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RE: The Development of Racial Bias
Racism has always been a biological and natural determinant and defense mechanism, we naturally reject those that aren't the same as us, because for the origins of human life, those that weren't like us, usually meant to harm us or take from us.
That still holds true today, the difference is it has morphed into cultural exclusions based on numerous factors same as race and religion.
Having in group preferences will always be a part of the human makeup, i still think there is a distinction that needs to be made between inept racial bias from ignorance, and from cultural incompatibility and personal experience.
Great post however!
Absolutely, it is naturally developed, as I tried to indicate. The problem is when we don't let exposure to new things, the unknown, get taken into the known understanding of how things work. Different peoples are not to be feared or hated for being different hehe, despite it being a good natural defense when we don't know to err on the side of caution. In group vs. out group has varying dynamics to it, but yes it's part of our basic social organization when we're included into something. Nothing is the same, so categories can be made to sort things that are similar and different in many contexts. You make good points, thanks for providing your feedback!
I partially agree with that, i know personally exposure to different cultures and races has technically made me more racist, but only because the more exposure you have to something the more patterns you recognize.
I live in Australia which is a very big multicultural country, and for the most part the original immigrants(Asia major), Mediterranean,maoris/white kiwis, white south africans and english/irish/scottish etc are pretty much a staple of Australian culture where it's really not an event to meet someone from those countries.
However, Lebanese, Arab and north africans, are becoming a problem in the country and people are becoming hostile towards them.
We have a joke in australia "Did you hear the Lebanese boxing team pulled out of the olympics? they found out they had to fight one on one" which is of course directed towards the propensity to get into an altercation with one, and suddenly you have twenty on you.
I think exposure works partially in that it eliminates irrational fears, i completely agree with you on that, however i think exposure to some cultures and people actually creates rational fears when there is a problem with a certain group of people and no one will talk about it for fear of being called a racist.
it's a very interesting topic i'll give you that much haha.
Yes