Poll: Racism: Nature or Nurture?

[Allison Chainz]

I believe that pretty much all forms of discrimination are manifestations of people's fear of the unfamiliar. People, for the most part, naturally gravitate to those who look like themselves. However, even among people that look alike, if they believe largely different things, then discrimination pops up again. We as human beings tend to like the safe and familiar. Anything opposed to our comfort zone scares us, and thus we rage against it. Racism and other things of it's ilk, are what happens when we act simply on that fear and throw all rationale out the window.

That's not to say that nurture plays no role. Children tend to believe what their parents tell them, unless they experience something that makes them doubt what they have been told. Other circumstances of one's upbringing also come into play. Stereotypes and generalizations spring from things that are at least sometimes true, and if that's pretty much all you've seen, you begin to believe them as blanket truths.

I myself am black, and have an ingrained fear of other black people, particularly in large groups. This is because where I am from, black people in large groups is highly unusual, and often associated with gang violence. I grew up in a neighborhood with almost no black people and went to a school with very few blacks. Had the opposite been true, I'm sure that I would harbor the same fear towards some other group. The main thing, is not to let that fear define who you are and what you do.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I went other. I don't think it has anything to do with nature as then there would be a universal dislike against *everything* that is the quintessential 'other'. Nor would you have such divergent, periodic hatreds in strong anglo-saxony cultural backgrounds such as France, Britain and Tirol region Germany.

Nor do I believe it's nurture ... though I believe it can facilitate racism, particularly in places where exposure to extra-familial psyches was limited (farms, where the distance between neighbours can be many miles).

But the fact of the matter is in places with a heavy focus of forming lasting bonds beyond the family, home and specific ties to specific lands (such as cities, whereby populations there in are semi-migratory as people change where they are renting all the time, always going out and experiencing migrant cultures, etc etc. So I'm going with what I'm going to term 'social'.

Now you might be asking "what's the difference between 'nurture' and 'social'?".

In my opinion nurtured psychological stances are ingrained through indoctrination, social is things beyond indoctrination.

Such as the rapid onset of war, whereby a collection of nations may have had rivalries, but doue to the collective notion of 'us vs them' with the onset of war can breed strong hatred based on 'race'.

The onset of war, perceptions of predatory alien influence, can often occur in a matter of months ... and thus it's a dynamic environmental climate rather than a prolonged exposure (and indoctrination) that someone else and their entire ethnicity/nation/geographic region are 'bad people'.

So I draw a line between social and nurture there. Frankly you see an explosion of anti quickly explode during war, and then simmer to nothing after the guns have fallen silent.

[Edit:]I mean, strong racism. In the same manner as strong sexism or homophobia, does stem from a fundamental hatred of a divergent psychological or physiological condition.

I don't believe this is entirely nurture or nature. We are as human beings expected to rise above our faults and become civil adults.

Your father being abusive alcoholic, hate speaking douchebag is no excuse for you to be a violent wanker.

And indeed I know people that have risen above this condition due in no small part from indoctrination from birth to final contact with the offending persons. Much in the same way that homosexual children find strength to eventually confront their parents despite the fear of rejection by those that created you.

Humans should be expected to be better people as they grow older, and for 99% of us this is true.

We become less ignorant, experience love and lose it just as quickly ... through all that dedication and the natural process of living life we become a better part of the whole that constitutes the immediate social fabric.

Nurture would stipulate that stagnation, rather than the constant march of civilization, would be the primary social quality of the human experience and frankly I don't see it.

 

[kickyourass]

I think it's a bit of both, from what I understand (Which I fully admit isn't alot) humans are, at least partially, hardwired to feel uneasiy when they encounter something different, and something like skin color is a very noticable difference. This can and has led the less intellegent of the species to Racism. On top of that if you're raised by a rasict asshole you're probably going to turn out a racist asshole.

 

[crudus]

TL;DR My friend's kid, who couldn't have possibly been "taught" racism, seems to hate black people (despite not really knowing any). Do you think this is just a result of our natural fear of that which is different?

Ok, first of all you need to differentiate between a 4 year old spouting nonsense and the kid meaning it. I have more than a few times said "I hate black people" to illustrate a point, but just because I said it doesn't mean it is true.

