Systemic Racism: Causes and Cures

Photo by visuals on Unsplash

Systemic Racism has received extensive coverage in the public media. This article explains the fundamental cause of racism and describes how it can be eliminated or, at least, controlled. The assumptions supporting the thesis are:

• Humans are innately tribal; tribalism satisfies a basic need of our species
• Prejudice toward other tribes is a natural consequence of tribalism
• Racial prejudice is just one kind of tribal prejudice
• Racism is the practice of anti-social behavior resulting from racial prejudice
• Advances in bio-engineering could allow racism to be eliminated

Definitions

Tribalism. Maslow defined a five-level hierarchy of human needs.

The two lowest levels encompass our physical needs for sustenance, shelter and security. If our physical needs are met we attempt to satisfy psychological needs that include belongingness, intimacy and friendships. The need to belong is an essential attribute of tribalism. The two highest levels in Maslow’s hierarchy define our needs for prestige, accomplishment and self-fulfillment.

Tribal membership is either automatic or optional. Humans at birth, automatically become members of a family tribe, a gender tribe, an age tribe, a race tribe and a language tribe. Children are members of a neighborhood tribe, a school tribe and a friends tribe. Employment entails membership in the employer’s tribe and perhaps in unions or professional associations. Adults voluntarily join tribes such as hobby groups, country clubs, recreation associations, political parties, service clubs, churches/synagogues/mosques and alumni organizations. Members of a tribe typically share the same interests, skills, lifestyle, purposes or philosophies.

Why do we join tribes? One reason is to fill security and safety needs. For example, joining a neighborhood watch association can enhance the security of children; joining a MADD group may reduce the threat posed by drunk drivers.

More important however, are the psychological benefits arising from membership in tribes. Membership may increase a sense of “I’m all right, Jack”. Membership may also satisfy a person’s people’s needs for prestige and accomplishment. Tribal membership may also augment a need to feel superior to others. This last motivation is one of the underlying causes of racism.

Tribal loyalty can be weak or extremely strong. Loyalty can range from membership in name only to participating as an obsessive advocate and recruiter for the tribe.

Tribal members’ attitudes toward other tribes range from indifference to toxic beliefs that are manifested in anti-social behavior. Toxic attitudes are based on a belief that the tribe is correct and good and that another tribe is wrong and not worthy of respect. Many criminal and terrorist acts result from the hate and intolerance of members of one tribe toward another.

Prejudice. What does it mean to say someone is prejudiced? All dictionary definitions of prejudice incorporate the idea of a preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable. Because prejudices are based on preconceived ideas rather than facts and logic, prejudices are based on ignorance. Ironically, saying that someone is prejudiced may itself be a prejudiced statement.

Discrimination. Unlike prejudice, discrimination implies judgment based on understanding, experience and an intelligent assessment of ideas, actions and other people. Unfortunately, like many other words in our language, “to discriminate” — a positive trait, has been usurped by special interest groups and common usage to camouflage what are really prejudices. To say someone discriminates should be a compliment but unfortunately it is often interpreted as a criticism.

Many people abandon efforts to discriminate and accept the doctrines, tenets and teaching of their tribes as articles of faith. This makes sense for judgments requiring specialized knowledge and expertise. For example most people accept the judgements of medical experts regarding the Coronavirus pandemic. However, unquestioning acceptance of tribal judgments concerning morality, integrity and justice mean these conclusions are prejudicial rather than reasoned.

Racism. Racism incorporates two ideas. First is the belief that different behavioral traits, intelligence levels, moral principles and qualities are linked to physical characteristics such as skin color or ethnicity. These differences are used to justify beliefs that one race is superior to another. Second, racism is more than a set of beliefs. Racism is manifested by actions directed against others simply because of differences in race or ethnicity. The most common manifestation of racism is the use of racial slurs embodied in words such as: “chink”, “boon”, “camel jockey”, “goy” and “round eyes”. Racism is based on prejudices.

Systemic Racism. Systemic Racism is simply racism that is persistent. It is racism that is practiced consistently by individuals and groups. These groups are often well-defined tribes that include racist statements found in their mission statement or code of conduct. Organizations founded on racism often advocate undertaking racist acts. Perpetrators of racist acts demonstrate disrespect and lack of empathy for their targets. They ignore the harm caused by their racist behavior.

Systemic racism is a natural consequence of tribal prejudices.

What Can We Do About It?

Before looking at three ways of mitigating or eliminating the harm caused by systemic racism, consider the question “What is the opposite of racism?”. Since racism is inherent in tribalism, an absence of racism would mean that the race or ethnicity of tribal members is unimportant. This is precisely the concept of diversity. In a racially diverse tribe, race and ethnicity is neither a requirement for membership nor a reason to join the tribe.

Methods of Eliminating Racism.

The following paragraphs describe five approaches for reducing or eliminating systemic racism. They are: Education and Counseling, Medical Intervention, Diversity Initiatives, Regulatory Measures, and Biological Controls.

