are babies born racist?

[brainhulk]

A reoccurring phrase I see regularly here is that everyone is racist, even just a little. Do you think we are born that way or did we learn to be racist from mama and papa?

 

[dank69]

Babies instinctively distrust anything different. A baby that has never seen a person of another race will display an aversion to people of that race. The same baby, if exposed to that different race on a regular basis will no longer display that aversion.

So, to answer your question, babies aren't racist. Racism is cultivated.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

It's not just race...birds of a feather flock together...social status, skin color, family status, etc etc.

If it's not skin color it's height, weight, hair color, etc etc.

Difference is untrusted/unknown. Ignorance can easily lead to fear/hatred.

 

[IronWing]

Original sin's got it covered. I voted "depends on race" because of reasons.

 

[_Rick_]

Babies aren't born racist, but xenophobic.
The more a child lives in a variety of cultures, the less it will judge them.

The conservative phase of the human mind usually only sets in in the twenties. After that, it gets increasingly hard to overcome one's xenophobia and integrate with/ accept another culture/look.

 

[rh71]

Of course not born that way. If you ever see young kids on a playground, they don't care about skin color, eye shape, yamakas, or turbans even in the slightest. My kids are 5, asian, and they'll play with anyone who responds and others will do the same with them. Over time, kids are influenced and develop their own ideas. If you ever see a kid under the age of like 6 make racist remarks or actions, it is usually because of something they picked up from an older sibling or cousin. When my kids come home doing the "chinese eyes" thing and laugh, I always ask them who showed them that so we can be aware of who the trouble-maker families are. It's not on the kid until he is old enough to think of race for himself.

As far as everyone being at least a little racist, I think it's more believing in stereotypes than hate.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I love the third option which basically is "Are you a racist?"

 

[Linflas]

A reoccurring phrase I see regularly here is that everyone is racist, even just a little. Do you think we are born that way or did we learn to be racist from mama and papa?

No what you really see is nothing more than prejudices and stereotypes mislabeled as racism 99% of the time but the term has been so overused and misused that it is rapidly being stripped of any meaning anyway.

 

[edro]

It's not just race...birds of a feather flock together...social status, skin color, family status, etc etc.

If it's not skin color it's height, weight, hair color, etc etc.

Difference is untrusted/unknown. Ignorance can easily lead to fear/hatred.

I agree.

 

[Printer Bandit]

you have to be racist if you believe in evolution.

 

[IronWing]

you have to be racist if you believe in evolution.

Only if you believe in a strawman version of evolution.

 

[nehalem256]

Racism cannot be an inherent evolutionary trait.

Think about it. Races evolve because of different groups of people being separated. So what evolutionary process would drive someone to instinctively hate something they have no contact with?

 

[nehalem256]

Babies instinctively distrust anything different. A baby that has never seen a person of another race will display an aversion to people of that race. The same baby, if exposed to that different race on a regular basis will no longer display that aversion.

So, to answer your question, babies aren't racist. Racism is cultivated.

I wonder if a black baby was adopted by a white couple if it would display an aversion to black people?:twisted:

 

[jaedaliu]

Aren't all babies born white?

well, born pink/purple?

 

[SlitheryDee]

I think there is probably some degree of instinctual racism. It would have something to do with protecting the people who have the most in common with us genetically. In the conditions we evolved in, geographic location and outward physical characteristics would be good criteria for determining who was most likely to share our genes. It's not so relevant now with the amount of travel and cross breeding that goes on, but you can't reason with evolved traits. In any case, it makes a kind of evolutionary sense that there would be some ingrained mistrust of people who are from far away places or look significantly different from us.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Racism exists, only when you point out someone being a racist - you are selecting & singling out the racist,.. that's racist itself.

It's similar to people who deny another human being freedom - like how the Union did to the Confederate; the Confederate wanted to be free, to enslave other human beings. By the Union NOT allowing the Confederates to be be free, to enslave other human beings, the Union is against freedom.

 

[soulcougher73]

Babies instinctively distrust anything different. A baby that has never seen a person of another race will display an aversion to people of that race. The same baby, if exposed to that different race on a regular basis will no longer display that aversion.

So, to answer your question, babies aren't racist. Racism is cultivated.

This.

 

[soulcougher73]

No what you really see is nothing more than prejudices and stereotypes mislabeled as racism 99% of the time but the term has been so overused and misused that it is rapidly being stripped of any meaning anyway.

This is true as well. "Racist" is being so dumbed down to apply to anything nowadays.

 

[Newell Steamer]

This is true as well. "Racist" is being so dumbed down to apply to anything nowadays.

Not being selective makes this anti-Racist,... that's pretty racist to exclude racism.

 

[Jeff7]

Babies instinctively distrust anything different. A baby that has never seen a person of another race will display an aversion to people of that race. The same baby, if exposed to that different race on a regular basis will no longer display that aversion.

So, to answer your question, babies aren't racist. Racism is cultivated.

So you're saying it was good that I watched Star Trek TNG when I was young? Excellent.
Well, and Reading Rainbow.
And Sesame Street helped introduce kids to the world of furries. Or maybe I'm not interpreting that correctly. :hmm:

Anyway, the first time I saw an Indian kid was when I was in elementary school, I simply asked if I could feel the skin on his arm. I'd seen dark skin on TV before then, but never up close. It didn't feel much different than mine, so, curiosity satisfied, life went on. That was it. His skin was just darker than........well, everyone else in that grade. Welcome to white rural Pennsylvania, I guess.

Only if you believe in a strawman version of evolution.

But if there are straw men, wouldn't there be fossils of straw apes?

 

[rh71]

Not being selective makes this anti-Racist,... that's pretty racist to exclude racism.

I don't think racist means what you think it means...

 

[Leyawiin]

Babies instinctively distrust anything different.

The is true to an extent. I've seen babies freak out over old men with beards - even if they were of the same race.

 

[dank69]

The is true to an extent. I've seen babies freak out over old men with beards - even if they were of the same race.

Did you know that babies as young as 6 months will be happy when a puppet that likes a different snack food than they do is punished?

 

[Leyawiin]

Did you know that babies as young as 6 months will be happy when a puppet that likes a different snack food than they do is punished?

Or laugh when people who make inane comments are kicked hard.

 

[ultimatebob]

My 1 year old daughter is fascinated by watching black folks eat. I'm not sure why, but she is. It's nothing I taught her, that's for sure.