Controversies over Race - Part 1
This was discussed Friday 13/11/15.
Harvard Implicit Association Test
The following article describes a test that tries to detect unconscious racial preferences a person has
The link at the bottom of the page should take you to the test.
Questions and dilemmas to discuss
Is racial prejudice a natural human condition? What is its source?
Many (most?) animals are hostile to those not in their social group. Ants and chimpanzees will both kill intruders from another colony, regardless of how little threat those others may pose. Human history and pre-history seems to be an unending war between tribes. To what extent is racism socially constructed? If its source is biological/evolutionary is it nevertheless sometimes magnified by social phenomena, such as when governments pick a group (gypsies, jews, Irish) to demonise as the source of all the country's problems, in order to increase their own power and popularity?
Is racism fundamentally different from other prejudices?
such as Catholic-Protestant sectarianism (although insiders tend to say that this is really an Irish vs Scottish thing, with religion just providing a more convenient label), inter-football club hatred and war between genetically indistinguishable PNG tribes?
What are the ethics of having alcohol bans in aboriginal settlements?
Some have decried this as racism and/or unacceptable paternalism. Others have said it is necessary to deal with issues of addiction and domestic violence.
What are the ethics of measures like the Howard government 'intervention' in the Northern Territory?
The measures taken are listed here. Their implementation required the suspension of parts of the Racial Discrimination Act. The justification offered for this was the gravity of the crimes and injuries the intervention was designed to prevent. Can racially-based paternalism ever be justified if it is designed to remove a cause of enormous suffering? For example, is it acceptable to require welfare payments to residents of aboriginal settlements to be as grocery vouchers, to prevent their being spent on alcohol or gambling?