Racism: Nature or Nurture?

[Jamboxdotcom]

Heh, damn... when i saw this, i thought someone necro'd my old thread http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.249845-Poll-Racism-Nature-or-Nurture#9235357 .

OT: I've always felt that it's a bit of both. As a few others have noted above, we tend to be naturally distrustful of those who are significantly different from us. This natural distrust is then exacerbated by learned hatreds and prejudices.

 

[The Random One]

I'm just going to point out this:

1) White people feel more sympathetic pain for a purple hand than for a black hand (and vice versa). [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/05/27/racial-bias-weakens-our-ability-to-feel-someone-else%E2%80%99s-pain/]
2) I found the previous link by making a search on Cracked [http://www.cracked.com/] for 'purple night elf'. (Second result.)

Make your own judgements.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Human beings are born with psychological facilities that allow for the creation of racism and its sustainment (that's why it exists) they are not however born inherently racist. Racism is a cultural construction. Society and culture account for its creation and reproduction. If racism were inherent then it would have a long tradition of being about skin color it would be about a variety of things like eye color or hair length or other factors as defined by genetic variation among groups. Also Mr. douchy mc Douch-face in your avatar is surprisingly not made any funnier by a ridiculous mustache and still burns my biscuits for his giant douchness.

So what you are saying is that there is *no* way that someone could develop in a way in which these "psychological facilities" were pre-disposed to be less accepting of differences in others? They all develop more or less exactly the same?

By the way the reason i'm only responding to you is you're the only person who bothered to come in here and post something other than what amounts to "lol no"

No I'm saying that if your biology does not determine your prejudices, your environment, namely your culture and family, determine it because if your racism was genetic then the diversity of the human genome would surely produce more varied prejudice then what we have now and would introduce mutations and deviations that would mean that the racism we have would change or vary over time. Its clear that humans have minds that allow for racism to exist but racism is not genetic. If I wanted to I could look up some material and prove race doesn't exist and thus the concept of racism must be a social construction since race is a social construction but most people find that hard to swallow and I'm not in the mood to go thumbing through online papers to support a losing argument when its only tangentially relate to the topic.

If I wanted to be an ass and post "lol, no" I would have.

 

[Smooth Operator]

We have the intellect to push us beyond our primal nature, otherwise I would now be running around humping girls legs, then dragging them back to my cave.

You can do/be better then that, and you are responsible if you don't.

 

[ShakyFt Slasher]

I think that if you come from a racist background then yes you can be raised into racism. However one can in fact move away from that background. You aren't born with racist feelings they just come to you. I was thankfully NOT raised that way and always taught everyone is equal

 

[FalloutJack]

Racism: Nature or Nurture?

Stupidity.

*Rimshot*

Next question please!

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

We, as a species, do have a predilection towards segregating into small bands, which often manifests as fandom for sports teams, or religious denominations. This instinct can easily be manipulated to create antipathy between racial or cultural identities.

Most racial hostility manifests as scapegoating, when a society is troubled (say via economic depression or due to a chain of natural disasters). Human beings will often seek out simple explanations that have obvious actionable solutions, rather than complex (if more accurate) explanations that require more sophisticated responses (if they can be solved at all).

238U.

 

[Arsen]

I experience frequent bouts of uncontrollable anger towards the minority types who lower their standards to such disastrous levels that it often makes me question whether or not racism is a bad commodity to have around. Seriously. There exist some people on this planet who, for no reason other than the fact that they can't bring themselves up a certain standard, feel as if the negative perception they have received is unwarranted.

Was I brought up to dislike people of different cultures, ethnicities, etc? No.
Over time, did I eventually see the problems and difficulties which others...refuse to change in the eyes of the majority? Oh yes...

This leads to the racism that many perceive to be wrong, but is in truth heavy criticism towards the many facets of reality several communities face, depending which demographic we are speaking of here.

Nurture towards those who are raised with the indoctrinated perspective, nature to those who have experienced it in an empirical sense.

 

[Ogargd]

Nurture, white people are not born hating black people or Asian people. If a white child grows up in an Asian family then they will not instantly hate the family on the basis of their skin colour.

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

It's a bit of both, but mostly nurture.

We're naturally going to distinguish "like" from "unlike." A white guy is like a black guy in the sense that they are both male, but unlike in the sense that they're different colors. his may breed either a like or dislike of one or the other, the potential for both is there.

I'm willing to bet that most white people have mostly white friends, most black people have mostly black friends, and so forth and so on. This topic was brought up in one of my sociology classes, and one girl said, "Well, white people tend to live in mostly white neighborhoods, and black people tend to live in mostly black neighborhoods." (I'm paraphrasing, it was a few years ago.)

My professor asked what the class thought, and I said the exact same thing as I said above, and the girl who was trying to pull the racism card didn't have any argument to the fact.

It's not really a "race" issue so much as one of class and culture. Think about it. Would you rather have someone of similar class and culture watch your child while you're away, or would you rather have someone that different from you in both looks and culture, even if yor class is the same or similar?

Children don't even distinguish color until the age of about four or five anyway, so it's unlikely that nature has a huge part in it unless the stuff mentioned above is taken in the wrong direction.

In short, if you're nurtured to focus on the negative sides of the unlike, which is noted by nature, then you'll likely end up racist.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

Nurture creates Bigotry and Racism

(social influence of generation + parents = Nurture)

This is my understanding.

As a child I had never met a black person until I started School.
(apart from my auntie who is half cast, but I never even noticed any difference)
I had never been told by anyone to hate anyone by my parents.
When I started school and saw a black girl I didn't feel any natural hate.
Sure there was the initial "omg your different!" and "why are you chocolate flavoured and Im vanilla?" But thats just kids nothing racist or malicious.

Many people have racist/bigot parents. Not their fault it's just how they where brought up by the generations above them. Leading them to believe this kind of thinking is acceptable in a modern society.
This kid from my school (same time as the above mentioned example BTW) he turned into quite the little ignorant Piece of Crap because his parents hated people of different ethnic backgrounds and religion. I had the displeasure of going through high school with this fellow and unfortunately was sat next to him in history. He told me about his dad and himself and how they both agreed with Hitler's beliefs. Maybe not his means, but his ends definitely...

Needless to say, this guy was a nasty piece of work and has been since I met him.
No child could possibly conjure up those kind of thoughts about their fellow human being.
This case was obviously down to his father.

--------
Or, in other cases they develop their thoughts of their own accord.
TBH I don't know how to class that and don't fully understand the thought process behind it.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

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.

So, would you say that someone who *was* pre-disposed to racism regardless of environmental factors actually had a mental disorder, rather than just being willfully malicious?

No I wouldn't. We all have, deep down, the instinctive fear of the unknown and the need to find belonging alongside other people like us, because this instinct was what used to keep us alive.

I'm not saying it's a good thing. In the modern world it's one of the greatest flaws in human nature, but you cannot call a natural instinct that we all have, and used to serve a very important purpose, a mental disorder.

 

[Servantes]

No one is ever designed to be racist, comes with thoes around them, learning how they choose to react to it.

Strip it down to its basic instincts , Person sees something it dose not like, person thinks it should be easy to understand, finds out its not, then thinks it should be destroyed, cant destroy it, so hate it.

Actions define us all afterwords.

 

[Pietho]

Look at any kid under the age of one year... Racism is learned.