Bigotry inherent in human nature?

After all that we've been through, there are still bigot elements everywhere in our society. Rascism is still very much a part of our family. When one of my cousins married an Asian girl, many in my family, including my parents, kept saying that the races weren't meant to live together. While the racist attitude in my family certainly isn't as strong as you'd see in movies and sometimes today in the deep south, it is still very recognizably present everytime the family is together.I want to share something I've just read. It's from a fictional novel written in the 60's. The characters are all fictional. However, after having read these paragraphs twice, the words eerily resemble what I continue to encounter very regularly in this day and age.

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“I know!” Then, guilty at her own ferocity. “It is just so hard to believe that Brad could have been colored. I never suspected it.”

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This vestigial bigotry in Afra, though he had suspected its existence, came as a nasty shock to Ivo. “We varied in appearance, but the ratios were similar. Brad happened too be very light-skinned, while some were considerably darker than me. Does it matter?” Foolish question.

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“Yes. Yes it does, Ivo.” She turned away and looked out over the ice. “Oh, I know I'm supposed to say I'm a Georgia girl brought up in the twentieth century without prejudice. I know what a person is is what matters, not his lineage, and everyone is equal in our society. That the seeming inferiority of the nonwhite population stems from cultural and economic disadvantage and has no genetic basis. I understand that when Black Power burns its ghettos and pillages stores it's only the frustration speaking that the complacent white majority has fostered for a century. That all we need to do is work together, all races and all subcultures, to build a better society and negate the evils of the past. But”but I wanted to marry him!”

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She spun about to face him, gripping the handrail. “It just isn't in me to love a Negro. I don't even know why. All my experience--”

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She let go and floated, both hands covering her face. “Oh. Brad, Brad, I do love you--”

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Damned either way. Ivo kept his mouth shut, remembering the thousand little ways he had been advised of his own inferiority, once he left the project. The liberals liked to claim that discrimination was a thing of the past, but few of them were to be found residing near Negro families. Official segregation no longer existed, but he had discovered how unpleasant it could get, how rapidly, when the powerful unofficial guidelines were ignored. He had heard from others how suddenly positions advertised as “equal opportunity” became “filled” when a nonwhite applied”and reopened for subsequent whites. Brad had chosen to “pass” --and had risen too high, too fast for reprisal when the truth leaked out. And evidently the truth had not reached Afra's ears, at the station. Ivo had chosen not to pass”and had paid the penalty. He was not one-third Caucasian, one-third Mongoloid; he was one-third Negroid, and that meant he was black. 1/3C +1/3M +1/3N = N. He was less intelligent than a purebred white, despite the white tests that said otherwise; he was less wholesome, though he washed as often and brushed his teeht with a popular white dentifrice; he was indefinably but definitely unequal and everybody in America knew it, whatever they might utter for public consumption. Whether it was “Get out of here, Nigger!” as it had in the 1960, or the rigid courtesy he had experienced in 1970, or selective blindness in 1980, he was an intruder upon society.

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Afra had come out of it. “I am wrong. I know it. But I can't just change it, presto. I can call myself a white bigot and feel guilty, but that's still my nature.” She looked at him in a way that hurt him. “You and Brad and Schon”all together?”

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"Yes."

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"The color and the IQ and the sex--all at once?"

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"Yes."

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Is bigotry inherent in human nature? We all generally agree that it is a bad thing in society. Hence, many bigots these days try to label themselves as something else. But regardless of what they want to call themselves, do you think that bigotry is inherent in human nature? If so, is it "unnatural" to change this part of human nature?PS I was going to put this in PNT, but since there's an unofficial rule among admins that says a PNT has to stay there for 40 days and 40 nights, be reminded that it's still there, and wait for another 40 days and 40 nights before not being promoted, and also the fact that this has nothing to do with the creation vs evolution debate, I decided in the end to bypass the PNT procedures. Edited by Tazmanian Devil, : No reason given.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

