Randall D. Ordovich Clarkson, MD
June 19, 2022
When considering the question of race in modern Western society, academics and professionals begin to tread dangerously ‘radioactive’ grounds replete with highly polarized sentiments from all ranges of the political spectrum. To begin with, in my opinion, nobody should ever blindly maintain allegiance to a specific race, as according to #Genesis 1:27, we are all human beings, made in God’s image. But to deny the existence of racism or other discriminatory practices is naive insofar as in-group preference exists in virtually every culture. Despite this, the popular narrative today tends to involve a great deal of ‘black and white’ rhetoric. With that, one may consider regarding in-group discriminatory practices in a more nuanced, multi-pronged approach involving (1) ethnic cultural heritage, (2) the history of xenophobia from an evolutionary standpoint, (3) the concept of citizenship and assimilation, (4) ethnic exclusion for the purpose of inclusion, and (5) the role of economic and political struggle.
First, with regard to heritage, every culture has it’s deeply-rooted practices, some of which date back several millennia. For instance, in cultures that practice arranged marriages, such as in traditional Hinduism, individuals are expected not only to marry within their own race and religion, but sometimes within equal or higher castes, a practice technically referred to as “hypergamy,” or “marrying up” (Bidner & Eswaran, 2015). In these complex traditions, other considerations may include profession and even one’s horoscope. Is this practice inherently discriminatory? Some may argue that it is. However, others may argue that this practice is so deeply ingrained that it may have potentially preserved the integrity of Indian culture.
...in-group preference exists in virtually every culture...
Secondly, from an evolutionary standpoint, #xenophobia is deeply rooted in the neurological disgust pathways as a means of self-preservation from possible pathogens. This neurological phenomenon was even measured through a pivotal study involving amygdala reactivity to different races by Phelps et al. (2000), demonstrating our innate and irrational fear of others. Despite being irrational, history does provide examples of why such fears may have evolved. For instance, when European settlers began colonizing the Americas, they simultaneously brought Smallpox and Measles which absolutely decimated indigenous populations (Patterson & Runge, 2002). On the contrary, some historians have argued that Syphilis was exported back to Europe from the New World; though this has been hotly contested in academic literature (Powell & Cook, 2005). Needless to say, humans can transmit novel illnesses as we have been witnessing on a mass scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the fear of disease has led to xenophobia throughout history. This is why researchers such as Curtis (2011) aptly state that, “Disgust is used and abused in society, being both a force for social cohesion and a cause of prejudice and stigmatization of out-groups.”
...the fear of disease has led to xenophobia throughout history.
Third, one may consider discriminatory practices involving immigration, citizenship, and assimilation. Every nation is different with regard to their immigration and citizenship policies, and some are more isolationist than others. Japan, for instance, takes a very rigid, isolationist approach to immigration. Even long term foreign residents of Japan are unable to gain citizenship and, likewise, the right to participate in electoral politics. The principle thought in this is that, “Japan is a one-ethnicity country,” though Strausz (2010) argues that Japanese #conservatism and #isolationism may be more nuanced than that. Regardless, such discriminatory practices from a nation-state such as Japan may indeed be considered race-based discrimination.
Fourth, in the US, we have seen the practice of ethnic exclusion for the purpose of inclusion for centuries. During the colonial period, by in large, European settlers and policy-makers excluded indigenous Native Americans from society as a way to take control of land and resources. This is an overly-simplified explanation, but for the purposes of this essay, it will suffice. Similarly, during the days of slavery and the post-slavery era, both native-born Africans and subsequent African Americans were excluded from the predominant Euro-centric society. Unfortunately, today we are seeing similar discriminatory practices in the name of “equity and inclusion” against groups such as Asian Americans. In 2014, in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Asian Americans filed a class-action lawsuit against Harvard for discriminatory practices. In their case, Asians were being held to a higher standard and rejected from college admissions due to the fact that Asians, in general, score higher on admissions exams (Hartocollis, 2018). Because of this, the concern was that Asians would maintain an unfair advantage, taking the majority of academic positions in universities. In a way to ‘even the playing field,’ as it were, Harvard decided to hold Asian Americans to a higher standard, which constitutes blatant discriminatory practice of ethnic exclusion for the purpose of inclusion.
