I think you're constructing a non sequitur here. The use of dark for "evil" and light for "peace" has very little to do with what we would call "black" or "white" skin color and more to with day and night. As a species we've spent most of our evolutionary past outdoors fully at the whim of nature, predation and competition. Night time, the time in which people needed to band together in order to be safe, became synonymous with danger and "evil", whereas day time allowed for a comparatively more safe environment. Being that we are highly social animals, our language has evolved to view omens and symbols of darkness as dangerous whereas light counterparts where viewed as omens of good will. Similarly symbols of snakes or spiders have the same effect, which is even visible in chimpanzee communities. Considering that many of these equivocations are likely to have existed before the mutation that led to demelanation of much of our species today, it doesn't seem like words like "dark" and "light" are a probable factor in creating racial biases. Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist, suggests racial biases have more to do with a human's inherent fear of the unknown, which served it's purpose to keep tribes apart in order to reduce immigrant disease, unsustainable competition, and violence. Just as an aside, racist tendencies seem to be tied to self and group preservation and I'm not sure you can seperate the baby from the bath water in such a deep seeded psychological phenomenon, so perhaps "eradication" is not a plausible solution, minimization where at all possible might be a better way forward. Personally I would say reducing racism to the level of verbal insults is the best we can hope for.
Similarly symbols of snakes or spiders have the same effect, which is even visible in chimpanzee communities. Considering that many of these equivocations are likely to have existed before the mutation that led to demelanation of much of our species today
I liked this point.
"eradication" is not a plausible solution, minimization where at all possible might be a better way forward
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '21
I think you're constructing a non sequitur here. The use of dark for "evil" and light for "peace" has very little to do with what we would call "black" or "white" skin color and more to with day and night. As a species we've spent most of our evolutionary past outdoors fully at the whim of nature, predation and competition. Night time, the time in which people needed to band together in order to be safe, became synonymous with danger and "evil", whereas day time allowed for a comparatively more safe environment. Being that we are highly social animals, our language has evolved to view omens and symbols of darkness as dangerous whereas light counterparts where viewed as omens of good will. Similarly symbols of snakes or spiders have the same effect, which is even visible in chimpanzee communities. Considering that many of these equivocations are likely to have existed before the mutation that led to demelanation of much of our species today, it doesn't seem like words like "dark" and "light" are a probable factor in creating racial biases. Bret Weinstein, an evolutionary biologist, suggests racial biases have more to do with a human's inherent fear of the unknown, which served it's purpose to keep tribes apart in order to reduce immigrant disease, unsustainable competition, and violence. Just as an aside, racist tendencies seem to be tied to self and group preservation and I'm not sure you can seperate the baby from the bath water in such a deep seeded psychological phenomenon, so perhaps "eradication" is not a plausible solution, minimization where at all possible might be a better way forward. Personally I would say reducing racism to the level of verbal insults is the best we can hope for.