Race and Behavior

Will the races ever get along? Will racism ever cease to exist? What is the best approach to improve race relations?

In an ideal world, the color of one's skin shouldn't matter. One should treat an individual without any preconceived notions or prejudice related to his race.

Here's the problem: race is the primary identifier of an individual, followed by sex(How many times have we heard on the news, "the suspect was described as a white/black male, 6' tall wearing....). Ever since the first Homo Sapiens walked the earth, he has learned to differentiate others of his kind by observing the most obvious characteristics: skin color and sex. Perhaps a DNA code developed over the millenia that causes modern humans to key into a person's race when interacting with that person. If that's the case, there is a scientific basis for the roots of prejudice. Prejudice may the expression of a primal gene that once caused man to catalogue the racial characteristics of his competitors as he tried to survive in the new world.

Social factors reinforce race-behaviour associations. The scientist Pavlov showed that learning occurs primarily by association (his famous dog salivation-bell experiments). If a person is repetitiously exposed to an event, his subconcious mind, in an attempt to comprehend the event will break it down into in its basic components. If there is a discernable pattern, his mind will associate the individual components when he sees them in his environment.

Here's how the above analysis applies to race relations: It can be observed that certain ethnic groups exhibit behaviours that are common (but not necessarily exclusive) to them. The word for this is "stereotyping," but let's be serious. The statement "Filipinos are very tight with their money" may be offensive to some, but let me tell you, this statement is not all that inaccurate. Or Chinese people push their children too hard to excel in academics. Or Mexican couples tend to have more children than whites or asians. Or Indians eat a lot of curry and have pungent-smelling homes. Or African Americans are better at sports and dancing than whites. Are these assessments racist, stereotyping or are they simply the truth? If they are the truth, then why be offended? The answer that immediately comes to mind is that it is better not to prejudge people based on their race, because first of all it isn't nice. Secondly, you could be wrong and you may offend that person. Here's the problem with this answer: humans are constantly judging things around them. Forget that notion that "thou shalt not judge." Judging is instinctive and in our genes. Early man had to judge the situation around him every minute of the day in order to survive. Is that caveman from the other tribe going to club me in the head when I sleep, and take my mate? Is that sabre-toothed tiger going to try to ambush me? Is that auto mechanic going to try to rip me off? Remember when you were in college, and your buddy told you he's got a hot date for the weekend? Instinctively your mind pictured what that woman might look like. If you are a minority, and your buddy as well, the first question to your friend would be, "what is she-- white or (fill in the blank with your race)?" Skinny or fat? Inquiring minds want to know! So with respect to our subsconcious or conscious judging of people, race unfortunately to the idealists, is fair game. If you don't admit it, you are just kidding yourself.

What I try to do when I encounter someone is suppress the natural urge to judge that person by his race, and view him neutrally. Once my senses have absorbed his physical characteristics, my mind will evaluate him based on his behaviour. If he exhibits behaviour commonly associated with his race, then that race-behaviour association is strengthened. It may be harmless and not have an effect on my impression of that person; it may be harmful and cause me to dissociate myself from him; or it might be annoying, but bearable. I've experienced all three during my lifetime.

Criminal behaviour crosses all racial lines. Violence, crime and "aggressive, intimidating" behaviour are more likely to be committed by poor, uneducated people, who are disproportionately minorities, particulary blacks and Hispanics. How they came to be poor, unfortunately, is irrelevant to the subject at hand. By virtue of the fact that blacks and hispanics disproportionately commit violent crimes (a degrading statistic that is made available to the population through the media), a race-behaviour association is developed. Hence, you have the old white lady in the elevator clutching her purse with all her might when a black person enters. Yes, this is profoundly unfair to African-Americans as a whole, but I'm not addressing the issue of fairness in this post. White teens are getting a reputation of doing larger scale, more visible crimes; i.e., school shootings. If white teens continue to commit school shootings, an unfavorable race-behaviour association will be attached to this group. CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are on their way to being stereotyped as greed-obsessed, heartless old white males. But with their money and power, I'm sure that's the least of their worries.

Yes, racial differences make our society interesting. It is a test for humanity for us all to get along. Almost 40 years after Martin Luther King's death, we've seen big strides in race relations, but problems persist. It's like the curve is flattening out. With the terrorist situation going on, I think the problems are going to get worse, especially for those of Middle Eastern descent. Can it be that primal gene expressing itself? Who knows.