There is a kind of silent equilibrium that the left is exploiting.
Societies have to find a balance between truth and politeness. Thats a big part of what makes us civilized. We all internally profile strangers based on a hundred different (mainly) visual cues. Race is one of those cues along with age, sex, attractiveness, hygiene, class, and on and on. For example, Attractiveness and intelligence are negatively correlated in the uncontrolled inner workings of my brain. I didn’t choose this, it just is, and I am often proven wrong. I am white and grew up playing sports in a racially diverse area. My gut reaction to black skin is to assume they are more athletic than a similarly built white person. This is of course not always true, but I can’t deny I have the thought. If I was a cop would this gut assumption make me more fearful in a physical altercation? Maybe. I am ashamed to say I have a distrust of the very poor in an encounter on the street, but I also have a strong distrust of the wealthy when it comes to business dealings. These reactions can veer even further into the irrational. I might have a negative gut reaction to someone because they remind me of an old girlfriend that I can’t stand. Every single human does this. It is not a rational, well thought out profile, it is a snap-judgement and is entirely out of our immediate control.
So what we do for social cohesion is agree on an unspoken and unwritten contract of politeness and effort. We all pretend like we don’t know that we are all internally profiling each other. We can’t know the exact nature of others thoughts so we agree to judge each other by how well we moderate them, which is to say, we agree to judge each other by our words and actions. Then we make an effort to dilute these unwanted gut reactions by meeting more people. But there is a flaw to be exploited with this agreement. Everyone knows that everyone else is racist, but we don’t know how racist. Maybe race has become far less important over the last 60 years or maybe white people have just become better at hiding it. What the left does is shine a light on this fact, but only in regards to white people. So white people who are not openly racist are surely quietly racist, which is true to some extent. As evidence they point to the open racism of past white people. So instead of “wow, look how much less racist white people have become” its “wow, look at how much better at hiding their racism white people have become.”
The left has voided half of the politeness contract. So now, if you’re white, you must still be polite and give effort, but while you’re being polite you must also apologize for the inner racist thoughts we all know you’re having. Or if you are gong to speak on race at all you must first rattle off a list of qualifiers and admissions of guilt. The scary part is that once you tear up the politeness contract, millions of white people start to wonder why they continue trying, when they are getting none of the benefits of politeness and effort. It’s a no win situation.
The subconscious profiling we all do is based on our past experiences, and is usually rational, or partly rational. Stereotyping is an essential part of cognition, and our lives depend on it. Our first, and most critical, decision about a stranger is whether or not they are dangerous. Race sometimes correlates with cultural attributes, and it is the cultural attributes that are important, not the physical signs of race.
I agree, profiling the threat posed by a stranger is critical. If our ancestors had not quickly profiled for threat level, and erred on the side of caution, we wouldn’t be here. But its the evolutionarily advantageous strategy of erring on the side of caution that becomes a problem in a multi-cultural country of 330 million people. When in doubt we tend to put strangers in the threat category. Doubt often comes from lack of familiarity. Lack of familiarity is common in a highly segregated society. Thats why the current strategy of the left is so infuriating. The way to get rid of unhelpful racial stereotypes is to meet people of different races. That is far less likely when you are maximizing racial awkwardness by making race essential and handing out swift punishment for any missteps.
Yes I agree, perceiving another person as strange and dangerous can result from lack of experience with that type of person (although it also can result from bad experiences). In a more racially integrated society, there would probably be less negative racial stereotyping.
I also want to point out that it isn't skin color that matters, but the cultural attributes that may be associated with certain skin colors. A poor American black could be the same color as a highly educated Indian immigrant, and our stereotypes of each might be very different. How a person speaks and acts counts much more than skin color.
There is a kind of silent equilibrium that the left is exploiting.
Societies have to find a balance between truth and politeness. Thats a big part of what makes us civilized. We all internally profile strangers based on a hundred different (mainly) visual cues. Race is one of those cues along with age, sex, attractiveness, hygiene, class, and on and on. For example, Attractiveness and intelligence are negatively correlated in the uncontrolled inner workings of my brain. I didn’t choose this, it just is, and I am often proven wrong. I am white and grew up playing sports in a racially diverse area. My gut reaction to black skin is to assume they are more athletic than a similarly built white person. This is of course not always true, but I can’t deny I have the thought. If I was a cop would this gut assumption make me more fearful in a physical altercation? Maybe. I am ashamed to say I have a distrust of the very poor in an encounter on the street, but I also have a strong distrust of the wealthy when it comes to business dealings. These reactions can veer even further into the irrational. I might have a negative gut reaction to someone because they remind me of an old girlfriend that I can’t stand. Every single human does this. It is not a rational, well thought out profile, it is a snap-judgement and is entirely out of our immediate control.
So what we do for social cohesion is agree on an unspoken and unwritten contract of politeness and effort. We all pretend like we don’t know that we are all internally profiling each other. We can’t know the exact nature of others thoughts so we agree to judge each other by how well we moderate them, which is to say, we agree to judge each other by our words and actions. Then we make an effort to dilute these unwanted gut reactions by meeting more people. But there is a flaw to be exploited with this agreement. Everyone knows that everyone else is racist, but we don’t know how racist. Maybe race has become far less important over the last 60 years or maybe white people have just become better at hiding it. What the left does is shine a light on this fact, but only in regards to white people. So white people who are not openly racist are surely quietly racist, which is true to some extent. As evidence they point to the open racism of past white people. So instead of “wow, look how much less racist white people have become” its “wow, look at how much better at hiding their racism white people have become.”
The left has voided half of the politeness contract. So now, if you’re white, you must still be polite and give effort, but while you’re being polite you must also apologize for the inner racist thoughts we all know you’re having. Or if you are gong to speak on race at all you must first rattle off a list of qualifiers and admissions of guilt. The scary part is that once you tear up the politeness contract, millions of white people start to wonder why they continue trying, when they are getting none of the benefits of politeness and effort. It’s a no win situation.
The subconscious profiling we all do is based on our past experiences, and is usually rational, or partly rational. Stereotyping is an essential part of cognition, and our lives depend on it. Our first, and most critical, decision about a stranger is whether or not they are dangerous. Race sometimes correlates with cultural attributes, and it is the cultural attributes that are important, not the physical signs of race.
I agree, profiling the threat posed by a stranger is critical. If our ancestors had not quickly profiled for threat level, and erred on the side of caution, we wouldn’t be here. But its the evolutionarily advantageous strategy of erring on the side of caution that becomes a problem in a multi-cultural country of 330 million people. When in doubt we tend to put strangers in the threat category. Doubt often comes from lack of familiarity. Lack of familiarity is common in a highly segregated society. Thats why the current strategy of the left is so infuriating. The way to get rid of unhelpful racial stereotypes is to meet people of different races. That is far less likely when you are maximizing racial awkwardness by making race essential and handing out swift punishment for any missteps.
Yes I agree, perceiving another person as strange and dangerous can result from lack of experience with that type of person (although it also can result from bad experiences). In a more racially integrated society, there would probably be less negative racial stereotyping.
I also want to point out that it isn't skin color that matters, but the cultural attributes that may be associated with certain skin colors. A poor American black could be the same color as a highly educated Indian immigrant, and our stereotypes of each might be very different. How a person speaks and acts counts much more than skin color.