Problem: Racism

For the sake of this argument, I will state that we are all racists.  Racism is, after all, a bias.  Given that, racism is not limited to two or more races of human beings.  However, racism in the sense that is meant here, is a conscious giving in to that bias based upon fear and/or ideologies.  Typically to be a racist is to be biased against someone’s skin color, which is ludicrous.  So, in the simplest sense of the word, racism is irrational and based in ignorance at best.  This simple problem is problem of stupidity and has its own solutions which will not be covered here.

However, racism, in a broader, more complex sense, encompasses much more than just skin color.  Racism is cultural, it is social, it is tribal.  And so, the problem of racism is found in those concepts rather than simple bias based upon skin color.  Culture and social norms are primarily tribal, and so it would follow that racism is a tribal problem.  But human beings are tribal by nature.  For most of our history we have lived in small groups that have been completely ignorant of any others, or at least very few others, and we have and continue to view strangers, people different than ourselves, and people with different viewpoints, with quite a bit of wariness.

The problem, therefore, is not racism in the broad sense, but that we are no longer limited to living in small groups.  We continually meet others, mostly strangers that are different than ourselves.  And we constantly meet those with differing viewpoints.  Now we must live with these “strangers”.  These “strangers” are people that live in the same country, in the same town and in the same city.  Furthermore, with the inception of the internet, these “strangers” are virtually anywhere and anyone with any viewpoint at any time of any given day, month or year.  The problem is that we as individuals are still tribal while we live in a global environment.

Solution: travel/internet/time

The solution to simple, stupid racism is ironically enough, more complex than the solution to racism as tribal problem, although both the narrow sense and the broader sense are very closely related.  The narrow solution is primarily a cultural one, encompassing ridding ourselves of religious views, ridding ourselves of irrational fear, and confronting the major issue, poverty, which inevitably creates ignorance in both realms.  In the narrow sense of the word, the solution lies in regulation of false claims by religious, social and political institutions while making a good education (one steeped in critical thinking) available to all.

In the broader sense, the solution is a bit of the opposite.  While the spread of disinformation and misinformation is ubiquitous online and should be regulated, any other censorship should not be allowed.  While not everyone has the means to actually travel, the internet gives those that do not a chance to explore the world far outside of their own.  Part of the solution is to make this virtual “world” as close to the “real” world as possible.  However, in Europe it is much more the norm for young people to take off and travel for months early on.  This is in part due to the social systems in place in most countries of Europe.  And so, this too is part of the solution.

Lastly, innate problems like both the narrow and the broad senses of racism take time, generations often, to work themselves out.  The older generations cling to the “old” world ways and beliefs while the “new” generations do their best to break free and be “normal”.  There are several ways to promote this generational shift but many of those are often deemed immoral or simply not realistic.  And so, time is of the essence.  We can only hope that we have enough.