ClydeStyle

Tag: racial bias

  • America struggles with its plurality of morals

    We are halfway through 2025, and as we slide into summer, there will be more daylight and  more opportunities to interact with others.

    This used to be considered a good thing because it would strengthen our community ties and further develop our societal  norms. As a country, we need this more now than any other time because we are completely divided in our morals and values.

    There are several factors in developing our morality. How you were raised by your parents, peer interaction, role models, and the media help to sync our morality.

    Years ago, parents disciplined their children. Spare the rod, spoil the child was the biblical saying that made discipline important. The standard in America was to work hard for what you want. We saw our parents do it and we took our turn as we became adults.

    I was fortunate to have 4 siblings at home, and I had an older brother who went to college, and I followed his steps. I may not have gone to college if he didn’t go.

    I grew up with role models or heroes that I tried to imitate. There was a clear difference between good and evil, and the majority of the kids wanted to be the good guys!

    Then, of course, there is the media and social media where you can see and hear literally anything. The media has helped to desensitize us and blur the lines between good and evil. When Luigi Magione was arrested for allegedly shooting an insurance agency CEO in the back on a New York City Street, he was praised by many and seen as a hero. Forty years ago, there would have been gun protests, ridicule of his family, and no one in the 80s would have celebrated this shooter.

    So here is the point, in years past, people were just as selfish, greedy, corrupt, and immoral as they are today. But inside of us was a governor that would make us ashamed to be associated with such filth. Today, we can openly present opposing views to our societal norms, and it’s just OK.

    There is now a new definition of what it means to be free in America. We are now free to act a damn fool without shame, be racist, a pedophile, a junkie, or a drunk and my favorite — we can be as ignorant as we want to and that’s just fine.

    At this rate, the destruction of America is not an “if”, it’s “when.”

  • History — what goes around comes around

    President Donald Trump has a playbook. If we understood history better, we would have seen this coming. Trump has quoted Adolph Hitler and shown us that he is quite the fan of the dictator. At the end of his first term in office, he began to follow Hitlers actions to rise to power through the very system designed and created to keep people like Trump out.

    Never in the history of US presidents have we had one like Trump. In the modern era, no other republican president in the last 50 years would have even voted for him. There is no other time in America after the Civil Rights Movement that the country would have elected such a man.

    Hitler was quite radical in Germany, and his clear hatred of people labeled communists and Jews was apparent. Hitler was a part of the country that believed they lost World War I because of this group. There were three major events that led to the rise of Hitler, and there are also three major events that led to the rise of Trump.

    As recorded in the Holocaust Encyclopedia, these are the events that led to the rise of Hitler:

    June 28, 1919
    The Treaty of Versailles is signed
    Germany loses World War I in November 1918. Germans are shocked and horrified. Many people, including Adolf Hitler, refuse to believe that the loss is real. They falsely blame Jews and Communists for Germany’s defeat.

    This shock is intensified in June 1919, when Germany is forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty makes Germany accept responsibility for the war. Many Germans feel that the Treaty’s terms are too harsh. Germany has to make huge payments for damage caused by the war (known as war reparations). Also, according to the Treaty, the German army is limited to 100,000 troops. Finally, Germany is forced to transfer territory to its neighbors. The Nazi Party makes overturning the Treaty of Versailles a key part of its political platform. Many Germans welcome this Nazi promise.

    November 8–9, 1923
    The Beer Hall Putsch
    In the early 1920s, the Nazi Party is a small extremist group. They hope to seize power in Germany by force. On November 8–9, 1923, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party attempt to overthrow the government of the state of Bavaria. They begin at a beer hall in the city of Munich. The plotters hope to march on Berlin. But they fail miserably. The Munich police kill more than a dozen of Hitler’s supporters. Hitler and others are arrested, tried, and convicted of treason. This attempted coup d’état is called the Beer Hall Putsch.

    The failure of the Beer Hall Putsch encourages Nazi leaders to change their strategy. Instead of using force, the Nazis focus on winning elections.

    October 24 and 29, 1929
    The stock market crash in New York
    In October 1929, the stock market crashes in New York and sparks a worldwide economic crisis. This crisis is called the Great Depression. The stock market crash impacts Germany almost overnight because the American and German economies have become closely intertwined. This economic connection is a direct result of financial negotiations relating to World War I reparations payments. Unemployment becomes a major problem in German society. Joblessness, homelessness, and begging are commonplace. These economic conditions make Nazi promises more attractive to voters.

    In America, Trump was elected the first time for three major reasons: Many poor marginalized white Americans felt that they were forgotten by the establishment, and many benefits were going to blacks, Hispanics, and the LGBTQ communities; America was not ready for a female president; Hilary Clinton could not overcome her past and the perception the American people had of the Clinton’s overall.