Moving on, racism is both nature and nurture. Babies are capable of <a href=http://www.cracked.com/article_18404_6-shockingly-evil-things-babies-are-capable-of.html>racism (number 5 in that list). However, it is one thing to prefer your race over another (makes sense. Your clan is better than the other clan because your survival is reliant on your clan's survival), but it is something different when racism goes to the length of the KKK. In short, racism is instinct but the extent of the racism is taught.

 

[The Rockerfly]

It's natural to be uncomfortable with things that are different from what we are used to

However if you're nurtured to hate then chances are it will be a lot harder to change that persons opinion on that demographic

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Both. It appears to be a fundamental part of our psychology to establish groups. Thus there is always going to be an "us" and a "them". Who comprises "them" is really the problem. Someone is going to fit into that category and the basis for choosing who is categorized there is almost certainly nurture.

Or to rephrase that a a more concise way, it is in our nature to form groups but the membership of the groups is defined by nurture.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Both.

Edgar Casey said in one time that he could see Auras. In one individual every time the man said, what today would be considered racist, about black men. He could see a shadow of a past life in the mans aura.

I know of stories where there was a racist person whose parents did not raise him to be a racist. Other stories of children who were raised by racist parents but turned out not to be racist. There is a bit of both nature and nurture in everything we do.

But in the end no matter our nature WE as human being with FREE-WILL can decide to change the course of our fate. No matter the nurture WE can still CHOOSE to be who we want to be.

 

[Levi93]

i believe its a combination of the irrational human fear of that which is different which is often re-enforced by parents/ guardians teachings.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

-snip-

Ok, first of all you need to differentiate between a 4 year old spouting nonsense and the kid meaning it. I have more than a few times said "I hate black people" to illustrate a point, but just because I said it doesn't mean it is true.

well, to clarify, he said it vehemently, and sounded like he was terrified. it was more than just nonsense, but i also realize that he probably doesn't really mean "hate" so much as that he's afraid.

 

[Denamic]

Fear of the unknown is one of the most basic survival instincts there is.
Of course, nurturing is the only plausible explanation for the retarded reaction racists have to other people just because their skin is of a different colour.

 

[Actual]

Did anyone ask the kid what he meant by it?

If had to guess, if he's never really met a black person maybe he doesn't realise they're people at all, that could be his idea of what the bogey man looks like. Kid's imaginations are strange.

It's totally nurture, sure it could be fear of the unknown but if you grow up surrounded by different coloured people who your parents teach you are just like you, you won't learn fear, which leads to hate, which leads to anger, which leads to being a racist.

 

[Choppaduel]

...couldn't have possibly been "taught" racism

People learn from more sources than just their parents. I would say that he must have been "taught racism" by someone or some media outlet.

 

[Caligulove]

The way I see it, Racism is Nature.
Bigotry is Nurture.

Everyone is a little bit racist, in that everyone interprets changes in people other than themselves, and act accordingly (differently) when encountering said other people. On top of that, our brains categorize things, and something like 'race' (even though we're all human) is something that can easily be applied as a different characteristic between a random handful of humans.

The problem is where those assumptions and those feelings carry with them a negative weight, or an assumption that one trait or one skin color makes them superior to another, or other traits that really have no merit when closely examined- and it's that kind of ignorance and hate that really has to be nurtured, to prevent the naturally curious human mind to discover that it's actually wrong in it's assumptions.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

The way I see it, Racism is Nature.
Bigotry is Nurture.

Everyone is a little bit racist, in that everyone interprets changes in people other than themselves, and act accordingly (differently) when encountering said other people. On top of that, our brains categorize things, and something like 'race' (even though we're all human) is something that can easily be applied as a different characteristic between a random handful of humans.

The problem is where those assumptions and those feelings carry with them a negative weight, or an assumption that one trait or one skin color makes them superior to another, or other traits that really have no merit when closely examined- and it's that kind of ignorance and hate that really has to be nurtured, to prevent the naturally curious human mind to discover that it's actually wrong in it's assumptions.

very well put. also, i love your avatar, which is why i singled out your statement, among many that were equally cogent.