Discrimination & Racism
First of all, let’s explain the difference between discrimination and racism. Although all forms of racism involve discrimination, not all situations of discrimination equal racism. Racism is the feeling or belief of looking down on another group, race or nationality. Discrimination and racism are both unfair attitudes that lead to unethical behavior, the negative weight of discrimination is less than racism. Discriminatory behavior occurs, for example, when an employee Favors his own nationality more than other nationalities, without judging who is superior to whom. This may happen to an extreme nationalistic person, such as a Finn offering a higher service to a Finn than to a British citizen. Since most of these discriminations happen with the behavior of underestimating references in dealing with the people of developing countries, it is interpreted as racism.
Discrimination and racism are strictly prohibited in most developed countries. However since the roots of racism and discrimination are in the organization of value in the individual’s mind that creates personal attitudes and opinions, it is not easy to control or avoid its reflection in behaviors.
Racism and discrimination have a very extensive study area in scientific fields such as psychology, sociology and politics. In this section, I focus on my personal understanding of racism. Something that I have faced during my migration to different countries, and I try to discuss it with my real experiences and logical interpretation.
During my stay abroad, especially in Finland, I have experienced and understood three main ways of racist behavior or combination of them.
“Racism as Extreme Nationalism”
Many local people feel hatred towards immigrants and this type of feeling is more visible in small and homogeneous communities. Some of the reasons for this non-acceptance of immigrants and negative opinions towards them have been mentioned, especially with the nationalities of Central Asia and Africa. In formal and informal interviews as well as observations I made with local people and immigrants, I realized that most local people feel insecure about the presence of immigrants in the community from financial, social and personal aspects. Many Finns think that the government spends the tax money they pay on immigrant services, especially refugees, or even if they see immigrants working, they believe that the presence of immigrants makes it harder for them to compete and get better jobs.
From the social aspect, some other local people consider the presence of immigrants to increase crimes in society. This issue has caused public sensitivity. Or, for example, when a woman is victimized by her alcoholic Finnish partner, it may not provoke the same social outrage as when an immigrant man abuses his partner.
To explain a personal aspect, I can tell one of my experiences. Once I was walking on the trail, a Finnish woman looked at me and my friend and said something angrily. I asked my friend about the meaning of that word and he said that many Finnish ladies call immigrant women whores because they feel insecure about their partners when immigrant women are around. Of course, in the same case, I have noticed from many Finnish men, especially middle-aged men, that they are angry with immigrant men because they believe that immigrants are cheating on Finnish girls or women.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolutionary Psychology
and
Genetic Similarity Theory
can justify ethnic nepotism and people’s need to identify and be with their ‘own kind.
Charles Robert Darwin
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Disliking immigrants and trusting people who are more like us is a natural feeling. Some people may respect internationalism, but if we look at evolutionary psychology and refer to Darwin’s evidence, many animals set their own territory and don’t like others moving into it. Nationalism seems to help people feel a sense of belonging, which is not bad unless it leads to immoral acts.
While Darwinism may explain much of our behavior as biological forces, there is extensive biological research that suggests a complex interplay of genetics and environment. One of Sipolski’s books is “Behaviour”, about the interaction of biology, genetics, and ethics. He does not simplify behaviors with genetic justification. environmental interaction.
“A unique less-aggressive suite of behaviors that affects the overall structure and social atmosphere of a wild baboon troop potentially represents an intergenerational transfer of social culture”
Robert Morris Sapolsky
(born 1957)
is an American neuroendocrinology researcher and author. He is a professor of biology, neurology, neurological sciences, and neurosurgery at Stanford University.
I want to bring the abstract of one of his articles here which explains how human behaviors change through generation.
Abstract
“Reports exist of transmission of culture in nonhuman primates. We examine this in a troop of savanna baboons studied since 1978. During the mid-1980s, half of the males died from tuberculosis; because of circumstances of the outbreak, it was more aggressive males who died, leaving a cohort of atypically unaggressive survivors. A decade later, these behavioral patterns persisted. Males leave their natal troops at adolescence; by the mid-1990s, no males remained who had resided in the troop a decade before. Thus, critically, the troop’s unique culture was being adopted by new males joining the troop. We describe (a) features of this culture in the behavior of males, including high rates of grooming and affiliation with females and a “relaxed” dominance hierarchy; (b) physiological measures suggesting less stress among low-ranking males; (c) models explaining transmission of this culture; and (d) data testing these models, centered around treatment of transfer males by resident females.”
Sapolsky, R. M., & Share, L. J. (2004). A pacific culture among wild baboons: its emergence and transmission. PLoS biology, 2(4), e106.
Sapolsky has many books and research articles explaining how genetically based behaviors can be changed through environmental interaction. One of his famous studies of baboons is how changing the leader to a female was able to change the aggression in the male baboon leaders in subsequent generations to become less aggressive although developmental psychologists have already confirmed male aggression.
Sapolsky’s findings not only explain the behavioral patterns of different genders in different cultures and their change in generations but also can explain that the behavioral and ethical standards of previous generations, which are defined by evolutionary psychology as genetically fixed patterns, gradually evolve in culture.
Important Notes
Human civilization depends on the dynamic interaction of people and cultures. Such interactions are essential for the development and growth of societies. New people with new backgrounds, experiences, and ideas expand our perspective and accelerate the development of society.
The pattern of genetic human behavior changes through interaction. Many ethical standards (e.g., respect for other races) are learned through education and experiences with the environment and can be transferred to the next generation as culture (or historical memory).
“Conscious or Mindful Racism”
Another type of racist behavior stems from a mental belief rather than an emotional attitude.