simple answer yes ...i think its clear that there is a human instinct to form ourself into groups and to be prejudiced and intolerant to those who do not belong , even groups designed to unite diversie people can be intolerant ...
examples are so clear , we for grps by race , by creed , by street , by sports team , by job , by music taste, by brand of coffee , by politics , by wealth , by fasion , by anything we can ....the degree of bigotry can vary , but i have found it can be very strong for even the most mundain of groupings , logic and reason dont even get in the car let alone push to the back seat ...But i think its the test of ourselves and our society that we can strive to reconise our own bigotry and attempt to deal with it from ourside , not by making special cases , not but intergration , not by papering over the joins , but by realising that different is just different , not better or worst ... and yes that is very very idealistic .. but unless we strive for the best ideals then we can never hope to reach them ....try to climb the highest peak .. then when you fail half way you are still higher than those on the lower peak

I think we're heading into evolutionary psychology territory here.After the "What is feminism?" debate devolved into an EP debate on the nature of men and women, I picked up Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate.Steve argues that there are 3 Laws of Behavioral Genetics (aka human nature): p. 373The First Law leaves open the question "What is a human trait?"To answer this, Steve relies on Donald Brown's List of Human Universals (p. 435). "Universals" of behavior and language have been noted by ethnographers for years and Donald just pulled them all together in his book Human Universals. There are hundreds of items on the list, but for the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to focus on only one: "in group distinguished from out group".In group/out group is not inherently bigoted. It simply means that folks tend to self identify as "family", "clan", "village" etc.And as Steve points out on p. 143: Since in group/out group is cross culturally universal and since any behavior that may be inherited varies greatly among individuals and not among ethnic groups/races, I would argue that bigotry is not human nature.

I modestly prefer Omni's Three Laws of Human Behavior:1. People tend to act in what they see as their own best interest.
2. People are not very good at determining their own best interest.
3. Me too.That ineptitude is near-universal. Unfortunately, it often leads to bigotry.

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Interesting...But what about cases where members within the same societal group discriminate against their own fellow members? Take sexism and homophobia, for example. Why do we continue to see sexist and homophobic attitudes in communities that clearly have both of these peoples present.

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Disclaimer:

​

Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

One could just as easily ask "Why racism?" or "Why ageism?" or "Why any -ism?". They all exist within the same societal group.Mind you, I am not advocating a genetic explanation for each and every human behavior. I am not a genetic determinist. I am referring to a very specific list of human universals in combination with studies that investigate possible genetic links to these universals.That said, AFAIK, no studies have investigated the link between sexism and genetic predisposition or heterosexism and genetic predisposition. Nor does the list of human universals include "sexism" or "heterosexism". "Sex statuses", yes. "Sexism", no. "In group", yes. "Racism", no. "Age statuses", yes. "Ageism", no. And nothing, absolutely nothing, on homosexuality. With good reason. Proscription of homosexuality is not a human universal.Edited by molbiogirl, : No reason given.

I grew up and to a great degree now continue to live in a very caucasian culture. I do feel a discomfort when exposed to cultures outside of what I'm familiar with, be they African-American, Native American, Oriential etc. Likewise, being in a big city, or being exposed to the wealthy or the very poor. But this does not give me a feeling of superiority or inferiority to these of alternate cultures.Mooseps: In a maybe related theme, try googling "fighting whities". Or you may just want to look at Fighting Whites - Wikipedia.

because there are many layers to our groups ..i guess the ultimate group is those who are most like ones self ...., you then build groups based apon degrees of likeness ,ok hes got ginger hair but hes a bloke and he like football and he goes down the pub ...ok hes a bloke who likes football .. mine you he drink wine !ok at least hes not a women , but he likes rugby not football , still he does sink a pint doewn the pubok she a girl but she does support united (football club for non UK ers ) and she is a local not one of those city center women ....ok that very simplistict but i think is a realistic picture ...sexim clearly has roots in power and control , homophobia is as it says often about fear , of ones own self as well as others , an the cutlral demand of male sterotyping ...Also i think any exsisting groupage is suseptable to internel fractures , along seemingly silly lines ,as these groups are not really based on logical stances , they are constructs that sever for a time , and as the membership changes , both as the people change and new members come into the group .