Listen to Reason Part-3

Now that I’ve said all of that about the danger of illogical fear of an ambiguous enemy, I’d like to address another aspect of fear and the masses. Many people would argue that there is a tenuous relationship between fear and hate, at most. I believe that hate is a direct result of fear, no matter how far removed it may be. There are two components which I would like to address here, the first of which pertains to a gut reaction to new information, the second, to how we process that stimulus. (By “gut reaction”, I refer to subconscious or, at least, sub-intellectual reaction.) Xenophobia is the fear of all things alien, that is, anything unfamiliar. As living things, we need to fear that which deviates from our concept of normal. If not, predators would have no opposition at all, picking us off one by one as we ignore their presence. Apprehension toward difference was, and is, necessary for survival. This first component is, reductio ad absurdum, fear. More precisely, it is fear of the unknown, and therefore possibly dangerous.
One of the well accepted measures of intelligence in animals is the capacity of self awareness. Self awareness is defined as the ability to distinguish between oneself and others, as separate entities, a clear definition between oneself and one’s environment. This is a function of a thought process which we will refer to as categorization. Categorization is a function so basic, not at all unique to humanity, it is the foundation of nearly all higher brain function. Take the monarch butterfly for example. When eaten, it is poisonous; this is its defense adaptation. The effectiveness of this defense relies heavily on the ability of the animal’s predators to learn, and think categorically. A fox eats a monarch, gets very sick, and learns not to eat them again. The fox has filed monarch butterflies into his “not food” category. As an interesting side note, the Viceroy butterfly mimics the markings of a monarch, despite being perfectly edible, as its natural defense. Please note this is another example of animals in nature relying on the cognitive ability to sort, and deduce, and categorize. How is one to exist, survive, if he/ she cannot sort information? It is indisputably necessary to separate food from poison, predator from prey, male from female, self from environment, my race from your race. “Whoa, wait a second! That sounds like racist logic.” Regrettably, it is, in a manner of speaking.
What we are is a species which displays exceptional capability to sort information, in addition to harboring fear of the alien typical of most mammals. This is an effective, albeit unfortunate filter for sensory input. We have grown, vastly, beyond the days of evading predators and eating butterflies. Yet, we maintain the neurology suited for doing so, as it has worked thus far, and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We are presented with the problem at hand; the prevalence of racism and prejudice in general. Any grown person, with faculties intact, can see that racism is wrong. It’s wrong morally; it limits social, industrial, and commercial potential. Racism is in fact so inherently wrong that it produces violence, discrimination, even genocide. Why then, is it still a prevalent issue? How can something so obviously wrong survive in a society of mature people? This is the same species that writes operas, builds skyscrapers, has been to outer space, freakin’ outer space people!! Back on Earth, we still see racism and hatred everyday. It is a perplexing situation, and it often shakes my faith in humanity.
Let’s look at this, why? Why is it even an issue? It seems like a no brainer that we should have rationalized racism away thousands of years ago. My focus is the genetic or natural predisposition toward prejudice, truthfully, it is a predisposition toward the conditions that produce prejudice, but that’s just semantics. I often find myself leaning toward a sort of naturalist philosophy; as such I find it painful to consider that we are built for racism. The reason being; that if we have a natural disposition toward something, and this thing represents traits integral to our survival as a species, it must be right, at minimum not discouraged, but thinking such sets off a screaming siren in my head. I know that prejudice is wrong; I know that racism is wrong. I, as well as any like minded individuals, find myself between a logical rock and a moral hard place.
To the best of my ability, I can surmise that this phenomenon is a vestigial tendency. Well, that is the only solution that I can come up with, offering any consolation. I’d like to take a moment to complain about nature. We couldn’t get cool vestigial traits like a tail, or ball and socket wrists like a gibbon. No! We had to get the damn racism. Sorry, I’m better now, back to what I was saying. Once upon a time, along our path of existence, we weren’t diurnal. Our sleeping schedule was basically a four part cycle. Wake up with the sunrise, forage for fruits and berries until mid-day. Go back to sleep until sunset, wake up and hunt for a few hours. Go back to sleep and the cycle begins again. The point is; we don’t do that anymore despite still being capable. We used to be quadrupeds, we aren’t anymore. Racism, (an escalation of prejudice) resides in the tricky realm of “things of which we are capable, facilitated by biological design, that serve no functional purpose today”. My assertion to advocates of racism and the passive apathetics: The institution of racism is scornful brethren with marital infidelity and dogmatic holocaust. If you are willing to degrade your humanity to such primacy, take your appendix and your geocentricism and please, go away. Go somewhere where you cannot affect society, there are, after all, those of us who wish to make progress. We have, as a species, proven our ability to abstain from certain behaviors, in spite of the capability to partake. As an adult, “because I can” is not an acceptable reason to do something that affects society, we expect more justification than that.
I’ve gone on too long about this, longer than I had intended. Join me next time, when I take a less abstract look at racism in America.