What is racism?
Before one can make any attempt to provide any lasting solution, it will be important to expand the definition of racism to encompass other forms of discrimination that exist among all humans, no matter where you find them. Take, for example, tribalism and ethnocentric discrimination.
While some will argue that there is a big difference between racism, tribalism, and ethnocentrism, I will be arguing here that there is a great commonality among them because the focus is going to be on what drives these three behaviors.
The bottom line is that by default, all humans can discriminate against other people who do not look, speak, eat, believe, and dress like them. In other words, the propensity to be racist exists in all of us.
This does not mean that there is a racist gene, but based on how we were raised and nurtured, we tend to seek for “our own” unless taught otherwise. This discrimination becomes problematic when it perpetuated at the expense of other people.
Although there is no scientific basis for dividing the human race into different races based on skin color or other factors, this idea of racism still persists because humans like to discriminate.
We generally like what is predictable, familiar, and comfortable. Therefore, when we see something new and strange, fear pushes us to want to be protective of our stuff. For us to keep expanding and occupy space, we sow fear in the hearts of other people by creating the illusion of superiority.
This book is going to be addressing this fear-driven superiority and inferiority complex interaction between humans that keeps fueling tribalism, racism, and other forms of discrimination that are detrimental to us living together in peace and harmony. While there is a great need for legislation to curb these excesses, one will be living in denial if the role of changing one human heart after the other is underlooked.
One would have assumed that in the US, with all the laws in the books, the society will be more homogeneous and segregation will be a thing of the past. But the reality on the ground is far from this. You still have churches that are 100% black, white, Latino, and even neighborhoods that are strictly divided into racial lines.
More in, Racism, Where Is Your Sting? A provocative look at the beginning and the end of racism
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Originally published at https://www.erictangumonkem.com on May 28, 2020.
