture.

 

[Falseprophet]

I think nature plays a bit of a role--they've done studies with babies and young children where they seem to respond more positively to pictures of adult faces that look more like them than another race/ethnicity. There's a lot of things babies do naturally (eg, like putting everything in their mouths) that we teach them to overcome. So it's mostly nurture that reinforces or counters this. If adults are still reinforcing racial divides as the child gets older, they will pick up on that.