How to Reform a Racist

I have brought in a few resources on this one so have a look at the links below.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-we-all-racists-deep-inside/

BBC News: Implicit bias: Is everyone racist?

I am not sure if any of us are not racist. By racist I mean that we prejudge other people by where they come from not who they are. Many of us would deny that we are racist but I suspect that in the back of our mind, at a subconscious level, there are beliefs about others that we all need to get out of the way so that we can interact directly with the people that we meet and not pre judge them by transferring our beliefs onto them.

Most group and pack animals exist through mutual support. From Wildebeest to chimpanzees the members give the whole group at least the same importance as the individual. This is how they have survived. Chimpanzees have a territory that is their food supply area. It is their larder and contains all the food that is needed to support the group. The chimpanzees in the adjoining territories are doing the same with their groups in their larder. 

In any particular group the members are identified as ‘us’ while the members of the other groups are identified as ‘them’. The object of our group is to defend ‘us’ and what is ours including defending our territory from invaders. If a members of another group strays into our territory then we fight ‘them’ off. These groups are the same as tribes, cultures, nationalities, races and so on. This is often the basis of wars and conflict. As soon as a group is seen as ‘them’ they will lose ‘our’ support. Sometimes we will offer our support and we term it ‘charity’ or something like that. Often we will reject other people and exclude them from our group.

We have just seen the marvel of Trump telling elected members of the US parliament that they should go back to their own countries. In one sentence he was demonstrating that he does not see each of these women as being one of ‘us’ they are definitely ‘them’ and they should leave us and go back to ‘them’. This demonstrates the basis of prejudice and racism.

In reality the land of America was first inhabited by the North American Indians. If we get honest it is their country that was stolen from them by the Europeans. After all Trumps family are immigrants from Germany. Perhaps we should suggest that he goes back to where he came from. 

We see the same behaviour in Australia with the aborigines, in New Zealand with the maoris. The Celtic races that inhabited Northern Europe and the British Isles were pushed back by invading Angles into Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Leading to racist prejudice between these different groups.

I know that these things are also true in other countries because. As I travel the world people tell me about it, and I listen to, their ideas and attitudes about ‘us’ and ‘them’. We racially assume ideas about other people without even realising it. Some of the common myths in the UK that I hear are that Southern English people are cold and stuck up,  Northern English people are warm and friendly, Scottish people are mean, Irish people are thick, Welsh people are thieves. We even get to the point where the different groups have made up rhymes about other groups such as…

…Devon born Devon bred strong in the arm and weak in the head…

…Taffy was a Welsh man, Taffy was a thief, Taffy came to our house 

and stole a shin of beef… and so on…

It doesn’t have to be like this. We can start to see people as people and not as races that we have prejudices about. I will say it again…

If we all look after each then we will al be okay

The different races and cultural groups need to get better at communicating. However, our situation is likely to get more difficult. With global warming the central regions around the equator of the Earth will become less inhabitable and the occupants of those regions will have no option other than to move either north or south in order to survive. That means that there will be a lot of people attempting to move into countries that are currently occupied. The new comers will be seen as ‘them’ and not ‘us’. Unless we become great enough to open our hearts and allow ‘them’ to become ‘us’ there will only be more conflict war and strife.

It would seem that we are moving near to the edge on many fronts. The world economy is unstable. Medically we have lost control of drug resistant bugs. Global warming is on the increase. Sea levels are rising. Pollution is now epidemic. Plastics are taking over the seas. Psychopaths are taking positions of power…

Unless we learn to become ‘us’ as a whole human race could well be looking at the last chapter of humanity on planet Earth. We can change the course of our destiny if we want to. The key words here are ‘we’ and ‘want’.

My suggestion to you is, if you have not done it already, get your DNA decoded and enjoy the many races from all over the planet that are your ancestry. In the end we are well one.

Be happy and love your fellow human beings.

Sean x