Post by mikey117 on Sept 12, 2017 20:58:53 GMT
During the Group discussion we had during class we talked about weather or not Racism is a psychological phenomenon, we didn't get far but we did have the start of a good conversation I'm going to summarize what we said and we can build on it here
1) It must have been encouraged somewhere along the way as natural Racism doesn't make LOGICAL sense, especially in modern day society. An example used was "If I were racist toward Black people it reduces my chances of getting employment, especially if I happen to come across a black person who may be an interviewer or my boss". However if I had enough encouragement from family or friends in order to act this way, I might conform to this behavior in order to fit in with my social group which does employ said behavior, even if it may lead to self-destructive acts such as insulting a member of that race even though they have visible power over me(such as the employment example given).
2) Power of Tradition- Tradition is a strange thing, even though as said above it would be illogical to be a racist now in days, it has obviously been historically prominent. Its staying power among those who had a tradition of being racist toward a particular group is a psychological issue in itself. Normally one which we wouldn't concern ourselves with as most are harmless(for example, no one cares about my mother having a tradition of making the same orange cake on birthdays), how are traditions formed? To go back to my mother's cakes,I have no idea how that came to be I just grew up with it, typically we can point to examples of traditions being absent causing things to not "feel right"(When I was away for two years I didn't have that cake which made my birthdays feel "off" without them as my personal example). So if we were to deal with the issue of Racism psychologically we would have to see the "need" to fulfill the tradition of being racist(where applicable) and how to not only get rid of that sort of thinking but substitute more positive thinking
1) It must have been encouraged somewhere along the way as natural Racism doesn't make LOGICAL sense, especially in modern day society. An example used was "If I were racist toward Black people it reduces my chances of getting employment, especially if I happen to come across a black person who may be an interviewer or my boss". However if I had enough encouragement from family or friends in order to act this way, I might conform to this behavior in order to fit in with my social group which does employ said behavior, even if it may lead to self-destructive acts such as insulting a member of that race even though they have visible power over me(such as the employment example given).
2) Power of Tradition- Tradition is a strange thing, even though as said above it would be illogical to be a racist now in days, it has obviously been historically prominent. Its staying power among those who had a tradition of being racist toward a particular group is a psychological issue in itself. Normally one which we wouldn't concern ourselves with as most are harmless(for example, no one cares about my mother having a tradition of making the same orange cake on birthdays), how are traditions formed? To go back to my mother's cakes,I have no idea how that came to be I just grew up with it, typically we can point to examples of traditions being absent causing things to not "feel right"(When I was away for two years I didn't have that cake which made my birthdays feel "off" without them as my personal example). So if we were to deal with the issue of Racism psychologically we would have to see the "need" to fulfill the tradition of being racist(where applicable) and how to not only get rid of that sort of thinking but substitute more positive thinking