Racism-Born a bigot?

    Racism in this world may have its roots in the most basic parts of our human nature. Observing nature we see that animals use a system of what we might call stereo typing to distinguish between safe or dangerous species, a lamb encountering a predatory lion will stereo type the lion as unsafe. And these groups would not second guess themselves by saying, “maybe I should get to know that lion, it may be a real nice lion”. This is a basic system of survival for groups to identify each other. So our aptitude to stereo type by race, tribe, clan or culture may be deeply imbedded within our dna.

    However as humans we have a dilemma because we have to make choices that other animals may not be able to make. Regardless of your stance on evolution or creation humans are held to a higher standard of conduct. A social evolutionist may conclude that mankind has learned that for true survival our species needs to learn cooperation and the creationist may conclude that the creator of all humans expects cooperation between the human groups; anti-racism.

    My hypothesis for overcoming racism is not based on denying the differences between the human groups, but we overcome racism by a choice to respect. To deny differences may actually be way of forcing assimilation into a dominant group. Acknowledging our differences does give us the difficult task of not considering one group superior, which in our human history has been our pattern. Acknowledging our differences also means that we realize that stereo types in humans are never 100% true. Stereo types are built on partial truths and exaggerated. So as humans we have the choice to look beyond a stereo type and risk getting to know and trust the individuals.

Photo from a Christmas light festival in Kobe Japan