Book Review: Are We Born Racist? by Jason Marsh et al

Are We Born Racist? is a book you need to read if you want to talk about race and racism. It’s an overview of the neuroscience behind racism.

The answer to the question posed in the title of the book is: Yes.

The book goes on to argue that there is no way to overcome the affects of racism in our culture unless we are willing to accept that fact.  From an essay in the book by David Amodio:

"The brain cannot be antiracist, per se, because [the amygdala] never stops spotting differences and sorting people into categories. But [the brain] is progoal — and if the goal is to make judgments without regard to race, the [neocortex] can do that, though it may take a bit of effort and practice.

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"In other words, egalitarianism is a skill, and people can learn from their experiences to respond without prejudice.

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"The new psychology of racism suggests that simply suppressing prejudice — or trying to directly eradicate bias as it's activated in the brain — will not ultimately work. Instead we have to let the amygdala do its job, and train ourselves to help the neocortex do its job."

One thing to book makes clear is that there are different kinds of racism: ideological, structural, and biological. And the kind of racism that most people fall into is not the ideological “my race is better than your race” kind of claptrap. It’s the unconscious biological racism of people who are intellectually opposed to it.

Other interesting ideas discussed in the book:

*If a person is subject to prejudice, think they are subject to prejudice, or feel like they have to represent their minority group, they tend to performing below their skill level.

*People who are  bi-cultural tend to do better than their single cultural socio-economic peers.

*People who are not racist tend to come across as more racist in social settings than people who are actually racist.

*Color blindness — the idea that we should ignore race — actually promotes racist behavior.