Is Racism taught -or- is it genetics?

[Baron Von Murderpaws]

Is it taught to us?
Do we learn it from observing others?

Are we born with the emotion/feeling of racism?
Is it part of human DNA, as are our feelings and emotions?

 

[$ecular#eckler]

It is taught. It is also an observation of relative sophistication levels; which is subsequent to different teachings. All cultures shun their dumb and praise their smarts.

The reason Black Americans incur discrimination is not that they are black, but because they are dumb. It is not white people telling Black people they cannot do things because they are black; it is their fellow ghetto dwellers telling them that white people will not let them do things; and because they dwell in the misinformation and hardly ever meet white people - they believe it.

 

[White 6]

Taught, observing relatives and other people that are looked up to, including but not limited to parents. Some people never take their accepted theories down off the shelf and relook at them for validity and benefit.

 

[theHawk]

Neither, what people often call “racism” is just opinions people learn over their life experience.

 

[White 6]

Neither, what people often call “racism” is just opinions people learn over their life experience.

You learn what is taught, All the world is a classroom. You teach even when not teaching. You learn, even if not studying. Learn to set the correct example.

 

[blackhawk]

We all no matter what our race have racist thoughts and tendencies rather we want to admit or not that is human nature. The question is will we act on them or not some do most in my opinion don't.

 

[Baron Von Murderpaws]

It's a part of a humans DNA.

I never had any part of my younger life faced with racism of any kind. Even back when, I had schoolmates that were white, black, Mexican, and I never realized or knew there was a difference. It never passed through my mind that someone was black, brown, or white. If anybody in my family was racist, I was never aware of it.

I actually never knew what racism was....literally never heard the word itself until I was in my 20's.
I never realized people were "colors" until I was faced by situation regarding black people. The situation shocked and jolted me. I had never been faced with anything like it before.

After a few days, I realized I had this feeling I've never had before. I had no idea what was going on. I called a friend and described my feelings to him about what happened. He told me I was having racist feelings. I asked him was a racist was, and he told me. Of course I balked at the notion of it, as I had never given a crap about anybodys color. But it did open my eyes to SEE other things going on around me and HEAR what was being said on tv and in the news.

It was WEIRD.

Until that time in my life, I had never HEARD of racism, never DEALT with racism, or even knew what racism WAS. But after that, I began to understand more of what was going on, and what my feelings meant.

So, from someone who was not raised with any kind of racism, and never even heard the work until I was a young adult........I think I can safely say I was never taught, nor had I ever observed racism. Therefore, racism is in our genes.

 

[KissMy]

It's likely both taught & natural.

 

[Baron Von Murderpaws]

Neither, what people often call “racism” is just opinions people learn over their life experience.

That depends on the problems that lead up to the point of something being deemed "racist".
Over the years.........like people on this planet, there are many shades of racism.....all having different views on why they are deemed racist.

 

[emilynghiem]

Is it taught to us?
Do we learn it from observing others?

Are we born with the emotion/feeling of racism?
Is it part of human DNA, as are our feelings and emotions?

It can be both spiritually passed
down like a phobia in the consciousness
tied to genocide and war that take generations to heal

AND socially passed down through
institutions and taught traditions

It can also be embedded psychologically
in DNA if sustained patterns of oppression
create depression and abusive or addictive disorders that affect genetics, although these conditions might still be healed spiritually and overcome over time

 

[the other mike]

 

[Rocko]

I don’t think it’s necessarily a trait of all humans, but I also don’t think it needs to be necessarily taught

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Racism is taught by the very people who claim to be the victims of racism.

 

[theHawk]

Neither, what people often call “racism” is just opinions people learn over their life experience.

You learn what is taught, All the world is a classroom. You teach even when not teaching. You learn, even if not studying. Learn to set the correct example.

“Taught” has the implication someone is indoctrinating you and that you wouldn’t naturally come to hold an opinion others consider “racist”.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

The reason Black Americans incur discrimination is not that they are black, but because they are dumb. It is not white people telling Black people they cannot do things because they are black; it is their fellow ghetto dwellers telling them that white people will not let them do things; and because they dwell in the misinformation and hardly ever meet white people - they believe it.

This is one of the most ignorant statement I've read lately among tons of ignorant claims.

White people designated two "classes" of people, one superior and one inferior. Not they either were, but that's how they were categorized and then white people created a series of laws to enforce this perspective. In other words, legally & socially the notion was enforced that whites were superior and black inferior, to the point that a black person could not testify against a white person. This has nothing to do with genetics, it is a system put in place by people wanted to rule over another race and the laws they created was how they were able to enforce their will this way.

