Is Racism innate?
Voctir said:
" think "lack of interaction" and "lack of true friendship" are not causes of racism. They're more like symptoms of racism. It's because of racist sentiments within individuals that the different races avoid each other."
i'd like to point out that babies of different races are not prejudiced against one another nor avoid one another until instructed by parents to do so. hence racism is learnt, not innate.
and i put it that racism is learnt as a result of the lack of interaction. this lack of interaction breeds a sense of unfamiliarity. human beings are naturally averse to things we are unfamiliar with. we are thus naturally prejudice against that which we are unfamiliar with. and hence that lack of interaction produces 'racism'. and this prejudice then makes us less likely to interact, leading to a downward spiral.
all the policies in Singapore that's supposed to bring about inter-racial interaction have not resulted in interaction, but merely different races existing in close proximity without in any way modifying the behaviour (i don't think putting people close to one another equates to consciously modifying those people's behaviour. whatever modifications to the behaviour are merely unplanned for side effects).
what i am proposing is not just physical proximity, but a meeting of minds and hearts. i'm not sure whether you can come up with a policy to bring about such interaction when their hearts and minds are not open to such interaction in the first place.
however, if the common people make an effort to open their hearts and minds, regardless of policies set, to acquaint oursleves to another culture, to respect and appreciate another culture, then we have hope. it has to be organic, person to person.
thus where policies fail, the community can step in. Minister Yacob spoke of reviving the gotong royong spirit amongst the Malay community. i say that we should revive it in the entire Singaporean community.
so i repeat my call to everyone. go out there and learn about a different culture, appreciate it, get to know someone from that other culture, be his/her friend (and a true one at that). touch him/her with your sincerity and let that goodwill spread.
posted by rench00 at 1:38 AM
5 Comments:
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2:11 AM
good luck, mate
5:15 AM
It's a chicken-and-egg question: did the racist sentiments take root first (from somewhere-parents, media, and unlikely, genes?) and cause the lack of interaction, or did the lack of interaction facilitate the taking root of racial prejudices?
I agree that children are not born racists, but if so then racism has to begin somewhere/sometime, and you've rightly pointed out that parents are very likely the ones who first planted the seed of racism in their children. If so then lack of interaction cannot be blamed as the 'ultimate culprit' (for we are in agreement on children remaining non-discriminatory despite having had interaction with other races).
This is not to dispute your point, as I have much to agree with you, that lack of interaction and racist prejudice reinforce and feed on each other to produce a 'downward spiral'. It's almost like the vicious self-replicating nature of poverty and socioeconomic disparity in capitalist societies.
Hence there's after all really no point in seeking ultimate first causes if such knowledge leads to no prescriptive measures. My comment was not to dispute your account of the genesis of racism. I'm glad that we realize it's a self-reinforcing thing--"chicken or egg? that's really quite a futile question."
We just have to start somewhere, but I think telling people to just go out there and get to know other races without providing a sufficient motivation is simply not persuasive enough. It's that "their hearts and minds are not open to such interaction in the first place." Therefore we can also begin with opening their hearts and minds first, and perhaps they'll be motivated enough to interact more. In a sense, what I'm advocating is to 'undo the damage', literally 'unplant' the seed of racism that the parents sowed in their children, in addition to (not in lieu of) your recommendation.
12:53 AM
"i put it that racism is learnt as a result of the lack of interaction"
For the sake of argument, I put it that racism in Singapore is learnt as a result of state-sanctioned race education, an impososition in the consciousness of an average citizen of their race and culture, of the difference between what they stand for vis-a-vis the others...
6:37 PM
i don't think it's a chicken and egg question. racism is caused by the lack of interaction. the lack of interaction was caused by different groups of human beings developing different civilisations isolated from one another till a point when they come into contact with another civilisation, they are already so vastly different as to trigger off innate aversion of the unfamiliar.
as to trying to open their hearts and minds... been there done that, didn't work. really, it's up to the conviction (almost sans rational reasoning) of an individual to get to know another individual. like me wanting to know Z, S, A and I. better, be friends with them and not let the fact that they are Muslims make it any more difficult for me to be their friends.
it has got to be an almost organic development. if anything, the beginnings of the motivation to do so is the realisation that a person of another race can also be a damn fun person to hang out and chill out with, as well as help you, enrich your life, etc.
akikonomu:
again you make good point. the point you made is exactly what my friend, A, made. that we have racial differences because it is constantly being pointed out to us that we are racially different.
12:09 PM
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