An ism — the thought that your genetics or background trump over your effort, industry, and courage.
racism
Racism is this:
- the belief that some peoples are born inferior to others, based on their genetic makeup.
Also, the belief that some people are born superior to others, based on their genetic makeup.
Now — why is racism bad?
Racism is bad because of this:
I do not want my genetic makeup to prevent me from reaching my apex human ability.
Also,
I do not want others in society inhibiting my progress or putting me down based on my genetic makeup.
is racism innate in human beings, or is it socialized and taught to us?
One bias I discovered in myself:
I prefer women who are of Asian descent.
For example, I generally find myself sexually attracted to Asian women (Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, etc) women than I do to caucasian or african-american women.
I can look at a caucasian or african-american woman and believe:
Wow, that is one beautiful woman.
However, I don’t have the sexual attraction to her, nor do I desire to procreate and have children with women who look drastically different to me.
So I wonder:
As an Asian male, is there something in my genetic DNA which makes me prefer women who look similar to me?
Not sure. But because I do have a preference for Asian women, this technically makes me racist (a certain preference for a certain ‘race’ makes us racist).
preferences for people who look more similar to us?
Ive discovered when I meet other people with my same name, I give them higher treatment than other people [who don’t share my name].
This might be a human bias:
We prefer those who are more similar to us than dissimilar to us.
For example, I might give preference to asian men because they look more like me. And I might give more preference to Korean people, because I’m Korean. Or I might give preferences to Americans, because I am American. Or ill give preferences to other Eagle-Scouts, because I am an Eagle Boy Scout!
classism
Another ism: classism. Kanye said:
The new thing is classicism. Its racism’s ugly older brother.
consider:
a rich African-american man and a rich caucasian man have more in similar than a rich african-american man and a poor african-american man.
Or,
people who have graduated college have more in common with one another with those who only have a high school degree.
Taken further,
if you got a Ph.D. and I got a Ph.D, we got more in similar than comparing one person with a Ph.D and another with only a bachelors.
Taken further:
Those who graduate from Harvard have more in common [regardless of race] than comparing a Harvard graduate and a Community College student.
should we treat everyone equally?
no. if someone is an asshole [regardless of race, gender, class] we should not treat them as equal to someone who is nice.
It is natural for us humans to have preferences for certain types of people. And this makes sense.
For example, I prefer my family over strangers. I prefer cindy over my nuclear family.
To have preferences for certain human beings is natural. But perhaps what we must avoid is this–
despising or seeing certain humans as “less” simply based on their class, gender, genetic makeup, or race.