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Comment by kahawe | Hacker News Reader

This story is shocking and I hate to nit-pick here but

> Just to remind all of us that racism is alive and well in the US and in tech. [...] The customer site is a government owned military installation.

This doesn't make it any "better", actually much worse, but this is not "in tech".

What I find both shocking and curious about racism is that it is a much more widespread problem throughout the world, not only limited to white racism - there is very strong racism throughout history in a lot of different cultures and is still prevalent there today. Why do humans even care about where someone was born or where they are from? Where and why did racism start at all?

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It started when speciation occurred -- if something looks "different" enough to you, you are not going to be attracted to it or treat it like one of your own. That's been around a lot longer than higher thinking, so in a way, it's been inherent all along.

Logically, we might not care, we might not want to care, but there's now research that's pointing out (the studies have been too small so far for real conclusions to be drawn) there's a strong possibility it's wired into our brain at a subconscious level.

http://healthland.time.com/2010/11/24/they-all-look-the-same... https://webapps.utsc.utoronto.ca/ose/story.php?id=2135

Before someone accuses me of justifying racism: I don't think racism is justifiable, but I think this research is important. If we understand the physiological causes, we can consciously make an effort to avoid being biased.

I think there's probably an evolutionary origin - genes that compel their owners to look out for others with the same genes over those who are unlikely to share genes were likely to be more successful overall in our more violent past. Now selection favors those who are able to work well with others of all races, so perhaps it's fading.

Why do you think selection favors "those who are able to work well with others of all races"?

Because being a racist nowadays tends to cause one to be marginalized by others, and not be as successful. Today's business environment favors the person who can work well with anyone.

Today's business environment does not exert any evolutionary pressure on the human species.

There's a strong correlation between genes and memes (you tend to pass your ideas on to your offspring). In absence of anything else to go on, appearance is indicative of ideas held, making rapid intellectual filtering of "us vs. them" easy using physical characteristics. Yeah, it's wrong in so many ways, yet the correlation is enough for humans to develop it as a survival mechanism early on - important and persuasive when odds are "they" are going to kill you for limited food & resources in preservation & procreation of genes & memes.

>This doesn't make it any "better", actually much worse, but this is not "in tech".

Technically it is because it's in their profession. If you're involved in major tech company there is a likelihood that you're going to have to deal with the gov't.

>What I find both shocking and curious about racism is that it is a much more widespread problem...

Many, if not most people, need to feel some sense of superiority over another individual. It starts with race but does not end there for them. Had Nazi Germany removed or killed Jews, gays, socialists, Christians, etc. they would have found some reason to hate each other.

Nazi Germany was doing this on a whole different level and for different reasons... in their own twisted way, they were actually believing they were doing humanity a favor by cleansing it. There were even scientists there backing all their "race theories".

So, that specific rabbit hole goes much, MUCH deeper than you think.

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