Nick
Catalano is a TV writer/producer and Professor of Literature
and Music at Pace University. He reviews books and music for
several journals and is the author of Clifford
Brown: The Life and Art of the Legendary Jazz Trumpeter,
New York
Nights: Performing, Producing and Writing in Gotham
and A
New Yorker at Sea. His latest book, Tales
of a Hamptons Sailor, is now available. For Nick's
reviews, visit his website: www.nickcatalano.net
In
a previous essay in these pages I wrote about the remarkable
recent scientific studies in sexual relativity and gender evolution
(Vol.
16, No. 3, 2017) and
noted that these developments, however verifiable, would not
be accepted by the general public for a long time. As an example
of human reluctance to accept revolutionary scientific discovery,
I recounted the story of the great poet John Milton who couldn’t
bring himself to accept Copernicus’s heliocentric structure
of the solar system some 200 years after it was proven beyond
a doubt. I also noted that 150 year old Darwinian evolutionary
science was still being challenged in the present day by intelligent
naysayers who should know better.
Presently,
we come to discuss racism and some recent investigations and
discussions. It would be impossible to list all the tragedies
in human societies caused by this insidious proclivity that
humans have had since we first evolved. Not even the American
Civil War could put a dent in the racist feelings that is still
part of human consciousness; present day newspaper headlines
are continually reporting on killings of African-Americans by
whites with motivation traced to primordial racist tendencies
and actions.
Now
verifiable science tells us that racial differences in humans
have absolutely no genetic basis whatsoever. Racial dissimilarity
is a result of random mutations connected to the geographical
movement of various human species (Neanderthal, Homo erectus,
Australopithicus, Homo sapiens etc.) throughout history. Basically,
we all come from Africa and have changed as we have moved.
This
recent science will come as a shock to some, will cause unease
in countless cultures, and will result in widespread disbelief
for many far into the future. Nonetheless, for inquiring minds
who tend to accept solid science, the evidence for this discovery
is available in the research accomplished in the study of the
human genome which has actually been going on for 30 years.
Dr.
Craig Ventner, one of pioneers of DNA research resulting from
the Genome project, put it to us directly in June 2000 –
“the concept of race has no genetic or scientific basis.”
(There are dozens of top scientific sources that support this
dictum. Rather than list them I refer skeptics to seek out the
many authorities available in Google). Insidiously, race is
a made-up label used to define and separate us and has evolved
as one of society’s great evils.
In
the context of this scientific pronouncement it becomes natural
to ask how the practice of racism has thrived in human history.
Actually,
the ages old practice became ‘legitimized’ in the
19th century with the assertions of Dr. Samuel Morton (1799-1851,
a prominent American skull collector who concluded that people
could be divided into five races and that these represented
separate acts of creation. Morton’s hierarchy led off
with whites as the most intelligent of the races followed by
East Asians, Southeast Asians, native American Indians and blacks
at the bottom. He became known as the father of scientific racism
and his ideas were instantly taken up by evangelicals and pro-slavery
forces everywhere. Unhappily, we still live with Morton’s
daft ideas and racial distinctions that continue to shape our
politics and our sociology.
There
are deeper problems in our racism than Morton’s influence
and to view them we turn to psychology. Numerous neuroscientific
tests reveal an unfortunate characteristic that we all have
– an unconscious preference for our race over others.
Some have used the term ‘groupishness’ to describe
this phenomenon. Despite the fact that we may have deep intellectual
opposition to racism, the human brain is “identity crazed.”
We may have no conscious preference for white people over black
people or Asian people but when we meet a person of a different
race we immediately, and, again unconsciously relate to their
racial differences before any other discernments. As evolutionary
psychologist John Tooby has indicated we can’t help it.
We are wired from birth to tell Us from Them.
The
human predilection for groupishness is instantaneous. As Jay
Van Bavel, a neuroscientist at New York University, has said,
“In the first split second we react to people on the basis
of their group memberships.” Regrettably, there is no
single scientific hypothesis as to why people fall prey to the
Us-versus-Them mind-set. Researchers work feverishly to develop
theories because this unconcious custom can quickly lead to
difficulties. Common experience shows that when facing threats
of even minor conflict or injustice this innocent innate tendency
of groupishness morphs into fear of “them” and possible
subsequent violence.
One
of the most unfortunate examples of this groupishness custom
occurs when white police officers precipitously gun down blacks.
In case after case, the officers deny any conscious racism.
In many instances their impulsive overreactions can be traced
to the “Us vs. Them” bias behaviour. After noting
laboratory studies indicating bias in policing is strong, criminologist
Lorie Fridell said “ . . . I know most police want to
serve the public and are very offended at the idea that they
may be prejudiced. They aren’t racists.” Their actions
are the result of the unconscious group bias.
Recently,
the Counter Bias Training Simulator (CBTsim) developed by Lois
James at Washington State University is helping to show officers
how to counteract the unconscious group bias syndrome. Nonetheless,
given the power of their primordial innate tendencies it is
a big challenge to train them to focus solely on “the
objective level of threat.” This recent experimentation
offers the best hope of alleviating the daily task that they
face.
It
is important to amplify society’s discussion about racism
to include some of the aforementioned ideas of the brain’s
group bias which are presently being put forth in various scientific
communities. The challenge of removing the Us vs. Them prejudices
that have dictated societal discord for the ages looms as a
forbidding task. But wider acquaintanceship with recent science
is certainly the place to begin.