In a way to ‘even the playing field,’ as it were, Harvard decided to hold Asian Americans to a higher standard, which constitutes blatant discriminatory practice of ethnic exclusion for the purpose of inclusion.
Finally, economics and political power constitute major driving forces in racist discriminatory practices. Politically, racism has played enormous roles in egregious acts of genocide including the decimation of #Armenian Christians by the Islamic “Young Turks” (#YoungTurks) between 1915 and 1916, whereby 1.5 million Armenians were exiled, ostracized from commerce, and subsequently exterminated in the most brutal manners—techniques that inspired the future actions of Adolf #Hitler (Kévorkian, 2011). Turkey to this day denies this had ever happened despite enormous evidence to the contrary (Gust, 2013).
Despite the egregious racist acts throughout nearly every culture, our ‘race narrative’ today is discussed in terms of hierarchy, whereby only those in ‘privileged positions’ can be racist—i.e. only Europeans can be racist because of their socioeconomic status, whereas minority groups, of which are ill-defined, are incapable of discrimination. In addition to these mental gymnastics of modern discourse, we see terms such as “racist” and “Nazi” being used in such flippant ways that they essentially become meaningless. I would highly doubt that someone like Dr. Viktor Frankl who survived Auschwitz would ever consider mainstream conservatives like Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, and Dr. Gad Saad to be “#Nazis.” To note, Shapiro and Dr. Saad are both Jews who have been called “Nazis” by their critics. Dr. Saad is actually a Lebanese Jew who fled Islamic persecution because of his religious heritage. To call these men “racist Nazis” is ironic to say the least. Lastly, because of the power that race-politics currently holds, we have seen the rise of race-hustlers like Robin #DiAngelo who reap economic gains from propagating the divisive yet popular narrative, claiming that white people are all intrinsically racist. Because of such mainstream success, authors like DiAngelo have been able to capitalize off of works with dubious academic rigor like White Fragility, staging seminars and “anti-racism” training, providing her with enormous economic success.
...racism has played enormous roles in egregious acts of genocide including the decimation of Armenian Christians by the Islamic “Young Turks” between 1915 and 1916...
With the divisive nature of the race-debate, we must all understand the importance of practicing the Golden Rule of mutual reciprocity, most commonly denoted as “Treat others as you would like others to treat you”—a phenomenon found in religions throughout the world including, but not limited to, #Christianity, #Buddhism, and #Hinduism (Neusner & Chilton, 2008). We must come to terms with the reality that all races and cultures are capable of evils inherent in discrimination and dehumanization. In the US, organizations such as the #KKK and the Nation of Islam actually share more in common insofar as both espouse an ideology of both racial superiority and the need for ethnic purity amongst their members. At the end of the day, we are all human and share much more in common than we do differences. Though when dealing with the latter, we must ultimately learn to “go along to get along.”
“Treat others as you would like others to treat you”
REFERENCES
Bidner, C., & Eswaran, M. (2015). A gender-based theory of the origin of the caste system of India. Journal of Development Economics, 114, 142-158.
Curtis, V. (2011). Why disgust matters. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1583), 3478-3490.
Gust, W. (Ed.). (2013). The armenian genocide: Evidence from the german foreign office archives, 1915-1916. Berghahn Books.
Hartocollis, A. (2018). Asian-Americans suing Harvard say admissions files show discrimination. Sup. Ct. Preview, 552.
Kévorkian, R. (2011). The Armenian genocide: a complete history. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Neusner, J., & Chilton, B. D. (Eds.). (2008). The golden rule: The ethics of reciprocity in world religions. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Patterson, K. B., & Runge, T. (2002). Smallpox and the Native American. The American journal of the medical sciences, 323(4), 216–222. https://doi.org/10.1097/00000441-200204000-00009
Phelps, E. A., O'Connor, K. J., Cunningham, W. A., Funayama, E. S., Gatenby, J. C., Gore, J. C., & Banaji, M. R. (2000). Performance on indirect measures of race evaluation predicts amygdala activation. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 12(5), 729-738.
Powell, M. L., & Cook, D. C. (2005). The myth of syphilis: the natural history of treponematosis in North America. University Press of Florida.
Strausz, M. (2010). Japanese conservatism and the integration of foreign residents. Japanese Journal of Political Science, 11(2), 245.
The Golden Rule...