Is Racism wired into you genetically ?

[boyfriday 21]

.... when I was a kid it was acceptable to refer to black people as coloured, now it is deemed as racist !

 

Is it? Well that's news to me!

[Super Hans 10]

There simply is no evidence to support the idea that we have some instinctive dislike for people of a different colour though.

 

Depends what you count as evidence.

 

Maybe not a 'dislike' but a preference for the same colour.

 

I mean, you catch a bus, 90% of the time when someone needs to sit down, a white person will sit next to a white person, and a black person will sit next to a black person.

 

That's evidence, there, in the field, go and observe it.

 

I'm not saying that those black people or white people are racist, but it does happen.

[boyfriday 21]

or that we tend to be sexually attracted to people of similar appearance, which is why that genetic flow was passed on.

 

Interesting point, mankind worked out long ago the relationship between diversity in the gene pool and future survival. If we're attracted to people of similar appearance it's because of cultural/social influences rather than a pre-disposition which would encourage the opposite.

 

Just as an example, caucasians who live in sunny climates experience a high incidence of malignant melanomas, whereas dark skinned people don't. It's probably not hard to imagine that over time, environmental conditions might dictate who lived and who died.

[Waldo 96]

It's also interesting what happens in prisons; where gangs are formed on the basis of race (hispanics, white supremacists, black dudes, etc etc). Though I would suspect it's more of a cultural (and survival) thing, rather than some kind of genetic disposition people have to dislike people from other races.

[boyfriday 21]

I mean, you catch a bus, 90% of the time when someone needs to sit down, a white person will sit next to a white person, and a black person will sit next to a black person.

 

That's evidence, there, in the field, go and observe it.

 

I'm not saying that those black people or white people are racist, but it does happen.

 

Do you really believe this Super Hans?

 

I think people who choose who they sit next to on a bus based on their ethnicity have a personality disorder whatever colour they are.

[Mr Clowning 10]

Is it? Well that's news to me!

 

The problem some have with the word coloured I believe is that its come from white people to express the difference from them.

 

A black person could call white people coloured if you think about it, if you were to take the mean colour of humans as being black, instead of the assumption by those who developed the word that its white.

[Waldo 96]

Depends what you count as evidence.

 

Maybe not a 'dislike' but a preference for the same colour.

 

I mean, you catch a bus, 90% of the time when someone needs to sit down, a white person will sit next to a white person, and a black person will sit next to a black person.

 

That's evidence, there, in the field, go and observe it.

 

I'm not saying that those black people or white people are racist, but it does happen.

 

I imagine it's to do with fear of offending someone whose cultural sensibilities you don't really understand, should any interaction or conversation strike up.

 

Whereas, if you sit down next to someone whose race and culture more closely matches your own; perhaps that makes people feel more comfortable, as there's less danger of offending someone?

[boyfriday 21]

I imagine it's to do with fear of offending someone whose cultural sensibilities you don't really understand, should any interaction or conversation strike up.

 

Whereas, if you sit down next to someone whose race and culture more closely matches your own; perhaps that makes people feel more comfortable, as there's less danger of offending someone?

 

By the time any conversation or interaction has been struck up I think it's safe to say the two parties are well disposed towards each other.

 

Most journeys I make on public transport are conducted in perfect silence, whether Im sitting next to a white or a black person.

 

---------- Post added 11-12-2013 at 16:27 ----------

 

The problem some have with the word coloured I believe is that its come from white people to express the difference from them.

 

A black person could call white people coloured if you think about it, if you were to take the mean colour of humans as being black, instead of the assumption by those who developed the word that its white.

 

The poster I was responding to claimed the word 'coloured' was deemed as racist, it aint.

[Mr Clowning 10]

It's also interesting what happens in prisons; where gangs are formed on the basis of race (hispanics, white supremacists, black dudes, etc etc). Though I would suspect it's more of a cultural (and survival) thing, rather than some kind of genetic disposition people have to dislike people from other races.

That suggest that it is a genetic disposition though I would say. It suggests that you trust those who are more like you and are more at ease when it comes to surrounding yourself in a social group.

 

The fact that their is such a diverse difference in us all makes me think that we have kept pretty much in our own groups or tribes, as far as you can go back, in order for us to have evolved into separate races.

 

---------- Post added 11-12-2013 at 16:31 ----------

 

The poster I was responding to claimed the word 'coloured' was deemed as racist, it aint.

Well I still use the word as do countless others so if its offensive to anyone then its their look out because I never use the word to offend.

 

I was just trying to explain why some may not like the term.

[Super Hans 10]

Do you really believe this Super Hans?

 

I think people who choose who they sit next to on a bus based on their ethnicity have a personality disorder whatever colour they are.

 

So why do people walk past people of a different colour and sit next to someone of the same colour?

 

It happens Boyfriday...it really happens, I don't know why, I'm guessing what Waldo said has something to do with it, as I...admittedly, have avoided sitting next to some Muslim women, just because I think she probably would rather not have a bloke sat next to her, not because I don't like who she is.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Super Hans

[Mr Clowning 10]

Isn't the act of racial abuse in itself about showing difference to a wider audience that is of the same sort of genetic line as yourself pretty much suggesting an appeal to a gut feeling, making the assumption that everyone in your race group will see the victim as outside of the collective ?

[Waldo 96]

By the time any conversation or interaction has been struck up I think it's safe to say the two parties are well disposed towards each other.

 

Most journeys I make on public transport are conducted in perfect silence, whether Im sitting next to a white or a black person.

 

Same for me, mostly in silence.

 

Of course, there are many other more significant cues one takes when choosing where to sit on public transport. It's not race alone that is the guiding principle here, it's cultural background, outlook, etc etc; ultimately, I think people who are closer to us in this regard, we do feel more comfortable with.

 

Is that racist? Or is it just doing what experience tells us is likely safer?

 

By the way, if I had my pick of 2 empty seats on the bus; one was next to some uncouth white youth, and the other next to an intelligent cultured black gentleman; I know where I'd be sitting.