Racism

1. Racism

2. What generalizations can be made about race, ethnicity, and culture, and how can these be justified?

3. Definitions • Ethnicity - a term which represents social groups with a shared history, sense of identity, geography and cultural roots which may occur despite racial difference. e.g.Hispanic or Latino - a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. • Race - a human population considered distinct based on physical characteristics. • Culture - the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns: arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.

4. Discrimination against Gypsies Anti-gypsy racism is very deeply rooted. It is a form of racism that is a systematic prejudice and discrimination against a distinct group of people. It is partly that gypsies, Romany and non-Romany, have remained “unassimilated” for centuries in those countries where they live because of the prejudice they have faced. Though the gypsies were victims of the extermination program of the Nazis, this reality has never been adequately discussed in western societies. Anti-gypsy racism, therefore, remains a norm, a “respectable” racism.

5. Real life situation: Europe’s problems with gypsies. “The Roma are vilified so that the public will accept them being singled out for brutal and unfair treatment. It's disheartening to see the amount of anti-Gypsy feeling” Hugh Muir, The Guardian, 3 August, 2013. • Romani Journalist: Is the treatment of Gypsies by governments and people worldwide something we deserve or not? What would the world say if you changed the name ‘Gypsy’ to ‘Muslim’, ‘Pakastani’, ‘Jew’, or ‘Arab’? Would more people be outraged at the blatant discrimination by people in high places?

6. Do we cling to the wrong assumptions when it comes to gypsies? In the United States, we have a more romantic perspective of gypsies that stems from our “Go West, Young Man” independent spirit. We see gypsies as spiritual:able to tell the future, connected to the land, singing around campfires, and traveling in covered wagons.

7. What is the truth about gypsies? • Romanies are Europe’s fastest growing ethnic minority. • Gypsies have a nomadic tradition shaped by two main factors: economic opportunity and persecution. Gypsy culture has adapted to this situation by working within trades that are highly mobile. In Europe, 50% of gypsies live in caravans. • Gypsy culture is built upon strict codes of cleanliness learned over centuries of life on the road. Concepts such as mokadi and mahrime place strict guidelines, for example, on what objects can be washed in what bowls. • Many gypsies live in extreme poverty. • (Source: http://grthm.natt.org.uk/myths-and-truths.php)

8. Political propaganda fuels racism The ‘new racism’ is all about the deliberate manipulation of ignorance. In the atmosphere created by the major political parties' unedifying competition to be “tough” on immigration, fascists can get away with the most outrageous lies” -- Alliance For Workers’ Liberty (UK) Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others. Racism and discrimination have been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others in times of conflict and war, and even during economic downturns.

9. The problems with perception and language Stereotyping

10. The Negative Aspects of Perception Essentialism Vision

11. Racial Essentialism & Closed-Mindedness • Researchers examined whether there might be a causal relationship between racial essentialism and creativity. They hypothesized that, once activated, an essentialist mindset would lead to a reluctance to consider alternative perspectives, resulting in a generalized closed-mindedness. • Results from a follow-up study showed that the link between racial essentialism and decreased creativity could be explained, at least in part, by an increase in closed-mindedness. • (Source: Association for Psychological Science, “Racial Essentialism Reduces Creative Thinking By Making People More Closed-Minded, 7 January, 2013)

12. Biological justification not to discriminate based on race “The idea is that our disposition to identify cultural markers and to infer cultural membership misfires... We take various racial properties to be cultural markers, and as a result, we draw distinctions between races. Racial classification is thus some kind of accident. We have not evolved to classify into races, but, rather, into cultural groups. And we mistake races for cultural groups.” --Anthropologist Francisco Gil-White

13. We mistake races for cultural groups • The American Anthropological Association says race is a powerful idea and an enduring concept, invented by society. It has also fostered inequality and discrimination for centuries, as well as influencing how we relate to other human beings.

14. Implicit Bias • “Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains…Specifically, this Black-ape association alters visual perception and attention, and it increases endorsement of violence against Black suspects.” • (Source: “Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization and Contemporary Consequences” scienceblog.com.)

15. Collective emotion - “Mob Mentality”Sharing the same desires creates a sense of empowering attachment within the group experiencing those desires and between the group and the collective cause (no matter how misled it is). This sense of attachment motivates all to take action.(Source: Visvardi 2012 Collective Emotion and its Discontents) Conformity: Social psychologists have known for decades that people often copy the behavior of the majority in a social group (e.g., Asch 1956). Copying the majority may help in creating cultural cohesion and communication, and it may also allow for group selection, a process in which a group's prospects for survival increases relative to other groups based on its overall fitness. (Source: Plato.Stanford.edu)

16. Racism serves simultaneously both to rationalize the hierarchical domination of one racial or ethnic group over other group(s), and maintain psychological, social, and material advantages for the dominant group. Both active racism and passive acceptance of race-based privilege disrupt the mental health and psychological functioning of both victims, and perpetrators, of racial injustice--apa.org • Brown Vs. Board of Eduction: Segregation

17. Gypsies Have RemainedUnassimilated Is research in the sciences a viable route to learn about and, in the long run, transform or improve public policy for the common good? • Anthropology • Sociology • Psychology • Neuroscience/Biology • Economics • Political Science

18. Spain’s successful integration • Could Spain’s success be rooted in a tolerance that is unique to them? To exposure to ethnic diversity (Moors)?

19. Racism in all its horrific forms is transmitted across generations and is manifested in individual behaviors, institutional norms and practices, and cultural values and patterns...We strongly believe that respect for the inherent dignity and well-being of each member of the human family is the psychological foundation of freedom, human justice and peace in the world. This important principle is recognized in the United Nations Charter (1945), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and every subsequent human rights declaration and convention, including the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965) --American Psychological Association

20. The End • Originally presented for the International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge course by Emily Catalina Lupu • Edited by Amy Kohler Lupu • References are available in printed form.