Is racial prejudice a natural part of human nature? If you believe that it is, does that make it right? ?

Question

I think it really is and it's definitely part of our human nature. That's not including religion groups. Just wanted to know your opinion on this topic

Answer 1

No. It is all learned behavior. If you don't believe me then go look at pre-schoolers who have never been exposed to prejudicial ideas and see how much racism you find displayed.  If it was natural then we would all come out of the womb behaving in a polarized manner.  

Answer 2

I do believe prejudice (of any kind )is a natural part or instinctive behavior of human nature, and is also further reinforced as a learned behavior. That is why prejudice is so hard to overcome.  At its base value, prejudice serves as a way (or excuse) of obtaining and preserving power for survival. That doesn't make it acceptable-humans have supposedly developed beyond base instincts. The tenants of many religions try to teach people how to recognize and resist attitudes such as prejudice.

Answer 3

IT IS NOT PART OF NATURE,any one that says that has not been in real live situations ,free from contamination of attitudes that prevail in civilization.

Black kids hating whites also learn this whilst growing up and being confronted with the realities of a  society run by whites.

Not to speak of what their Peers put into their heads.

in South Africa many white kids grow up with the servants kids .when they are very small they are like brothers playing together.

But then in racist families they grow up to hate black people ,later on..Even though all white south African kids are raised for a large part by black nannies..

This attitude is now becoming a minority with white people ,but it has NOT disappeared.

Racism or any other form of hate is an acquired sentiment

it is taught by the elders.

In Africa one sees many situations with kids of different races playing together unaware or uncaring of their differences as such they may be .

Because apart from the looks there really are no differences ,not counting all that comes later such as religion,education .morals ,and social attitudes.

Intelligence  cannot be equated with race ,education is something else.I have met some very intelligent Natives  and taught a few how to run a computer in no time ,And I have met some very dumb Aryans.

People love , are sad or happy ,generous ,angry just like any one else irrespective if they come from New York or the deepest jungles of Africa or Central America

I know I have been there.

If anything I have found that the more remote peoples location is the more polite ,courteous ,honest and hospitable they tend to be .

Although In one Mazateca village the little kids ran screaming into the houses when i walked down the street ,but that was because they had never seen a white monster before

.

later on when they got to know me they were all around  me And picked  tiny  red spider mites  from my legs,which i could not see, that would have buried themselves into my skin to lay their eggs.

Answer 4

I don't think it's human nature. I think its just first instinct to consider it questionable. Obviously you're just going to think what the heck when you see something that looks different from you for the first time (I talking about wayy back in the day. When the explorers set out to discover new things and this is what the found.)

I think prejudice occurred because of communication difficulties. They speak different languages. Thats new to them as well, things got misinterpreted. It was frustration.

Now that we can communicate and co-exist together. There's still a lot of people that have to understand that it was all just a misunderstanding and that all humans are the same.

Thats the reason why it still exist today. Because great grandparents from the early 1900s growing up during times of slavery in the U.S who were always told that someone different from you is not acceptable is more than likely not going to be able to turn around and teach their children that they are. We just have to hope they learn differently by actually interacting with other races like at school and building an opinion of their own. In some cases that doesn't always work.



Racial prejudice was never ok. Still isn't.

Answer 5

yes it is a part of nature, unfortunately we notice everyone who is different.

Answer 6

I think it's a natural part of human behavior that we try to suppress. People have had prejudices against people "not like them" since the beginning of time. We try to suppress it now because it's no longer reasonable or necessary.

Answer 7

The brain is a control freak organ. The brain demands order. Once an individual establishes what he thinks is the correct order he becomes prejudice. Prejudice can be managed in a civil respectful manner if he is educated to see the value of being tolerant of a different order.

The values that are learned and accepted growing up will determine how a person handles his prejudices.

So yes I think it is natural to be prejudice. I do not believe that makes it right because nature does not care about anything. Nature does not have a conscience. Nature just exists. Like tornadoes and cancer and the smell of a rose, it just exist.

Right depends on what types of results we want in our society. Do we want a peaceful civil society. Then we must be tolerant and considerate of the things we are prejudice about. If we want violence then we should embrace and defend our prejudice.

Answer 8

Many believe it is to an extent, and that through natural selection we have been conditioned to be wary ofd those who appear different than us because that was a logical way to differentiate our species from others. We now know, however, that the genetic variation between people is minimal and now rigid between race. its almost a shame that such miniscule genetic variation has portrayed itself physiological so heavily (by which i mean have different skin colour). the bottom line is, however, that much racism is beyond instinct and is backed by inaccurate claims and other myths rather than natural instinct. humans have the capacity to overcome these things by learning the truth about race.

Answer 9

No, it is a learned behavior. It has been proven by scientists that it is based on environment and how a person is raised.

Answer 10

If prejudice were part of our nature, we would be unable to overcome it as individuals, which is obviously not the case.  It astonishes me that people continue to believe that our species is capable of betraying its nature!!!  How special we seem to believe we are!!!

Humans are hard-wired to recognize differences (as are many many animals). However, we are not hard-wired to be disrespectful because of differences, to oppress those who are different from ourselves, or to act in a prejudicial manner.  

Prejudice is "pre-judgement".  No it is not part of human nature. It is, instead, one of the many idiotic things we do in order to hide our fears from ourselves and others.  Again, like many other animals, we tend to fear that which we do not understand - whether instinctively or not.  

Prejudice is a way of sublimating that fear to present the false  appearance of confidence.

And I completely disagree - it is not at all difficult to overcome.  There are some people who refuse to overcome it for various reasons, but this does not mean that the problem itself is difficult.

Answer 11

I believe that when people,

(1)see something different,

(2)don't understand it,

(3)and see it as a possible threat to their way of life.

They'll push it away.

Answer 12

I think it is a natural part of human nature.  It doesn't make it morally correct but humans have been driven by warfare to expand their range at the expense of unrelated groups since prehistoric times.  It is very prevalent in crowded urban areas or prisons where young men tend to aggressively compete with each other based on what group they belong to.  It is possible that it is entirely cultural but I suspect that people naturally don't readily trust people that look or act strange to them.  Young men tend to be very aggressive toward anyone that is perceived as a competitor and not a member of his group.

Answer 13

I don't think it's a part of human nature.  We can grow up with all kinds of people and everything is fine until one day someone does something different that we can't accept or maybe even comprehend.  It is probably a cultural difference, even if we grew up in the same neighborhood, but we had different parents.  We start to notice that other people of the same race do the same thing, whatever that might be, and we blame the race, when in fact it's culture.

Answer 14

As there is only the one human race there can be no such stuff as racial predudice. What we have got is colour predudice but there is a difference, and when people realise this fact, there will be a great reduction in colour predudice.