First, Education and Counseling. The first step requires identifying actual and potential racists. Tribal memberships often indicate racist attitudes. For example, membership in a “White Supremacist Society” is a good indication of someone who condones or advocates the superiority of the white race.

Schools, parents and religious organizations can teach and instill principles of behavior that will reduce racism. The single most important belief that combats racism is found in statements of “the golden rule”. All versions take the form of a commandment for leading a moral life and include the idea of respect and reciprocity among individuals. Here are five different versions: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; Wish upon others only what you wish upon yourself; Choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself; Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. The author’s own choice of words is “Other people are as important to themselves as you are to yourself.”

Second, Medical Intervention. Some practitioners of racism are, by conventional standards, mentally ill. Persons who are psychotic or sociopathic lack empathy and show no guilt or remorse for their behavior. No amount of education or counseling will curb their desire to commit racist acts. However, interventions that involve drug therapies and/or surgeries may be beneficial.

Third, Diversity Initiatives. The lack of racial diversity in the workplace makes sense if employees require certain physical traits that enhance their value to the organization. For example, the majority of elite professional basketball players are black and much taller than average. Employing these individuals does not imply racial prejudice.

However, when education and experience are factored out, many organizations reveal racial prejudices through employee percentages that do not match the distribution of ethnicities in society. Many governments and organizations have hiring practices that encourage or require ethnic balances. When these policies take the form of strict quotas however, it may mean the most qualified individuals are not always hired. Racial quotas represent a different type of racism.

Fourth, Regulatory Measures. Every racist act involves the racist perpetrator, the act, and the recipient (target) of the act. Laws and regulations covering racist acts must take into account the severity of the act, the penalty and the recipient’s compensation.

Racist acts can be ranked in terms of perceived harm to the recipient(s). Harm can range from the effect of an off-hand sexist comment spoken in jest to the mass killing of innocent victims.

Presumably, penalties for racist acts discourage future racist behavior. Options that make the punishment fit the crime can range from a verbal admonishment of “don’t-do-it-again” to life in prison. Penalties for acts such as hate crimes and terrorism are prescribed by laws. The level of punishment reflects a society’s morals and principles. What is deemed appropriate for one society may be totally unacceptable to another. For example, answers to the question “What is the justified level of force used by law enforcement officers?” varies from one society to another.

Victim Compensation. What should be done to compensate the target of a racist attack? “Sorry” is seldom enough. Financial compensation and counseling are two obvious choices. However, many racist acts mean the recipient will live with permanent physical and psychological scars. In those instances, there is nothing that can undo the harm done.

Fifth, Biological Controls. The following paragraphs describe two “solutions” to racism that some readers will reject out-of-hand for reasons based on their moral and ethical principles. They are labeled Beige Humans and Chipping.

Beige Humans. Since racial prejudices are based on physical characteristics — primarily skin color, why not use advances in bio-engineering — gene editing in particular — to produce humans that all have the same skin color. If everyone was “beige”, skin color would be eliminated as a basis of racial prejudice. However prejudices based on other physical differences would still exist.

Chipping. Chipping involves implanting a rice-grain-sized electronic chip in every individual. Chipping is already widely used for monitoring animal productivity. In humans it currently has limited use as an alternative to finger printing, iris scanning and other means of identification. Expanding the use of chipping has many potential benefits and numerous negative consequences.

The use of surveillance technology is ubiquitous and growing exponentially. China, for example, has deployed over 200 million video cameras to monitor , record and subsequently analyze citizens’ behavior. The capabilities of video-based surveillance methods are extremely limited when compared with those of chipping. Chipped information can include many identification attributes, physical/medical characteristics and time-stamped-where-what-when data about an individual. Data can be stored in zettabyte- sized databases controlled, analyzed and used by national governments. As with almost all surveillance measures, governments will justify chipping as being necessary to insure the safety and security of citizens. Widespread chipping of individuals is inevitable as a means of controlling citizens. China will be the first to implement chipping on a national scale.

What has chipping got to do with reducing racism? Initially, chipped information could be used to identify racist acts. However, the chipped information would not be sufficient to prevent future racist behavior. This would require knowing the cause of an individual’s racism. However, current research projects in cognition and brain processes will result in technology that can capture the inputs, reasoning and outputs of human thought processes.

When this “why” information is accessed and understood, it could determine a person’s racist beliefs and tendencies. Preventive therapies could then be applied to mitigate or eliminate racist thoughts. Such treatments could be implemented by downloading software “solutions” to modify the neurological functions of the racist’s brain. Brave New World: Here We Come!

Summary

• Tribalism exists in all species. In humans, belongingness is a primal need that provides physical and psychological benefits.
• Prejudice and discrimination are distinct. Prejudices foster attitudes not based on facts or logic Discrimination results in judgments based on experience, reflection and understanding.
• Prejudice based on tribal differences is a natural consequence of our inability and/or unwillingness to discriminate.
• Racism involves acts motivated by racial prejudices. Systemic racism is persistent racism practiced by individuals and groups.
• Advances in bio- and neuro-technology may allow racism to be controlled. However, control and misuse of this technology may result in a dystopian future for all of society.