Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Human Beings Hard-Wired for Racism? Don't Tell Barbara Hall

From the Daily Mail:
Racism is hardwired into the brain, say scientists - and it operates unconsciously.
The same circuits in the brain that allow us to see which ethnic group a person belongs to overlap with others that drive emotional decisions.
The result is that even right-thinking individuals make unconscious decisions based on a person's race.
Brain scans have proved that interactions with people of other ethnic backgrounds set off reactions that may be completely unknown to our conscious selves.
The finding may force researchers to think about racism in entirely new ways...
Coming soon to "human rights" commissions/councils/tribunals near you: orders to perform prefrontal lobotomies on people whose brain scans reveal their minds to be suffused with unconscious racism?

1 comment:

Blazingcatfur said...

I have always believed that what we call racism is better defined as xenophobia and is part of our instinctual fight or flight mechanism. In short we are hard wired for it.