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In general, species don't interbreed. It's mutations that adapt to the environment that evolve species, not interbreeding.
So is prejudice built into our DNA, maybe as a survival technique?
Is it possible to ever understand this and move past it?
America is the first real experiment of the mingling of races, it's no surprise it's rather tenacious and vitriolic.
I think prejudice is one way we reflect what's really built into our genes: conflict. Evolution favors couples who fight. Enevitably, these couples will fight over tending to their children. If they break up, that will inrease their chances of reproducing with someone else. Therefore, the conflict gene,the cheater gene is replicated while the harmonious and monogamous genes are not. So basically evolution favors people who make us all unhappy. Prejudice is just an excuse we use to try and stop other people from replicating. We feel they are a danger to our reproductive success and so we will use any reason to convince others they are unworthy of reproducing. This is also why people hate other people on sight or seemingly for trivial reasons. When race cant be made an issue they will use looks to say another is unworthy. They are exhibiting a hate gene.
Last edited by Shankapotomus; 06-15-2011 at 05:13 AM..
Whether prejudice[race] is genetic or learnd, then evolution will bread that trait out...through inter-breading we will lose racial distinction and lose that trait/behaviour.
Just to add to this thread's font of knowlege I am not certain about no interspecies breeding. Have you ever tried to get some virgin wool out of Utah?
Of course. I also understand there are underlying things that drive psychologies of different races. It appears you knocked your brain our of your ear.
I don't even know how to respond. You clearly don't "understand" much. What in the world are you talking about? You are attempting to discuss something that you clearly know nothing about.
You think, the OP mentions evolution, only later to be followed up with Adam and Eve post.
I was thinking OP put Adam in Eve in quotation marks to indicate "generic first humans," but maybe not.
In any event, I found the OP difficult to understand, what with throwing in (non) interbreeding of species in a discussion about race mixing between animals of the same species. (30 years ago I encountered white college students in the Midwest who genuinely thought blacks were a different species! Do such beliefs persist?)
To the topic: No, I don't believe racial prejudice is a genetic trait. I think that fear or apprehension of strangers is likely hard-wired, just as fear of threats is instinctual in other animals. And as humans developed social groups, there would be apprehension or distrust of outside, unknown social groups - "those other guys".
As far as members of a group "knowing" that people from place "X", or people who look like "Y" are harmful or bad or to be avoided, that's culturally learned and passed down. Humans have made distinctions between "our group" and "not our group" in many different ways, not only race. Evolution-wise, it's beneficial for any animal to be able to perceive potential threats and be cautious to a fault. But humans are social and develop culture (which is a means of passing down non-biological traits). Culture supercedes biology. Societies and culture, and individuals themselves, can teach acceptance between races. If races are intermingled from one's childhood experiences, it's unlikely that racial prejudice will arise. But culture can also carry racial prejudice. I don't believe there is any "I hate black people" genetic trait that can be passed down, but dinner table conversations of such a sentiment are responsible for children continuing the prejudices of the parents.
Regardless of whether we humans have an instinctual initial distrust of "the other" or have been socially instructed to have prejudices, I don't see any reason why people cannot reason their way out of such emotions. Why are some people very prejudiced against a race, and others just a little, and others not at all? I've seen people lose their prejudices. Throughout history, various ethnic and racial groups have interacted and intermarried. In this aspect of life, familiarity doesn't breed contempt, it more typically breeds acceptance. It's unfamiliarity with a group - whether through geographic boundaries, class boundaries, income boundaries - that can foster prejudice.
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