The roots of racism: fear, social conditioning, and the possibility of change

Racism

The discussion of racism was indeed insightful and one of the discussion points raised was whether or not racism would always exist in society -- in some shape or form. This is indeed an intriguing idea, because looking back on world history, racism fundamentally has existed in some shape or form throughout society. As one participant explained, cultural and social norms are always going to vary from place to place and this is always going to be a breeding ground for racism. This does raise a good point. Racism is founded in fear of the unknown and insecurity. As Vladimir Nabokov has said, no matter where in the world you go, "stranger always rhymes with danger" (Naiman, 2010). This summarizes the motivations of racism in a nutshell. As one scholar explains, the system upon which racism is built "…is dependent upon holding its victims in the grips of fear. So it takes the prejudice that it finds and the power that is generated by the use of collective prejudice to create the systems of exclusion and exploitation and makes it appear that this is enough to build a lifestyle upon. Thus the Klanspeople have built a life upon their fear along with all of the others who are not in the Klan but who hold onto racist practices because of their fear of what will be lost if change comes into their lives. We are witnessing it every day in our country as we listen to the voices screaming about taking away resources from the poor, Hispanics, African-Americans and anyone who represents the other" (Meeks, 2011). This professor is touching up on a truly overwhelming trend that occurs with racism: that it truly is founded in irrational fear and to man racists, this fear is incredibly immediate, as minorities and the poor present a very real and overwhelming threat to people like neo-Nazis and members of the KKK.

However, the agency and power remains with society and the human race. Just as fear will always be an irrational part of human existence, racism can still be prevented and unlearned. Education and social conditioning to prevent racist attitudes is vital. Part of unlearning these tendencies involves taking responsibility for them. "No young person acquires misinformation by their own free choice. Racist attitudes and beliefs are a mixture of misinformation and ignorance which is imposed upon young people through a painful process of social conditioning" (Sherover-Marcuse, 2000). Thus, the adults and leaders of society need to take a long hard look at themselves and any bias and bigotry which might exist as a result of their own personal prejudices. These things, if left unexamined, will be passed on to the next generation. Some people argue that "everyone has a choice" but when it comes to children growing up in bigoted households, these children really don't have a choice. Children for the most part, absorb what is told to them as they don't have the critical thinking skills to question this type of information.

This puts an even more aggravated burden on educators and community leaders to combat hate with education and preventative measures -- such as teaching tolerance. Furthermore, another factor which breeds racism is misinformation. Misinformation does a grave disservice to all people as it distorts one's perceptions of reality and what is valid.

Module Two: Functionalism and Ways of Acting Wrongly

I've always viewed functionalism as a theory about mental states. "According to functionalism, mental states are identified by what they do rather than by what they are made of. This can be understood by thinking about artifacts like mousetraps and keys. In particular, the original motivation for functionalism comes from the helpful comparison of minds with computers. But that is only an analogy" (utm.edu). As we discussed functionalism in class, we focused upon the way that functionalism can manifest properly and improperly in society and how functionalism has a part in proper etiquette. One of the most common examples that was brought up in class was the phenomenon of "close talking." We discussed how simply speaking to someone while standing too close to their face could be considered rude and inappropriate. This is fascinating, as technically, the close talker isn't doing anything wrong; this person is just crossing or ignoring a slight boundary. When children cross or ignore certain boundaries or norms of society, we often say that such an event is cute or find it charming. However, there appears to be a lower threshold of tolerance for such things in adulthood.

Ultimately, functionalism is very important because it gives society and members of society a clearer form of structure when it comes to acceptable and unacceptable behavior. However, functionalism does present the danger of binding human behavior and making people feel like they're being bound to "norms" or rules that serve more to restrict behavior than to encourage autonomy.

Module Four: Racism or Culturalism

This was one of the most relevant discussions pertaining to the material. Too often in society one encounters people who explain their distaste for a given group of people explaining that they're not racist against these people, they're a culturalist, and that the people from this particular culture don't correspond to their values. Generally, I've found that this is just cleverly shrouded racism. Such views are generally shrouded in bigotry just like any others. These "culturalists" generally just focus on the aspects of a given culture that they don't like and discriminate these people based on that. Culturalists have simply found a more socially acceptable way to be racist. Most culturalists don't take the time to get more than a superficial understanding of a given culture before they judge it. These are exactly the types of tendencies which allow racism to flourish.

