Racism: Nature or Nurture?

[LiberalSquirrel]

If you mean discrimination in terms of racism, sexism, and all those other "isms," then it's definitely nurture. I've read somewhere that very young children are only prejudiced against someone due to a perceived difference when their parents are visible discriminatory. Otherwise- they will notice a difference, but rather than immediately be condescending/discriminatory, they will simply ask questions about it. Questions of a non-offense, childishly curious manner. That seems to prove the "nurture, not nature" argument, at least to me.

 

[xXAsherahXx]

We are always taught racism. Take children for example, the younger ones just want somebody to play with, skin color does not matter. It is only after the parents or caretakers get to them that they become the racists they are later.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

There is no such thing as "racism". We made it up through our own hatreds and intolerances.

Besides, there is only one race: THE HUAMN RACE! Oddly enough, we are the only species who consciously identify race as a definitive thing.

 

[MikailCaboose]

Racism exists because of age-old religious, political, and economical needs. It's hard to stomach enslaving blacks unless you strip away their humanity. Once you consider them as stupid beasts, then it's easier to handle what you are doing. Racism towards them bloomed from a desire to enslave them.

That's just one example.

There's no biological inclination towards racism. There's just societal needs, followed by teaching from bigoted parents.

Oddly, whites were enslaved by whites for quite a while before anyone realized they could go buy slaves from tribes in Africa by trading guns and such and turn a much better profit.

They weren't involuntary or for life, but beyond that all bets were off. You could bring subjective nonsense into it like "they were treated better", but you don't really know that unless you witnessed it yourself.

Actually, interestingly enough during the Confederacy in the US white slaves/indentured servants were actually treated worse than the African slaves.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Its nutured. You can actually be completely unracist, just through a very sheltered upbringing. it also depends on who your family "tells" you to hate.

 

[Bran1470]

well i have noticed that racism usually comes from jealousy that said its only natural

 

[el_kabong]

As with almost all 'nature or nurture' questions, it is both.

Our brains are programmed from our early tribal days to seek protection amongst people that we can identify with, and reject out of fear those we cannot.

This is cultivated into 'Racism' when combined with ill-informed and bigoted ideals pressed upon us in our childhoods.

You can add environmental factors into this as well. For example: increase in immigration = more competition for jobs = higher unemployment = resentment.

Basically this. Well summed up. You even hit on social conflict theories. Although I would add that not all racist ideals are something learned in childhood. One modern example is someone who is taken in by racist organizations either because they simply offer people a place to stay or they may have met friends that they've gotten close to who are racists.

If cults have taught us anything, indoctrination can be done at any age.

 

[MasterChief892039]

Racism is one of very few things I believe is mostly "nurture". I imagine if someone of one race grew up with no knowledge of other races they might draw some broad generalizations upon being introduced for the first time, but a person who grew up surrounded by people of all colours isn't going to believe that black people can't swim or Asian people can't drive unless someone tells them to think that. Especially for people who are consumed with hatred for another race, like members of the KKK - no one's naturally born with that kind of hate unless they're born completely mad. It's a taught behaviour for the majority.

My mom's racist again Asian people. Her main problem is confirmation bias - she got the idea at one time or another that all Asians are a)bad drivers b)rude and incapable of taking others into consideration and c)are all immigrants, that none were born in our country. When she sees an Asian person drive badly, or a group of Asian people blocking a hallway while they talk, she immediately points them out to prove that she's not racist and that her stereotyping is a correct and inbred part of being Asian... but when an Asian person manages to drive past her without running her off the road, or when an Asian holds a door open for her, she suddenly doesn't notice. She's only capable of seeing what fits into her preexisting opinions of Asian people.

 

[Autohellion]

Most of existing discrimination has been built up by thousands of years of religion.

Habity hobidy what? How does religion have anything to do with racism?

 

[Dastardly]

Always wondered that. I mean, we all know that everyone is a little racist by default, otherwise racist jokes would never be funny, but I'm more talking about the hardcore racists who live this stuff.

And if it is something you're born with, can you really hold them responsible for it? I mean, It's not like they could help it if they were genetically designed to be excessively racist.

