Science, Religion, Politics and in the pursuit of truth – HappyPsychotic

On Racism:

Definition: a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

First off, I disagree with the definition regarding the superior nature portion – specifically I think of racism in broader terms, specifically an abstraction of a trait applied to a particular race – negatively or positively. Secondly it should be noted that there is no clear definition of what a race is from Anthropology. Here are some general notes:

• any of the traditional divisions of humankind, the commonest being the Caucasian, Mongoloid, and Negro, characterized by supposedly distinctive and universal physical characteristics: no longer in technical use.
• an arbitrary classification of modern humans, sometimes, esp. formerly, based on any or a combination of various physical characteristics, as skin color, facial form, or eye shape, and now frequently based on such genetic markers as blood groups.
• a human population partially isolated reproductively from other populations, whose members share a greater degree of physical and genetic similarity with one another than with other humans.
• Note a) is explicitly that this term “race” is no longer in use, b) specifically states it is arbitrary, and c) notes (typically a more biologically based argument) that there is often noted isolated reproductively from other races, meaning one race can not reproduce with another – which is clearly not the case to the dismay of fringe groups like the KKK and Catholics – oops, did I say Catholics?

Having noted this, a strong argument can be made that there are no “races” at all and hence racism is really a form of self hatred. Obviously there exists in society some semblance of understanding (without specific definition) that different races do exists, so we will proceed with the conversation.

My major thought on the definition of racism is that what is typically made as an accusation of racism is actually a vocalized form of exactly how are brains work and have evolved. You could even note that we have survived as a species (another term with no clear definition, but let’s move on) because our brain makes assumptions about “groups” of objects and applies traits to those objects. More specifically, I think our brain works like a giant modeling tool it constantly abstracts information from the world and applies to it pre-existing models [side note, this is why kids are so interesting sometimes because their models are not very well established hence can fluctuate wildly often leading to interesting notions, questions, comments etc] The brain for the most part trys to re-enforce its existing models by filtering contradictory information and enhancing supporting information (think Republican/Democrats here as an example or better yet, religion) This is the reason a paradigm shift is such a big deal – it forces people to HAVE to have their brain remodel information in the face of overwhelming evidence (not that this overwhelming evidence sometimes even makes a difference, i.e. young earth creationists) The brain requires this model because if it had to process each piece of input seperately it would be incredibly hard to perform even the simplest tasks, like getting dressed in the morning! Following that example, consider the brain has an excellent model of your own body (something it discovers quite young), an excellent model of your room (think of walking into a wall last time you slept in a hotel and woke thinking you were in your own bedroom) and even models time and events (how long it takes to do things, sequences etc)

The point is these models not only help us function, but are an incredible evolutionary step – simply because we exist! On a more general side, consider that we can’t learn to drive every single car, but we can drive every standard car because our brain abstracts driving as a model, same with hunting, reproduction, games, etc. We sometimes note that today was the “same-old same-old” routine, but really every time you do anything, it is completely a unique event! It is the braing that applies a model and generalizes the event to the model – puts it into the “box” as I like to say it.

So back to racism, it is not a justification for applying traits to groups, but simply noting that this is how the brain processes information, specifically it creates a model (in this case against a race) and applies attributes to that model in general as a SURVIVAL mechanism – nothing more. People who deny that they do this in any way are basically saying they have freak brains that don’t work right, something I have a hard time believing, but that is just my brains model speaking!