"Culturalism is the idea that individuals are determined by their culture, that these cultures form closed, organic wholes, and that the individual is unable to leave his or her own culture but rather can only realise him or herself within it. Culturalism also maintains that cultures have a claim to special rights and protections -- even if at the same time they violate individual rights" (Erikson, 2010). Yet another problem with culturalism is that it remove the autonomy and agency from the individual. Individuals are seen as pawns entrapped in their culture, and apparently unable to remove themselves from the cultural language, values and customs from which they've been initiated. This is an extremely narrow perspective of the human being and truly treats human beings as if they were simply puppets or victims of their own culture and up-bringing. In this perspective, human beings can do very little to change themselves or their circumstances. This is simply untrue and unfair.

As on scholar illuminates, culturalism and nationalism do indeed overlap. "Culturalism has an entire range of categories in common with nationalism; indeed, nationalism in reality constitutes a subvariant of culturalism, in which a single culture provides the basis for the state. Therefore it does not come as a surprise that the present nationalist renaissance in European politics makes use of culturalist ideas to a great extent." (Erikson, 2010). This overlap is indeed uncomfortable; nationalism can be healthy at certain levels and at others it is something that needs to be kept severely in check. Extreme nationalism and aversive culturalism were components which allowed the Holocaust and other genocides to occur. The genocides hardly occurred in private; they occurred on the world stage with the world watching. Nationalist ideologies and culturalist notions can veer dangerously away from reality and can too often work as vehicles for extremists to engage in actions which benefit their insecurities and anxieties.

As some scholars have pointed out, it's been a human tendency for people to divide themselves on some basis and to form groups with which they identify, even if back in the stone age these were just familial designations or divisions based on shared land or caves. "An important and frequently overlooked effect of the growing importance of the two forms of culturalism on contemporary politics is that social groups that had previously organised themselves on the basis of "interests" are now increasingly organising themselves on the basis of 'culture'. This naturally divides these groups politically" (Erikson, 2010). Thus, one could argue that culturalism is simply a manifestation of a natural human tendency. Even if that is the case, it's still something that needs to be kept severely in check. Culturalism helps us to notice our differences, but does little to help us appreciate them or to encourage diversity.

Module: Introduction to the Social Sciences

One of the most meaningful aspects of this module was the finding that social scientists often disagree with one another. Sometimes it can be too difficult to process such disagreements and there comes an urge to determine which one is correct or "most right." Sometimes the best things to do in such a case are to try and understand where the viewpoint stems from. Seeking only to understand the complexities of a perspective can be more useful than trying to figure out who's right and who's wrong.

Module Five: People Identity and Behavior

One of the most interesting points that was raised about the inter-connecting issues of people, identity and behavior, were how these factors connected to the Holocaust. Some fascinating points were raised about how the Holocaust was allowed to happen: one way was how the certain Germans stopped seeing themselves as individuals and seeing themselves as Nazis. Nazi ideology became the collective identity and in combination with fear-mongering was able to place blame on the Jews. The Holocaust is an extreme example of what can happen when people and power and people and identity become hideously warped and entangled.

Module: Social Institutions and Wealth

This module has demonstrates how many of the tendencies of the human race towards self-protection have often been self-defeating. For example, as alluded to earlier, racism is a tendency which comes from a very insecure place. Racism comes from fear of the unknown, uncertainty of the future and a desire to self-protect. As we've also seen, racism can undermine the success of a business (the example given of the company not hiring the African-American employees who might actually be best suited for the job). This is comparable to how prohibition -- another move based on fear and a desperation to control -- actually made alcohol more of a problem in terms of accidents, consumption and negative impacts.

Module: From Culture to Globalisation

So much of society sees globalization as a bad thing; but actually as we've seen in class there are beneficial aspects of globalization as well. Globalisation can cause new forms of music, fashion and art to develop as globalization creates a cultural stew. While many people see globalization as a manifestation of a threat to individual cultures and uniqueness, it is just as easy to see it as something which stimulates and can encourage the production of new products and art forms. Globalization can be more strongly seen as a unifying force.