It's a bit of both. Mostly nurture, though.

Nature can create the soil in which the "racism seed" can take root. But someone or something has to plant that seed, whether it be a respected older relative, a good friend, or just a bad experience involving a particular race.

The real "nature" part comes back to our tendency as human beings to make generalizations. While generalizing is often viewed as a negative, the fact is that it is an adaptation that has kept us alive. For instance, when you encounter a new type of chair, you reason that it will support you in much the same way as other chairs have in the past. When you encounter a bear, you can reason that this bear (like many others) is dangerous and should be avoided, even if you haven't had personal experience with this or any other bear.

It's simply our ability to catalog similarities and differences, and assign meaning to both for future reference. You can read some Piaget for his ideas on schema, or any gestalt psychology for similar explanations. But, like anything, this adaptation can be problematic if it is over-applied.

Couple this, for instance, with what is called an "external locus of control." The sort of person with this sort of locus believes that whatever happens to them (particularly the negative) is a result of external circumstances about which they could have done nothing. You probably know a hundred people like this.

That sort of person has something bad happen, or someone does something mean to them... and immediately, they look for something that differentiates this person from them (makes them "external") and blames that for the problem. Skin color is often the most noticeable difference.

Really, our own psychology makes us all prone to racism. Add to that our natural inclination to prefer things and people that are more like ourselves, and it's amazing more of us aren't raging racists anymore. We've really come a long way.

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

I'd say half and half... While it's obvious that Racism is taught, I also think that Racism can be natural...

Ok, that last bit there sounded terrible! You guys get what I'm going for right???

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Nature plays the slightest role in it but it is mainly nurture.

 

[Robert632]

I believe it's a combination of both. We pretty much all start from birth to distrust and fear that which is different from us, but this effect is either lessened or intensified depending on how we are raised.

 

[Warlord211]

My dad is really racist against black people for no reason other than his dad and family are all like that. I, however, am more tolerant of other races, unlike my idiotic family. I don't know why I am not racist because I was raised to basically hate everyone who wasn't white, it is weird.

 

[C.S.Strowbridge]

It's a bit of both. Racism is part of all of us, because we are born with the ability to recognize patterns and learn from them. We will make generalizations about people based on past experiences with other people who share similar traits. However, while the pattern recognition skill is important for survival, it can also backfire and the results can include racism and superstition, both of which can also be taught to us by others.

 

[Hungry Donner]

They're both important components. Humans are naturally neophobic, they tend to be inherently distrustful of groups they don't know even if they look the "same." However it is the social component that really weighs this down: it is the social component that defines the groups.

In the US today it would be odd to discriminate against someone who is Irish or Italian. This doesn't mean that stereotypes don't exist, but you're unlikely to find someone who hates all Irish Americans. A hundred years ago things were quite different, Irish Americans weren't considered part of mainstream America.

 

[TehCookie]

Both. Racism is to a large extent stupidity, which is nature. However, it is also a lot of ignorance, which is just the lack of experience. If you are raised by racists, you will be racist until you you have experiences that teach you how stupid it is. That is nurture.

Of Course, if you are stupid, you will ignore your experiences and stick to your "the blacks are all evil, except for my buddy of course, he's one of the good ones." That's where assholes who say things like "I don't hate black people, just the ones who act like niggers" come from.

So, it's both. Although there is no doubt that it is much more nurture, than nature.

You say that like your experience is going to be positive and not reinforce the stereotypes and what everyone was telling you.

 

[Shock and Awe]

I think racism is generally caused by minorities being so damned inferior.

OT: A little of both, people are naturally inclined to associate with those like themselves. Though we do not naturally hate other groups.

 

[BabySinclair]

We instinctively recognize others as different due to biological differences, if the difference is great enough they are placed in a different category then ourselves. What these differences mean however is taught, minor territorial and environmental differences can be more important than skin color, look at all the genocidal tribes in Africa and fun times in South East Asia, hell, American southerners have done some nasty shit to northerners.

Difference is inherent, the reactions at these differences is social.