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Comment by webwielder2 | Hacker News Reader

Racism is one of the most profoundly transformational forces in human history, and yet it is entirely contrived, arbitrary, and voluntary.

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It's a Prisoner's Dilemma[0] situation. Even if one arbitrary group is inclined to behave in a unbiased way, they know that they stand a lot to lose if the other groups take advantage of the situation. The other groups knows this as well. It takes a lot of trust on all sides for the "prisoners" to cooperate and be better off for it. The group with the weakest cohesion loses, unless they all weaken at the same time. And too many interests benefit from keeping everyone tribal and mistrusting.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma

As for why it is a prisoner's dilemma, this paper explains it: http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/16/3/7.html

Simply put, cooperation/helpfulness puts you at a disadvantage if it is not reciprocated.

Simply put, groups that preferentially collaborate among themselves are at an advantage

The error here is assuming that "groups" necessarily fall along racial lines.

Your explanation begs the question. Racism is at its core, based in the idea that superficial characteristics somehow convey deeper information. Your explanation assumes that this is true, that superficial characteristics correctly signal group affiliation, something that is simply not true.

> superficial characteristics correctly signal group affiliation, something that is simply not true

It does when appearance and affiliation are one.

> Your explanation assumes that this is true, that superficial characteristics correctly signal group affiliation, something that is simply not true.

It is, because in a society that has racism as status quo, you can be sure that these superficial characteristics are shared between you and your immediate, as well as extended family - people who you can rely to be in your group.

What? Extended family is a tighter group than any group based on physical resemblance.

My argument isn't much changed if you recast it as the generalization from family to "race" being incorrect, because races aren't actually coherent groups in the same way that many (extended) families are.

> Extended family is a tighter group than any group based on physical resemblance.

Exactly. And in a traditional society, you can be pretty much sure that your extended family is of your race.

My point is that the generalization from a real in group of people that look like you (extended family) to the group of people that look like you, is not really a useful thing to do, it mistakes the superficial information (similar appearance) for useful information.

It's basic, genetically-motivated in-group preference.

Same goes for religion, I guess. Often hard to separate the two, though.

More generally, it's tribalism, and that isn't entirely contrived or arbitrary, it was key to our evolutionary success.

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