    Despite Trump proving that he was not fit to be president of the free world, parts of America wanted him to “shake things up” in Washington, and that’s what he did. There are people who can point out some good that he did, but it is hard to overlook the tens of thousands who died monthly during the pandemic. Under Trumps leadership, America was not prepared to deal with the pandemic, and what’s worse is that a couple of months before Covid-19 hit America, Trump thought it was something the democrats made up.

    When Trump lost to Joe Biden, he attempted an insurrection just like Hitler in Nov. 1923, and it failed. The White Fear button was pressed during his second campaign as he began to prey on America’s prejudices. White people believed illegal immigrants were bringing drugs, particularly fentanyl, into our country as well as sending us all their worst prisoners. The democrats mishandled legislation regarding transgenders and some of their decisions were a bit ridiculous, particularly in how our tax dollars were being spent on transgender operations. Finally, the idea that DEI initiatives were unfair to white people. Add that to a very weak candidate in Kamala Harris and inflation, and Trump, the felon, returns to office.

    Trump now spends his days writing executive orders to dismantel America, alienate our allies and side with world dictators with the hope that he can become like them. It is a harsh history lesson for American citizens, but spoiler alert: Hitler ultimately is defeated — fyi.

  • Racism – is it really all just in our heads?

    Clyde is traveling in Nashville this week and asked me to “fill in” for him with a post about an article I ran across on MSNBC about children with a rare genetic disorder that causes them to ignore race and skin color. Learn more about what this unusual condition is teaching us about the origins of racism and gender stereotypes.

    Ann M. Richardson

    I read an article today about children born with a rare genetic disorder known as Williams syndrome that causes them to have a complete lack of social anxiety.

    An interesting by-product of this defect is that the children have no racial biases, according to a researcher from the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

    Normally, children show clear preferences for their own ethnic group by the age of three, or sooner, according to other research. In fact, children without the defect consistently associate positive traits (friendliness, kindness, etc.) to people that are the same race as themselves.

    When asked a negative question, “Which is the naughty boy?” children without Williams syndrome indicate that the naughty boy is the one from the “other” race.

    Williams syndrome is caused by the absence of a gene that affects the brain and other organs. People with this syndrome are “hypersocial,” meaning that they don’t experience the anxiety, nervousness, and self-consciousness that plague the rest of us – especially adolescents.

    Sounds like it would be great if we all had Williams syndrome, doesn’t it?

    Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a world where no one hated anyone just because of the color of their skin or their ethnic background? And no one got the jitters when they had to speak in front of a group of people?

    Sounds like utopia to me.

    But Williams syndrome does have some drawbacks.

    Kids with Williams syndrome (WS) will put themselves at risk to help someone else while giving no thought for their own safety. Despite considerable empathy for others, the disorder leaves them unable to process and assess what scientists call “social danger signals.”

    Or what I call a lack of plain old “street smarts.” The kind of wariness that tells you when to walk away (or even run) from a fight – or when “something just doesn’t feel right.”

    Not surprisingly, this lack of street smarts puts WS kids at greater risk for rape and physical assault.

    So is racism really “all in our heads?” Or is it all biological? And if it is biological, can we do anything about it?

    According to researcher Andreas Meyer-Lindenburg, WS kids may be missing critical genes, but:

    “We are not saying that this is all biologically-based and you can’t do anything about it [racial bias]. Just because there is a genetic way to knock the system out, does not mean the system itself is 100 percent genetic,” he said.

    The study shows that racism requires social fear. “If social fear was culturally reduced, racial stereotypes could also be reduced,” Meyer-Lindenberg said.

    Another interesting thing learned from this study: although children with Williams may lack street smarts, they do hold gender stereotypes just as strongly as normal children.

    Meyer-Lindenberg says that we now know that “gender and race are processed by different brain mechanisms,” Meyer-Lindenberg said. Other researchers have learned that in the brains of people with WS, the amygdala — where our emotions reside — fails to respond to social threats. While the amygdala is normal, it is misdirected by the pre-frontal cortex — the CEO of the brain — to block all social anxiety.

    Scientists theorize that this interaction in the brain affects racism, but it does not seem to play a role in the formation of gender stereotypes.

    Meyer-Lindenberg and his colleagues at the University of Heidelberg are using brain imaging to get a clearer picture of how racism and sexism are differentiated in the brain.

    The German study was published in the journal Current Biology.

    Click here to read the complete article I read on MSNBC.

    Clyde will return this Sunday – in the meantime, share your comments with me about this article.

    Let me know what you think:

    • Is racism due to nature or nurture? Do we learn it or is it biological?
    • If it is biological, can we do anything about it?
    • And what are the implications of this research? Will we soon have a”pill” available that eliminates racism?