I just started reading "Stumbling on Happiness". The author makes a point about fight or flight. If a human were devising a robot, the robot would probably have instructions when it sees something to then identify it then take action. That order makes sense to us humans. But it is not the order evolution has left our brains with. Evolution places fight or flight at the very base of the brain. The higher brain powers that control identification kick in later. In the example given in the book, a human will react to seeing a rabid wolverine out of the corner of their eye before the brain tells them it is a rabid wolverine. They have hooked people up to sensors and measured the phenomena.
I have long suspected that many of us have latent racism. It goes back a long way, reading articles from the civil war era there was a lot of fear of the black male. Not just the obvious fear we would expect to be played up, but it seems the white owners were really and truly terrified of the black male. I'm not at all sure we have eliminated that. I suspect, and admit I have no evidence, that our law enforcement community is reacting to a black man with a gun before their higher cognitive powers kick in. The case in Texas where the officer entered into the wrong apartment and saw the apartment owner and shot him would be another example. Her brain had to be screaming that she was in the wrong place, but the more base part of the brain that controls fight or flight was shutting that out.
I don't have a great answer. Obviously training is critical but I would assume they are getting a lot of training in identifying threats (and I assume built in are scenarios where the black is not a threat). Maybe the scenarios aren't real enough? But it seems obvious from these cases there is still a problem out there. I would think if these officers are clearly racist, they would be eliminated from the force. So whatever is happening is happening at a subconscious level. How do we retrain that level? Maybe the feds need to open up some money for studies on how to eliminate this issue (whether it be because of the theory laid out above or some other reason).
Well done. Excellent post.
You stated what I’ve tried to express re: racism, but I didn’t do it nearly as well as you did. This is what I meant when I said we’re all at least a little racist- it’s ingrained in who we are as humans.
That doesn’t mean we can’t fight hard to fight those instincts. The shitty thing is that it didn’t have to be that way- it’s in large part thrusted upon us from our experiences.
The rapper Ice-T once said something really brilliant (and I don’t think much of what he says is brilliant). He said you can take a white kid, black kid, Asian kid, Latino kid, etc, and put them all in the same sandbox. And they’ll all play and get along wonderfully. Take those same kids, and get them together as adults, and there’s always going to be tension. On some level.
In other words, we’re taught (whether we realize it or not) to think of people that look a certain way to act a certain way. It’s different for everyone, depending on what you’re exposed to, and how isolated you are from the “others”. That’s a basic human thing, and us developing our brains that way likely helped our ancestors survive way back when.
I think this helps explain the phenomena of the places with the most white people listing immigration as their #1 issue. Sure, they’ll say it’s because of jobs, and not assimilating. That may be a small part of it (I don’t see many of these folks volunteering to take the low wage, high labor jobs these immigrants normally take).
But, at the core, I think what you’ve described is the overriding factor. Labeling it as immigration makes it sound better to them- no one wants to admit that they’re racist- even a little bit. But, how the hell do you explain a guy like Steve King being re-elected? He’s openly racist, and somehow continues to win elections. Side note- that area is farm country, and relies on many (mostly) illegal immigrants to keep the farms running.
I totally agree with your prescription to help fix this issue. Knowledge is power, but it’ll take resources to achieve that knowledge. It’s easier to deflect than to make the painful decision to evaluate, and also to spend $$$ on resources. Self reflection is in very short supply. Trump has proven that being a victim inflames divisions, and that drives them to the polls.