From: hal@rain.org
Date: Sat Jun 12 1999 - 10:24:13 MDT
Peter C. McCluskey, <pcm@rahul.net>, writes:
> There seem to be two obvious motives for racial hostility:
> - fear of increased competition in the labor markets with people who
> will do the same job for less.
> - fear of cultural changes caused by different people moving into one's
> society.
I think this is looking at it a little too rationally. It seems to me
that much racism is an instinctive negative reaction towards people
different from yourself.
This could be the other side of the coin of genetic altruism. Your own
tribe was more closely related to you, and shared more of your genes.
You would feel friendly towards them and try to help them. Strangers had
little of your genetic heritage and so you would feel negative towards
those others.
If this is the origin, then consider how a primitive man would react
towards a stranger who had somehow contrived to make himself look and
act like a member of his own tribe. He might well be seen as a wolf in
sheep's clothing, someone whose inner nature was evil (his strangeness)
but who has clothed himself in a false appearance of goodness (by looking
like familiar tribe members). Such a person would still be viewed very
negatively.
In that case, a racist would not view the prospect of enhancing members of
other races genetically or memetically in a favorable light. This would
be disguising their true nature and would be doubly abhorrent; not only
would the racist have to consort with these others, he would not even
be able to identify them.
Hal
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