I just posted this over the weekend to counter another particularly ignorant statement denigrating black people:

In 1925, seven years after the end of World War I, the Army War College undertook a study to evaluate the fitness of black soldiers for service in a future war. The study's recommendations emphasized the importance of white officers and strict segregation of black troops; it was generally dubious about the prospects of black soldiers serving successfully in combat roles. Black combat soldiers during World War II, including the Tuskegee Airmen, thoroughly disproved these racist assumptions about their abilities, but it was not until the U.S. war against Korea in 1951 that the military made active moves to desegregate its units. The excerpts below include some of the report's conclusions and the reasoning behind them.​

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Selected Conclusions​

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In the process of evolution the American negro has not progressed as far as the other sub-species of the human family. As a race he has not developed leadership qualities. His mental inferiority and the inherent weaknesses of his character are factors that must be considered with great care in the preparation of any plan for his employment in war. . . .​

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In the past wars the negro has made a fair laborer, but an inferior technician. As a fighter he has been inferior to the white man even when led by white officers. . . .​

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Negro soldiers as individuals should not be assigned to white units. . . .​

​

Negro officers should not be placed over white officers, noncommissioned officers or soldiers. . . .​

​

Negro officer candidates should attend training camps with white candidates. They should have the same instructors, take the same tests and meet the same requirements for appointment as officers as the white candidates. They should be sheltered, messed, and instructed separately from white candidates. . . .​

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. . . the eventual use of the negro will be determined by his performance in combat training and service. . . . If the negro makes good the way is left open for him to go into combat eventually with all-negro units.​

​

Selected Assumptions about the Performance of African-American Soldiers in Previous Wars:​

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It is generally recognized that the pure blood American negro is inferior to our white population in mental capacity. . . . The cranial cavity of the negro is smaller than the white; his brain weighing 35 ounces contrasted with 45 for the white.​

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All officers, without exception, agree that the Negro lacks initiative, displays little or no leadership, and cannot accept responsibility. Some point out that these defects are greater in the Southern Negro. . . .​

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Due to his susceptibility to ‘Crowd Psychology’ a large mass of negroes, e.g., a division, is very subject to panic. Experience had indicated that the negroes produce better results by segregation and cause less trouble. Grouping of negroes generally in the past has produced demands for equality, both during war and after demobilization. . . .​

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An opinion held in common by practically all officers is that the negro is a rank coward in the dark. His fear of the unknown and unseen will prevent him from ever operating as an individual scout with success. His lack of veracity causes unsatisfactory reports to be rendered, particularly on patrol duty. . . .​

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One of the peculiarities of the negro as a soldier is that he has no confidence in his negro leaders, nor will he follow a negro officer into battle, no matter how good the officer may be, with the same confidence and lack of fear that he will follow a white man. This last trait has been so universally reported by all commanders that it can not be considered as a theory—the negroes themselves recognize it as a fact. . . .​

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The negro needs trained leadership far more than the white man needs it, and above all they need leaders in whom they have confidence, and whose presence they can feel and see at all times. . . .​

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On account of the inherent weaknesses in negro character, especially general lack of intelligence and initiative, it requires much longer time of preliminary training to bring a negro organization up to the point of training where it is fit for combat, than it does in the case of white men. All theoretical training is beyond the grasp of the negro—it must be intensely practical, supplemented by plain talks explaining the reasons for things in simple terms. . . .​

The Army War College Studies Black Soldiers · SHEC: Resources for Teachers​

 

[White 6]

Neither, what people often call “racism” is just opinions people learn over their life experience.

You learn what is taught, All the world is a classroom. You teach even when not teaching. You learn, even if not studying. Learn to set the correct example.

“Taught” has the implication someone is indoctrinating you and that you wouldn’t naturally come to hold an opinion others consider “racist”.

We gain our basic understandings of the world almost by osmosis, picking them up from those around us, especially authority figures we often do not question, starting out from birth. Easy to come to faulty and unproductive mindsets in adulthood, if you don't take those unexamined "truths" out of the closet and examine where they came from before putting them on daily.

 

[TheParser]

Racism is taught by the very people who claim to be the victims of racism.

I agree with the poster.

I do not consider myself to be a "racist."

But because of many unpleasant experiences with ethnicity X (mostly with teenagers & twentysomethings), I am very wary of that ethnicity and try my best to avoid interacting with them as much as possible.

Before meeting many of them in my 20s (because of my job), I was extremely sympathetic toward them as a group and applauded efforts during my teenaged years to dismantle de jure & de facto segregation.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

I lived my entire life in racially diverse cities. New York, San Francisco, Oakland, Compton, Los Angeles. Blacks were my neighbors, my friends, the parents of children my son played with.

In the last ten years the change was seismic. I learned how to be wary. Carry a weapon at all times. Make sure no black is behind you. If necessary put your back to a wall until they pass. Don't speak to one.

We have several black posters here. You see what they are like. Any black you see on the street could be this bad. When being in an unavoidable situation of confrontation keep your hand on your weapon at all times.