Poll: Racism: Nature or Nurture?

[Jamboxdotcom]

[small] i did a search, and while there are about 10000000 topics on racism, i didn't see any with this particular question [/small]

I'm sure most of us have probably accepted the current teaching that racism is something that's taught. If your parents or close friends hate people of minority x, you will probably hate people of minority x.
However, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists have posited that racism largely springs from normal human fear of that which is different.

The reason for this question popping into my mind is something that happened a few days ago. I was at my best friend's house, hanging with him and his wife and kids. His boy is 4 years old, and is a very sweet kid. His parents are great people, and not at all prejudiced against people with different skin colors. Thus, it came as a great shock to all of us, when at a certain point, the boy screamed "I hate black people!" (There was a black person on the packaging of the new tv they just got.) We were aghast. Where did this come from? He leads a fairly sheltered life, so he couldn't have learned it from his peers. None of his family are racist. The only tv he's allowed to watch are those saccharine sweet kiddie shows like Dora. So was his aversion to black people something he was taught? How could it be?
This led me to believe that our innate fear of the unknown/different/new plays a bigger role in racism than i had previously believed.

TL;DR My friend's kid, who couldn't have possibly been "taught" racism, seems to hate black people (despite not really knowing any). Do you think this is just a result of our natural fear of that which is different?

*edit* When i say he's "fairly sheltered" i mean his only peers/friends are 2 little girls about his own age, one of whom is white (and borderline retarded), the other being mexican. i kinda doubt he learned this from them, but i suppose it's possible.

 

[dsmops2003]

You friend is a closet racist.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

You friend is a closet racist.

i've known him my whole life, and he's one of the best, most loving people i've ever met. trust me, he's no racist. i know a lot of people would say that, but seriously... no.

 

[drbarno]

He probably doesn't like dora the explorer an it grew from there.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

Eh, I'd say it is part nurture, and part fear of the unknown/different.
I doubt that kid was old enough to know any coloured people, so would have experienced only/mostly people of a lighter skin tone.
I dunno, really. Some people can be raised in a good atmosphere, and still turn out as assholes.
Part of being human, I guess.

 

[lacktheknack]

I had an aversion to non-whites as a kid because I was afraid that their skin pigment would come off on me, leaving marks on me forever. Now that I'm no longer in grade two, I'm fairly sure that this type of thing is mostly nurture. Your black-hating friend's kid probably was in the wrong place/channel at the wrong time and saw the wrong thing.

 

[Jedamethis]

I'unno. Slightly nature, as it benefits your genes to be nicer to people who look like you.
But then, for example, I'm kind to everyone, yet my brother hates furries and barely tolerates gays...so it must be nurture in that example.

 

[Nietz]

Hmm... tricky question really. I picked "both", mostly because I believe that the human psyche is a very complicated thing. See, one could always go for the biological answer: "We're programmed to be pleasant to our own and hostile to outsiders." But I like to think a wee bit higher of us than just that. And one could say that he learnt this on his own, even if he's sheltered. He might have experienced something that to "grown ups" seem natural and been scared. The experience might have had a black person in it, and it might have "imprinted" in this little guy. He might even have been sub-consciously "taught" this by his parents. See, when I studied pedagogy at uni they taught us about the biology of the human mind in early stages in life. Apparently our brains are almost hard-wired to learn in the early stages of our lives, and we do... constantly. So, something that might have been seen by us "grown ups" as normal might have taught him to act this way.
All in all, there are a lot of issues that comes to mind when one tries to understand the minds of our young, and it's not an easy answer. Personally I think it's A) all that I have mentioned above, and some more things, that have made him think like this. Or B) Some kind of direct approach by probably someone close to him. Who knows really what parents teach their kids these days...

 

[El Poncho]

Well when I was a kid I didn't even recognise that another kid was black/ asian, it was just another kid. It's as I got older I seen the differences but I never hated them, since my parents never brought up the subject really.

So since my experience is the only one I can go on, I would think Nurture.

Also, how can you be 100% sure your friends kid didn't see or hear anything like that. Your friend would think his kid hasn't heard such a thing if he hadn't, but there has to be moments when he isn't with his parents.

I think if it is natural fear he wouldn't shout that he hated them. When I was a kid I was scared of dogs but I never shouted that I hated them, maybe if I saw one I would quietly tell my parents I was scared of dog but even then I would never shout it.

So I'm not saying you can't have a natural fear, but I don't think if it was natural you would react like that.

 

[Hashime]

I consider it both. It is nurture because as you said "daddy hates..." can affect a child. It is also nature as humans tend to be scared of things that are different. I also saw a study somewhere (I will look for the link) that stated what was already pretty much common knowledge, people exposed to only one "Race" (There is only one race, the human race, but for ease I will refer to those from a specific geographical area who adapted differently that those in another area) Have trouble telling those of another "Race" apart. In my experience this is true as I cannot tell Asians apart, but my Chinese roommate can tell which country another Asian's family is from, just like I can tell which area a "White" person's family is most likely from (with much less accuracy due to years of European spreading) and he cannot.

There are also biological differences due to adaptions to different environments. I remember there was a media hassle over "Racist" heart medication. Black people (of African decent) better responded to a different medication that those of European decent, so one was tailored to work with this difference.

 

[GameGoddess101]

I think it's sort of both. I live up in the boondocks where the white to nonwhite ratio is at least 5:1. (The trees have us outnumbered at at least 20:1 though...) So I always felt awkward around nonwhites when I was growing up, as I didn't really know what to say... but as I grew older and met more people and went to college and stuff, I grew more comfortable with it.

