We’re All Instinctively Racist — Anti-Racism Is Our Battle With Ourselves

Understanding the problem is the start of the solution.

I have always thought of myself as an advocate against any kind of discrimination especially sexism and racism.

I have also extensively written on both subjects voicing strong opinions against anyone who was racist or sexist.

However, I have recently realized I am racist too — always have been and probably always will be. It is probably how I was wired and isn’t a thing I can change.

It also just not me — it is everyone. We’re all racist. Let me take a step back and define the word “racist”

prejudiced against or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

Let’s focus on “prejudiced against” or “antagonistic towards” — I am not the latter but I am for sure the former, or have been in some cases in the past.

What’s prejudice, you ask?

preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

Yes, I’ve had “preconceived notions” about people before — people I’ve never had any actual experience with.

We grow up seeing people around us that are different and “judging them” or being taught to judge them.

Don’t take anything from strangers.

As we grow up — the definition changes,

Don’t take anything from suspicious-looking strangers.

Wait, how did we teach a kid to know what “suspicious-looking” means?

We grow up, and we’re fed more prejudice. I spent an exchange semester in Cleveland, Ohio back in 2011 during my MBA. Every few days, my campus inbox from the campus police had an email saying:

“Unidentified black male suspect mugged a…..”

There were seven mugging incidents reported on the Case Western Reserve University campus in the three months I was there — EACH ONE had an “unidentified black male” suspect. The result?

Every time, when I walked home after dark or even in the evening, I’d be looking over my shoulder making sure there’s no “black male” in touching distance. I was “prejudiced” against all black males — thanks to the “racist” undertone of the seemingly harmless description of a suspect.

Was there a more racially unbiased way of describing the suspect? Am sure there was. But the most “apparent” was the color of the skin and the gender of the person.

Race and sex — the most apparent characteristics of human beings, also quite naturally stand out as clear differentiating factors. And hence, racism and sexism are born.

You still don’t buy that you’re all racist too? Hang on, I’ll show you how.

Ever see an Indian guy and assume “he’s probably good at Maths?”

Not yet?

Well, thought of Outsourced or Raj Koothrapalli from Big Bang Theory and expected a funny accent? Or thought of curry or snake charmers?

Ever saw a turbaned Sikh or a long-bearded Muslim, and got slightly suspicious and drew your kid closer to you and away from the said person?

Ever saw a non-white person and started to pronounce your words more deliberately, coz you’re worried they won’t get your fluent English?

Too generic? Experienced nothing like this before?

Fast forward to 2020.

A crazy pandemic by the name of “COVID-19” starts in China. You see an Asian-looking person — probably Chinese — coz aren’t they all? You get suspicious and keep your distance.

No? Well OK, I must be hallucinating.

But it isn’t just the rest of the world against “Asian people.” I live in Hong Kong, and a year on things are a lot better. But recently, India has had a spike, and a lot of cases were “imported” from India — around 40+ in a single chartered flight that came from the country.

And what am I hearing? Some people are getting “suspicious” of anyone that looks Indian given the new wave.

Oh, so you’re black yourself and you never did anything racist and have only always been a victim? Recall calling out all the “White men” in the world for their white privilege? Well, you just acted on prejudice against a whole section of society based on their color and gender — that was racist right there.

The fundamental problem with humans is that we’re all too diverse — and the more “obvious” and “apparent” the difference — the easy it is to be colored by that difference. We’re all inherently racist, or sexist. We just are.

But that becomes a problem when we allow that “instinct” to take over and discriminate on the basis of our biases.

How do we then stop this from happening? The solution to a problem begins with identifying and often accepting that there is a problem. We’re all different, and hence we’re all prejudiced and biased against people that are different than us.

Let us embrace these differences, and pause and accept the fact that we tend to be colored by our biases. Then, we must make a conscious effort to take those glasses off — see through the skin and the gender and the differences — and see the person within.

We can’t let our “instinct” dictate our actions. We have to consciously accept the differences and see through and beyond them. We will falter in the quest — we will intentionally or unintentionally make a racist comment or act in a racist manner — but we’ll truly overcome that by accepting, apologizing, and not repeating it.

The same goes for forgiveness — we’ll need to forgive and forget, and move on.

But first, we’ll all need to admit — we’re all racist — because we were born and brought up to be. The anti-racist battle isn’t against any one class or section of society — it is a battle we fight with our own selves — a battle we have to win over ourselves.