Tuesday March 5, 2019

Q: Are we naturally racist or influenced by society?

Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another and it has
become one of the problem that the world face today. I believe racism is not innate,
instead it is influenced by society due to human behaviors such as following people’s
order just because we are afraid of judgments, lack of understandings and
knowledge. Nevertheless, the government also shows certain acts towards a specific
group of people which shows that they are discriminating and have bias towards
them.

People around us do affect the way we live today. It is proven that people tend
to follow what others do because we think that what they did was right and to avoid
social awkwardness of doing something different. In Robert Cialdini bestselling
book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he states that, “Whether the question
is what to do with how fast to drive on a certain stretch of highway, the actions of
those around us will be important in defining the answer.” Social proof is a shortcut
to decide how to act. Therefore, we are influenced racist by other agents because
we tend to follow what people think instead of objecting the true facts.

Due to misconceptions, people often judge people by their covers and not for
who they are. For instance, black children think that white dolls or characters are
smarter and prettier, and some comercial company thinks that white women are
typically assumed to be more attractive than black women. This way of thinking and
judgments spread around the world through social medias and even talked as an hot
issue within our regions. It is said that, “The automatic processes that underlie
behavioral mimicry appear to not only influence nonverbal communication,
emotions, and behavior when people interact, but they adopt the same preferences
as other consumers.” With this, it is psychologically proven that racism are
influenced from the society.

Human brain is the complex organ in our human body which produces our every
thought, action, memory, feeling and experience of the world. Studies have found
that when whites see black faces there is increased activity in the amygdala, a brain
structure associated with emotion and, specifically, with the detection of threats.
Racism is a natural human instinct, and part of a natural part of human evolution. On
the other hand, racism is not considered innate due to how people such as the
Chinese government, wanted their citizens to know that they are more superior than
any other countries which then leads to a racist mindset. Not only that Chinese
government also think that their race is better than any other races in the world.

To summarise, people are influenced racist due to the society and environment
we live in. However, racism is natural because it is something that we cannot stop
from happening and racist actions are the ones that reinforce the racism.
Nevertheless, racism should not be practised in order for us, humans, to be together
as one.

Done by: Amyza (Block 3)