Homo Sapiens as a Problem
Curiosity and Racism
What is the cause of something that no one likes?
The problem of racism concerns every compassionate person. Still, not everyone is sure about the root causes of this ugly phenomenon. Perhaps the main question is whether people are born racists or become them.
Nelson Mandela asserted that
Of course, Mandela was a politician, and every word he spoke was political. But scholars think the same way: humans are not born racists. They become them because of an innate tendency to categorize others as “us” and “them.”
In this sense, racism is a specific case of group antagonism (or intergroup conflict). Perhaps it is the most troubling due to its pure and unjustified misanthropy.
It’s terrible that some simply hate other people. These people only need a reason for their hatred. If they were to live in a racially homogeneous society, they would still find someone to hate. They will always find those whom they consider “unacceptably wrong.” In reality, racism is intolerance of otherness.
And this is the most terrible of social pathologies. Intolerance of otherness, like a plague, has always pursued humanity. It is so enduring because of the sad tendency of people to project the causes of their misfortunes onto others.
This is our contradictory evolutionary legacy. It compels us to categorize people into one tribe or another, regardless of whether the individual considers themselves its member. Tribalism helped our ancient ancestors survive in group competition, and it was a zero-sum game. Unfortunately, people have not stopped playing this game to this day, and others have occasionally become victims of persecution, up to genocide.
This always happens when the outcome of the social game is reduced to zero. Then, the privileged class needs to point fingers at others to absolve themselves of responsibility. The more distinctly the targeted group is labeled by otherness, the easier it is to blame its members for all the problems.
Appearance differences are the most obvious sign. If someone speaks to you in an unfamiliar language, you spontaneously feel their otherness. You may feel similar if they are dressed entirely differently from the regular people around you. And if they have a different skin color, it is impossible not to notice.
But let’s ask ourselves — why should we perceive these differences as a threat?
The answer is that we shouldn’t. We can perceive it entirely differently. And we all do this in childhood when our minds are open to the world and not yet enslaved by prejudices imposed from the outside. For children, differences are not a threat but a subject of inspiring curiosity.
Children start categorizing the objects and people around them quite early (around three months of age). They are sensitive to appearance differences, even though they don’t know what “race” is. But they are driven by curiosity, not frustration or self-profit. For them, these differences are natural, just like everything else they strive to understand.”
And we, whose childhood is left in the past, should think of these differences as complementing each other and not as the inferiority of “others.” The more naturally we think like this, the less life will resemble a zero-sum game.
Vicious people will still exist but won’t have a nurturing environment for cultivating hatred. And immoral politicians will have fewer opportunities to speculate on human vices. Both will diminish over time, as who people become is determined not only by their genes but also by the culture of their society.
Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to fighting apartheid and racism and paid for it with 27 years of imprisonment. But he was released not with a hardened heart but with respect for every human being. He proved with his own life that a zero-sum game is not the only way for human relationships.
He remains in our memory as a great man not only because he had a brilliant mind and an iron will but also because of genuine wisdom. And wisdom tells us that all people are inherently equal in their dignity, no matter whom they are born.
MLK was another great fighter for racial equality, a predecessor and inspiration to Mandela. Although he was a leader for civil rights in another country — the USA — his mission was the same. Both advocated for the primary and universal value — human dignity.
MLK’s great message is clear to every rational person: people should be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.
Any statement contradicting this is a lie. Any theory attributing moral virtues or deficiencies to a person based on their skin color is fundamentally racist. It doesn’t matter when or by whom such a theory was invented. Its authors are always driven either by misanthropy or a cynical desire to gain political and financial capital dishonestly.
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
—period.
As we grow up, we should continue to remember ourselves as children. Children genuinely understand what adults stop understanding when they lose connection with their original authentic state.
There is something adults can learn from children. There is something we can all learn from the best version of ourselves.
PS. The author of the first photograph is the husband of the woman depicted in it. The entire story is here: That Time I Was A Meme.
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