However, I never displayed outright hatred. I accept pretty much everyone for who they are, but my sister has a vehement hatred of Asians, gays, and blacks for no reason that I can think of... so I think its nurture in that respect.

 

[GeorgW]

I think nurture, kids can easily be taught to hate things without you even knowing it. But as usual, we'll probably never know.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Well when I was a kid I didn't even recognise that another kid was black/ asian, it was just another kid. It's as I got older I seen the differences but I never hated them, since my parents never brought up the subject really.

So since my experience is the only one I can go on, I would think Nurture.

yeah, see, that's what i used to think as well, and for precisely the same reasons. when i was little, black kids weren't "black kids" they were just "kids". only as i got older did i start to realize that they were considered to be different.

 

[antidonkey]

Sure it has its roots in nature but a mistrust of things slightly different is completely different than racism. Full on racism is is all nuture. Nature doesn't say attack that dark skinned person or ostricize those people because their eyes a slanted. All nature says is be a little cautious until they've proven themselves.

 

[Hashime]

I think it's sort of both. I live up in the boondocks where the white to nonwhite ratio is at least 5:1. (The trees have us outnumbered at at least 20:1 though...) So I always felt awkward around nonwhites when I was growing up, as I didn't really know what to say... but as I grew older and met more people and went to college and stuff, I grew more comfortable with it.

However, I never displayed outright hatred. I accept pretty much everyone for who they are, but my sister has a vehement hatred of Asians, gays, and blacks for no reason that I can think of... so I think its nurture in that respect.

I also had a similar situation, except it was not the boondocks, and the ration was more like 500:1 (white to non white). The main reasons I had any issues in a more multicultural setting were accents as political correctness.

 

[OldRat]

Xenophobia is a very human reaction. Fear of the unknown contributed a great deal to keeping us alive way back then. If something was weird and different, it was better to approach with caution than to die due to carelesness. Furthermore, different-looking people were probably from a different pack, tribe or what have you, and thus competing for the often all too scarce resources. So in the end, it's both, although nurture plays a much larger role.

But more on topic, I'm not sure what "fairly sheltered" means here, but unless his every action is monitored and he has never been alone with a friend or been subjected to the outside world in any way, it's still entirely possible he's picked up the attitude from somewhere. He might have just heard something like that in passing and, being a young child, imitated it.
On the other hand, if his family doesn't know all that many black people, even if they do have a very positive outlook towards other races, he might still find them weird and different simply by the virtue of not knowing better.

It's hard to say what exactly made him shout what he did, but it's certainly not because he's genetically biased towards white supremacy. Not any more or less than anybody else, that is.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Sure it has its roots in nature but a mistrust of things slightly different is completely different than racism. Full on racism is is all nuture. Nature doesn't say attack that dark skinned person or ostricize those people because their eyes a slanted. All nature says is be a little cautious until they've proven themselves.

true. and i guess when it comes down to it, a 4 year old screaming that he "hates" something isn't really the same as a 40 year old hating something. this kid also "hates" any food he's never tried before.

 

[quiet_samurai]

I think it could be both given the circumstances.

While hating another race is comletely learned through your environment, so nurture, I think it could be nature too. I have a black friend who went to China for business, some little shitty town, and the people there would not leave him alone. They didn't hate on him, they just found him to be fascinating. That's because most of the people there had never seen a black man in the flesh before. So even though they didn't mistreat him, they still commented and made his differences apparent.

I think it goes back to being weary of things that are different then yourself. It's a defense mechanism that goes all the way back since modern men first came about, but instead of trying to kill or fleeing from something taht is unknown, we just ponder at it.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

While it may be a bit of nature (we may be programed to be suspicous of different things), I think its mainly nurture. Now that's not to say that you have to learn it from someone directly, because I'm sure that racism can be learned through just observation.

Although it probably depends heavily upon the person themself. Different people are going to have different reasons.

 

[Thaliur]

Racism actually just describes the habit of acknowledging the existence of races, so every single person on earth is quite likely a racist (unless they are blind or something similar).
People who belong to a different kind of people (also known as a race) look different, smell different, and (although this is mostly upbringing) often have different views on certain topics.

As soon as you say "Hey, that guy looks Asian/African/European/Klatchian/Arabian", you are referring to a race, a group of people who share certain characteristics.

Categorizing people by race has always be done, is currently being done, and will be done until all mankind is completely homogenized into one single race. By that point, we will probably switch from race to species to categorize.


That kind of racism is not bad, no problem as all, and serves just as an additional way to describe people, among hair or eye colour.

It only gets bad when people say certain races are superior.
I used to live on a dorm area with several Chinese, Arabian and Indian (from the country India, not Native Americans) students and everybody got along well, unless cleaning or cooking was involved. Lots of Arabian or Indian students (the male ones) just didn't seem to be used to performing household duties, as they were brought up with the idea that this is women's work.
The Chinese students were brought up with Chinese hygienic standard (which, as they themselves admitted after a few days, were pretty low, especially concerning dishes), and of course prepared the food they were used to, which was actual Chinese food. For us Europeans, seeing pigs' ears or chicken claws swimming around in a pot of water is... quite unusual to say the least, as was the smell of some spices. One of the female Chinese students was used to wiping the stove with cooking oil before and after cleaning it, which led to a horrible smell of burnt oil, not to mention fire hazard.

Of course, people complained about such things, but no one hated them for it. Most of them got used to the European way of life, and adapted quite well. Those that didn't... well, they were still tolerated by their housemates.

So, since even infants are able to tell that a black person looks different than a white person, I say racism is natural, unless it turns into unreasonable hate against certain races.